editorial E
Did You Catch the Signifi cance?
‘‘W ‘‘ atts Water
Technologies Inc. cut the ribbon on its new metalcasting facility in
Franklin, N.H., June 21. T e $20 million, 30,000-sq.- ft. expansion to its campus has been designed from the ground up to produce lead-free valves and other plumbing products exclusively.”
T is lead sentence from our Industry News story
is signifi cant to you as a buyer of castings. The obvious significance is that a new
metalcasting facility has been built in North America from the ground up utilizing some of the latest technology. The plant will produce
The birth of this new facility signaled the return of casting work that Watts had been receiving from offshore.”
lead-free copper-base castings for many of Watts’ plumbing products, such as backflow prevention systems and pressure regulators. It is a complement to an existing 45,000-sq.-ft. casting facility on the same manufacturing campus that produces similar components that aren’t required to be lead-free.While this is a captive casting facility for Watts, it is a public example of growth in metalcasting that helps to counteract the negative perception some buyers have of the industry. Another significant milestone with the new
facility, and the one that may be the biggest development for buyers of castings, is that the birth of this new facility signaled the return of casting work Watts had been receiving from offshore.
Alfred Spada, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief “We could have expanded elsewhere at a lower
operating cost but ultimately we wanted to eliminate any cross contamination risk involved. Here in
If you have any comments about this editorial or any other item that appears in Metal Casting Design & Purchasing, email me at
aspada@afsinc.org.
Jul/Aug 2013 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | 5
Franklin we will have created a parallel manufacturing process — a leaded foundry and a lead-free foundry.” —David Coghlan, president and CEO of Watts Water Technologies at the metalcasting facility groundbreaking in March 2012.
Metalcasters in the plumbing market were hit
hard by the migration of casting orders to low- cost sources across the globe in the last 25 years. Recent estimates had imports supplying more than 25% of the U.S. demand for these castings. This plumbing products manufacturer has decided to reinvest domestically to ensure quality and delivery are to the standards it requires. Watts’ new metalcasting facility also is signifi cant
from an environmental perspective. T e plant is melting and pouring entirely lead-free alloys (this means the wetted surface of the lead-free products made with these alloys contacted by consumable water contains less than 0.25% of lead by weight), and it has been built to meet all local, state and federal environmental standards Watts decided to maintain the two facilities (one for lead and one for no-lead) to ensure no cross-contamination in its end-products. Signifi cance surrounds the opening of this metalcasting facility in New Hampshire. T ree cheers to Watts Water Technologies for reconsidering earlier business decisions and investing in the future.
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