three-dimensional puzzle. Inside the die, a cast aluminum electrical box awaits compression-straightening to achieve tight tolerances and enable internal slots and holes to be cast to size. If not for the compression- straightening unit, the box would require extensive and costly machining. If not for the contract for the
I
electrical box, Barron Industries might have been on a diff erent business path. “It forced us into some technology
we weren’t as involved in and opened up a whole new market of business for us,” said company President and CEO Bruce Barron. At the start of January 2008, Bar-
ron Industries’ production was 95% steel and 5% aluminum. A defense- industry OEM approached the metal- caster with an opportunity to produce the large aluminum electrical boxes. By the end of that year, Barron Indus- tries’ aluminum and steel production was split 50/50, and the company had added the machining and assembly capacity required to meet the cus- tomer’s needs. “T at’s why we survived, in a way,”
Barron said. “It’s diffi cult to make a decent margin in the U.S. just making a casting. You have to add value to it.”
Moving Up the Food Chain To accommodate the lucrative alu-
minum casting work for the defense industry Barron Industries won in
Barron Industries, Oxford, Mich.
Process: Investment casting. Alloys: Aluminum, steel, stainless steel, cobalt.
Value-Added: Heat treating, fi nish machining, assembly, nondestructive testing, compression straightening, design/engineering, welding, rapid prototyping.
Employees: 100. Revenue: $15-20 million.
n a fi nishing cell at Barron Industries Inc., Oxford, Mich., an employee pieces together a complicated metal die like a
2008, the company installed furnaces, heat treat ovens, cutoff and handling equipment, and the compression- straightening unit. It also upgraded its testing department, adding digital x-ray equipment, replacing a small dye penetrant line with a bigger one, and hiring an individual certifi ed in non-destructive testing to oversee the department. “We spent a lot of money [in
2008], I can tell you that much,” Barron said. T e defense customer assured Bar-
ron Industries if it could facilitate the production of the large aluminum box castings, it would have all the work it wanted. T e signifi cant, steady work helped the investment casting facility stave off the eff ects of the recession until September 2009, when it felt the drop-off for a six-month span. “Fortunately, on the defense side, a
lot of development work came back,” Barron said. “Appropriations that were delayed were funded, and the volume came back quickly.” But Barron doesn’t have faith the
defense industry will maintain that spending pace, and his company, which is 70% defense-oriented, is explor- ing new markets. He is relying on the business’ ability to off er machining, heat treating, painting, assembly and testing, as well as design assistance for conversions, to attract the type of profi table work that matches the company’s niche established nearly two decades ago. “In the mid-‘90s we recognized that
to have good margins and be more profi table, we had to do more than just make a casting,” Barron said. “We added our fi rst CNC machines in 1994.” Today, Barron Industries, which
ONLINE RESOURCE
Visit
www.moderncasting.com to listen to an audiocast from Bruce Barron, Barron Industries president and CEO.
January 2012 MODERN CASTING | 25
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