and recreated it here in Livonia and immediately started making pro- totype castings and supplying the major automotive companies. Our customers are interested in
the foundry for two things. One, to make prototypes, such as low pres- sure thin wall cylinder heads. Two, it’s useful for testing tooling. Typi- cally, we will test a first set of tool- ing (often there are multiple sets). It is particularly useful when you have a tight time-scale program. It’s much quicker and more efficient to do it here where the tool was made. Often, the customers are here with us when we do it. Plus, there’s an awful lot of
knowledge gained from mak- ing castings that helps when you’re making tooling. If you have struggled to cast lightweight cylin- der heads with zero internal defects, you learn an awful lot about how to feed the casting and make it solid- ify. You benefit from this when you make the next tool. We’ve gained an
in-depth casting knowledge. MCDP: Let’s talk about your
global reach. TEI exports 50% of products outside of the U.S. Who
are your foreign customers? OJ: Mainly we are exporting to Mexico and China. We export a little bit to Europe, but they are fairly well covered by the European suppliers
that support their local industry. MCDP: Do you see the balance of
domestic tooling vs. exports changing? OJ: It all depends on what hap-
pens to the indigenous foundries in the U.S. and if more foundries appear or come back. Ten our balance may shift exports back to being less than 50%. But if growth continues to occur outside the country, then that’s where our tooling will be. In the case of Mexico, we have
the market well covered and are the largest tooling supplier, although there is still competition from the many smaller local companies. In the case of China, many new sup- pliers will develop but the market is so massive that it will consume their capacity. I expect there will always be opportunities to export to that country.
TEI operates an in-house metalcasting facility that proves out tooling and produces proto- type and low volume castings.
TEI produces tooling mainly for the motor vehicle and military markets. Jul/Aug 2012 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | 41
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