INDUSTRY NEWS LETTERBOX I just read your article on “Great
Plains’ Pattern Experiment” in MODERN CASTING (August 2012, pg. 30). We have been doing this exact same thing since 2004. I went though my company’s
AE (Authorization for Expenditure) process pitching the 3D plotter as a prototype cost reducer from both showing prototypes and finding de- sign flaws. I also had in the back of my mind a way to speed up the tooling for the sand cast tooling operation. I worked closely with our foundry in Matamoros, Mexico, one of my very good workmates down there who has worked in the foundry area for years, and we figured out that it could be done. We do it with a different spin from the Great Plains project. We print our castings out two shrink sizes large, run one pat- tern in aluminum, then that is one shrink large, and use that as the tool. We park the ABS tool in a secure room, and label it a ‘master’ tool. If something happens and the current tooling is chipped, scratched or bro- ken, it takes us less than an hour to use the “master” tool and make a new tool for production. We also figured out a way to make tooling that is much larger than the build table size, by creating dovetail style joints in the model, breaking it into as many sizes as we need, and essentially gluing them all together. I have always kept this close
to my chest as I did not want our competitors to know this can be done. I liked to keep them guess- ing as to how we beat them on jobs due to lead time and cost when new tooling was required. Now that I saw your article, the cat is out of the bag, so to speak. I am glad to see others finally grasping this new technology and thinking outside the box—it is refreshing.
Robert Davis Senior design engineer
Acuity Brands Lighting, Architectural Outdoor Value Stream
October 2012 MODERN CASTING | 15
Continental Casting to Expand Continental Casting, in Monroe
City and Palmyra, Mo., is planning a $2.6 million expansion. “We gave ourselves five years to be
back at capacity, and we should make that happen,” David Berry, president, told the Quincy Herald-Whig. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon visited Continental Casting’s Monroe City
facility in August 2012 to announce the state will provide $313,000 through its Enhanced Enterprise Zone tax program. Te company serves automotive, elec-
tronics and communications customers with aluminum, zinc and magnesium di- ecast products. Te expansion is estimated to add 80 new employees to its existing 215 by 2015.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60