T
AC FOUNDRY Location: Battle Creek, Mich.
Casting Process: Green sand and permanent mold casting.
Alloys: 319, 356, A356 aluminum in green sand; A356, A359 aluminum in permanent mold.
Employees: 59.
Industries Served: Automotive (OE, aftermarket, high erformance), heavy truck/bus, marine engine, fi rearms, furniture, motorcycle, pump & compressor, security, util- ity, municipal, medical, industrial equipment.
Annual Sales: $8.8 million.
The core design for the Volvo Penta catalyzed exhaust pipe elbow required only two core prints and minimized the amount of aluminum in an isolated heavy section.
March 2012 MODERN CASTING | 39
empers flared one Friday night in a small office at AC Foundry, Battle
Creek, Mich. The operations staff at the aluminum sand and permanent mold casting facility knew its future depended on success- fully casting a complex marine engine component, and it wasn’t going well. “We were arguing about what was happening to us. I mean, we were screaming at each other,” said Brian Shaugh- nessy, general manager at AC
Foundry. “T en someone made the suggestion of controlling pressures in diff erent ways. We
tried it out on Monday morning, and it worked.” T at night was the eureka moment
AC Foundry was waiting for. Until then, the future of the sand and perma- nent mold aluminum shop was shaky, admitted Steve Jewell, sand foundry manager, who said the group doubted “more than once” they could succeed. In 2006, AC Foundry was a simple shop pumping out simple castings and losing the price battle with low cost countries. T e next year it began
the task of teaching itself how to pro- duce highly engineered components. It started by taking on a part some industry experts doubted could even be cast.
Digging In New and potential emission laws
had marine engine makers focused on designing cleaner-running exhaust systems in the mid-2000s. At the time, marine engines used iron pipes. Volvo Penta developed a catalytic converter system utilizing aluminum elbows and manifolds to reduce the amount of exhaust emissions, hydro- carbons and nitrogen oxides released into the environment. T e complex design required water jacketed alumi- num parts with thin, uniform exterior and interior walls, heavy sections and minimal core prints. “None of us, including the customer, had done this type of casting before in aluminum,” Shaughnessy said. “Everyone was afraid to make this casting—us and other foundries. We saw that as an advantage and jumped in.” T e leap in 2007 was a shock to
AC Foundry’s senses. T e company consulted with industry experts, including Sam Ramrattan, FEF Key
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