D&L pours a high volume of gray iron infrastructure castings such as manhole frames and covers.
construction casting, such as indus- trial OEM work. “[The ownership company]
had strengths we didn’t have and we had strengths they didn’t have, so we saw that immediately,” said McGowan. “Our ownership has exposure to markets we hadn’t previously had. So they own other manufacturing facilities, foundries and also have strong marketing to source castings globally.” D&L is a standalone business, but as part of a larger group that is making or sourcing castings, it has additional resources to serve its region. “In both facilities, we have work that crosses over with our parent company,” said McGowan. “It was a little bit of a leap of faith by the ownership, it was a lot of money to spend, and we still were getting to know each other and hadn’t yet recognized all the benefits. It’s worked out well. We survived and we’re thriving.”
A RESOURCEFUL TEAM Building a facility from the ground
up doesn’t mean everything in it needs to be new, nor is outside help required for all aspects of plant engineering, construction and equipment installa- tion. The ingenuity of D&L Foundry’s staff, as well as its knowledge about the existing casting facility that was being mirrored in the new shop, served the company well as the new opera- tion for larger castings was built. “Having that overlap in production was important,” said D&L president Jason McGowan. “And we did try to utilize where we’ve had success and try to improve where we’ve struggled in the old plant.”
In some instances, the company invited vendors to review a section of the existing operation and recommend improvements for both plants. One example is in the area of cleaning.
D&L challenged Blast Cleaning
Technologies, New Berlin, Wis., with the need to remove sand from its shot blast equipment, improve performance and reduce maintenance downtime. Instead of swapping in all new machinery, the metalcaster found the optimal solution was to upgrade its existing equipment. The vendor installed a 72-inch mag- netic separation system and upgraded the 8-ft. table, adding a 48-inch mag- netic separation system and two 30 HP eWheels. The magnetic separator pulls the sand out of the blast system and doesn’t allow it into the abrasive operating mix.
The result was improved cleaning and cycle times, and substatially less maintenance downtime.
The cost savings on shot blast replacement parts alone is estimated at more than $250,000 annually.
February 2015 MODERN CASTING | 25
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