Two 10-ton furnaces in the new melt center at Lodge Manufacturing Co. service its three automated molding lines, running two shifts per day.
together to prepare a meal. It’s work- ing for us.” Lodge Manufacturing watched the
growing popularity of cast iron and knew it needed to start planning for an expansion to meet the demand. “We saw it coming,” Lodge said.
“We started planning two years before we thought we would need the capacity, based on our expected
growth in the next five years.” Preliminary planning began in
2009. At the time, Lodge was produc- ing all its cookware on two DISA 2013 vertical molding machines. Te team knew it wanted, at the very least, another vertical molding machine that would run two 12-in. skillets in a mold, and that it would need to build capac- ity in melting and sand. Lodge Manu-
facturing tasked plant engineering firm Vulcan Engineering to develop a plan for the metalcaster to review. Te plans had to be implemented without shut- ting down operations. With capacity so tight, the metalcasting facility could not afford to take production offline for any time period. “We had done a good job of balancing the systems for the existing lines,” Lodge said. “To get an increase in capacity, we had to upsize every- thing. We wanted the best foundry possible, so we asked Vulcan to show us two plans that were different. We showed those to the team and asked, ‘Which one is the best (without look- ing at the price)?’” For the team, the choice was
obvious. Tey opted for the plan that provided the best production flow, although it meant more work to the building in order to gain the necessary space for the new equipment. “We didn’t have enough height and
Lodge’s new automatic molding machine can produce four 12-in. skillets in a mold, twice as much as its older, smaller machines.
22 | MODERN CASTING December 2015
length,” said Michael Whitfield, vice president of manufacturing, Lodge Manufacturing. During the expan- sion, a portion of the existing build- ing was torn down and rebuilt with higher ceilings and more floor space. Here, the company would install a DISA 250 molding machine, Simpson
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