castings and discussed with our staff what he had and what he was looking for,” said Neil Ahlstrom, president, Smith Foundry. “We discussed how we could put this together for him, what kind of materi-


al specifications it would require, and wheth- er it could be cast or had to be machined. He had some basic issues he didn’t have answers to, which our engineering people helped him with.” Smith Foundry made sample castings, tweaked the process where necessary, then went into pro- duction.


Depending on the application, the grinder is housed in a cast aluminum body produced by Modern Metals Foundry Inc., Bloomington, Min- nesota, or housed in sheet metal with a baked-on coating. The machines are assembled locally, pack- aged and sent to Africa, Asia and other locations. “It’s been a tremendous boon for us to have Neil and the foundry people do this for us,” Ewing said. “They give us a good price on the product and met


our requirements. Now we can make large quanti- ties at probably 25% the cost.”


Since Smith Foundry began casting the grinding burr 10 years ago, CTI has placed thousands of these machines around the world.


Tikondane member Joyce, pictured with her youngest daughter, has experienced a great improvement in health since the group started its peanut microenterprise.


MELTING POINT


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