BRP Sells Lost Foam Inside & Out
Before lost foam caster BRP Spruce Pine could sell castings, it had to sell itself. SHEA GIBBS, MANAGING EDITOR
BRP SPRUCE PINE, SPRUCE PINE, N.C.
Casting Process: Lost foam. Alloys: Aluminum.
Value-Added Services: Design, heat treat, impregnation, chromate conversion, epoxy paint and CNC machining.
Employees: 200. Size: 100,200 sq. ft.
ties in fi ve countries, as well as regional offi ces scattered around the world. Its products are distributed in more than 100 countries by more than 3,500 deal- ers and distributors. But what you probably didn’t know is that among those manufacturing assets is a more than 100,000-sq.-ft. metalcasting facility. T e Spruce Pine lost foam plant
pours components for BRP’s Evinrude E-TEC outboard engines, as well as assorted other BRP products and exter- nal customers in the marine, automotive, trucking, rail, construction and alterna- tive energy industries. T e facility is one of the only plants worldwide to manu- facture lost foam products with cast-in inserts and V-block engines using the lost foam process.
So how did the plant become part
of a company that for the most part focuses on core competencies and con- tracts out component assembly? Built in 1983 by Outboard Marine (the parent company of Evinrude), Spruce Pine was sold along with its parent company to Bombardier Motor Corp. in early 2001. Bombardier Motor Corp.’s recreational products division was then purchased by its current ownership in 2003. At any given time, BRP Spruce
Pine produces 50 diff erent castings from 2-77 lbs. (1-35 kg). T e level of complexity can range from requiring one foam section to 11 foam sections to build the geometry. T e plant operates 16 molding machines and 15 foam assembly machines. “More than 160 diff erent foam
Reprinted from MODERN CASTING
sections are molded,” Campbell said. “If you see a 30 to 300 hp Evinrude engine, the cylinder head, blocks and exhaust systems are produced in this plant. We also make a four-stroke crankcase cover and a water-cooled exhaust manifold for our Sea-Doo boats and watercraft.”
What It’s Doing When Parker Racor came to BRP
Spruce Pine with a potential new design for a fuel delivery system in the mid-2000s, the fuel and fi ltration sys- tems manufacturer envisioned a 10-lb. aluminum component molded using four foam pieces. “It was a challenging part, one of the best examples of how you take some- one new to lost foam and help them
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