Survey of U.S. Casting Production
The U.S. Portrait by the Numbers
MCDP breaks down the U.S. metalcasting industry by material, process, coremaking and value-added capabilities.
U AN MCDP STAFF REPORT
sing data gathered from a nationwide survey of American metalcasters, Metal Casting Design & Purchasing can paint a picture of the U.S. industry in 2015. The data was compiled from a survey of 1,688 domestic metalcasting facilities, 85% of the country’s estimated 1,965 plants in 2015. (For clarification, the industry forecast, pg. 31, uses a total of 1,961 facilites, the estimate for 2016.) Following is a breakdown of the survey results. T e
ALUMINUM REMAINS TOP MATERIAL
percent of responses refl ects the num- ber of surveyed facilities that respond- ed to each question.
Material
Leader: Aluminum Last Place: Titanium Aluminum remains the dominant
material, with 814 facilities (48.2% of respondents) pouring some type of the alloy. T e percentage of aluminum casting facilities is a slight increase from last year’s 47.4% (800 of 1,688 respondents). While most facilities re- port pouring more than one material, no other metal approaches
alu-
minum’s share. However, when it comes to volume, aluminum comes in third after ductile and gray iron. Iron is the second most used material, with 29.4% of metalcasting facilities pouring the metal, a decrease of just 0.2% in the last year. Seventy-seven facil- ities (4.6%) reported pouring aluminum, iron and steel, and 213 facilities (12.6%) pour both aluminum and iron. Titanium remains the least commonly cast alloy, with only 21 facilities pouring it.
Process Leader: Green Sand/Horizontally
Parted Total Number of U.S. Plants
Aluminum saw the largest increase compared to 2014 with the addition of 14 facilities, while magnesium’s total number of plants dropped by 10.
28 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | Jan/Feb 2016
Last Place: V-Process Horizontally parted green sand molding is the perennial favorite pro- cess, with 637 of the 1,688 facilities (or 37.7%) using it, a slight decrease in facilities and percentage compared to 2012. Its vertically parted counter- part, which often is used for higher volumes, is found in only 12.3% of facilities. T e nobake process comes
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