The cast part is housed within a multi-sectioned die and put under pres- sure to meet tighter tolerances without secondary machining.
Barron Industries added a compression straightening unit when it expanded its aluminum capacity to produce electrical boxes for a defense customer.
tolerances than could be held in the casting process. After straightening, the parts go into the T6 oven also located in the cell. “T e process takes many of the
internal features and connector holes that would have to be machined and allows us to cast them all to size,” Barron said. In 2011, Barron Industries bought
laser marking equipment to serial- ize every piece that is processed at the facility. T e business uses system operating software tied to purchasing, accounting, quality and engineering to track each part, providing real-time information about where the compo- nent is in production. Barron credits this system with opening additional capacity. “We are a job shop, not a produc-
tion foundry,” he said. “We have 200- 400 jobs going through shipping each month, and trying to track all the parts associated with those jobs is a night- mare. I’ve found over the years that
28 | MODERN CASTING January 2012
Barron Industries produced this chassis for electronics housing in an M1A2 Abrams tank.
what can stifl e growth is the overhead required to track job shop quantities. When you’ve automated it to track instantly, you immediately have the ability to handle more volume.” The operating system gives
Barron Industries the flexibility to handle jobs of 100, 1,000 or 10,000. If a customer needs 100,000 pieces, the investment caster can utilize its strategic partnership alliance with high volume precision cast- ings manufacturer Tamboli Castings Ltd. (TCL), Gujarat, India. Barron Industries is in its fourth three-year agreement with the Indian com- pany. Castings produced by TCL are shipped to Barron Industries, which inspects, machines, assembles and sends them to the customer. When a new request for quote
comes in for a large volume, Barron Industries typically will price the job produced domestically and overseas, and the customer can decide which avenue to take depending on lead
times, required inventory volumes and scheduling. “Usually, we’ll do the development,
maybe even build the tooling for low volume, and once it’s fi nalized, we’ll tool and ramp up in India,” Barron said. “We frequently provide some smaller volume at a diff erent price to make up volumes if there are surges in demand.”
Also in 2011, Barron Industries
purchased a $300,000-$400,000 machining center, a $300,000 silicon grinder and a custom automated braz- ing machine to produce rocker-arm assemblies for a diesel engine. T e new 10-year rocker-arm program, which goes into production in the sec- ond quarter of this year, should bring $40-50 million of business. “For us, this is what we are striv-
ing to do, to push the envelope of adding value and vertically integrat- ing our capabilities,” he said. “We want to move up in the technology food chain.”
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