W
hen you take a leap, you can
make it across the canyon but still get bruised on the landing. In 2015, Saguenay Foundry (Saguenay, Quebec, Canada) took a breath and jumped by starting a new in-house pattern shop to supply all of its pat- ternmaking needs. Te $1 million investment was a proactive move to protect against a trend of skilled pattern shops and patternmakers closing and retiring without replace- ments. In the mind of Marc Savard, president and CEO, the leap was completely necessary, but he is can- did about the somewhat rough start. “It was tough. We have taken
some bumps as we started the new
pattern shop. We had some quality and delivery issues,” he said. “But I would say 95% of those problems are behind us, and now we are more than ready and we are going to get better and better.” Saguenay Foundry is an iron
casting facility that produces large heady duty parts weighing from 200- 16,000 lbs. It’s a traditional metalcasting facility that strives for technical innovation, which is reflected in its growing niche in rapid prototyping. When Saguenay Foundry went for it in patternmak- ing, it not only incorporated a tradi- tional wood shop, it also invested in CNC technology to machine foam patterns, ideal for one- to five-part
orders. Combined with its pro- prietary Nopatech technology, in which a robot machines sand molds in place of using a pattern, these new in-house patternmaking capabilities puts the iron casting facility in a position to meet the future needs of the industry. “Because of new technology, the engineer can just open up his mind and design something. More engineers are going to be aware of this possibility and are going to ask for more complicated castings,” Savard said. “We are going to have to follow those trends. We have always been adding new technology in the last 20 years, and if you don’t do that, you won’t exist later on.”
Saguenay Foundry machines foam patterns and cores on its own CNC equipment to produce intricate interior shapes. September 2016 MODERN CASTING | 19
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