process couldn’t operate without waxes, he needed to now more about those areas. He stayed at Austenal 11 years before moving on to PMI (Precision Metalsmiths, Inc.) “I wanted to learn it all,” he said. “So after a while, I thought, if I see something advertised that looks interesting, I’m going to check into it.” “PMI was about 150th the size of
Austenal,” he explained, “but I was hired as a pilot plant manager. They had a big pilot plant and they were running ceramic shells and I thought, ‘this is terrific’.” “The first thing they wanted to
do was to be able to use polystyrene patterns in ceramic shell. What I was able to do for small stuff was to put two coats onto the shell and then I dipped it into the solvent for the plastic, and then I completed the dipping. It worked right off the bat.” Although the idea didn’t work for
larger parts, Horton developed a method for those as well. “That was a wonderful thing and highly appreciated ...and we let people know we were the only ones that could do this.” With instruction from company
management to “get a lot of patents,” the emphasis on research began to pay off. “People began to know about PMI, and some of them were customers. We were a little company, but we were doing big things,” Horton said. “Then I got into another good
thing because I thought to myself, ‘this mercury (for frozen mercury patterns) is great, but if I were a worker, I wouldn’t want to be in that department. Over time we have to get rid of this. We need it now, but we need to take the next step. “I didn’t know anything about waxes
whatsoever, but I thought, ‘I’m going to start thinking about that. I’m gonna try to develop a wax we can use’.” What followed was the development
of a soluble wax with two uses. ”It was lucky for me we had two uses for the waxes, one was for injection patterns and the other was for prototyping... back then you practically never heard of prototyping. “My wax was found to be perfect for
small stuff, but not quite for big stuff. “I kept thinking of how I could improve the
®
for titanium casting. Up to that time, most of what they had was ethyl silicate things with alcohol that are a problem now.” In 1993, Horton went back to PMI,
where he remains active and continues to make his contribution to the industry. After more than six decades,
Horton’s contributions to investment casting are significant. How will his knowledge be passed to the next generation of investment casters? Although company policy from
wax. I had a very good habit in those days to working about an hour or half hour before quitting time, and then just sitting at my desk and thinking about problems I had never been able to solve. All of a sudden, it occurred to me what would be needed to modify this and make it work for everything, not just for the small stuff. So then, our prototyping became that much bigger; now there was no limit.” “Things like this are just so exciting
when they’re going on,” he added. “ You can’t imagine for a young guy like me.” Horton indicated he left PMI around 1980 and went to work with a startup company, Duradyne Technologies, which failed after a short time, and then went to TRW. “They were just getting going on
single crystal, so now I was able to get into the beginning on everything– at Austenal, and with all kinds of stuff at PMI, and now I was getting in on the ground floor with TRW and single crystal casting,” Horton commented. “By the end of all this, I could say that
I had been on every major development in investment casting except directional solidification and titanium. When TRW sold (to Precision
Castparts Corp), Horton remained in the same position for 7-8 years, but finally left when aerospace business was in a depressed period. “I developed at PCC a special shell
earlier employers prevented him from writing articles at the time, Horton recently spoke at an Institute conference. Perhaps his patents are the greatest evidence of his contributions. “I find a lot of phrases from my patents in peoples’ articles,” he said. Perhaps luck played a role Horton’s
journey into investment casting, but there’s nothing dumb about the result...39 patents and counting.
Robert Andrew Horton passed away at the age of 88. He was the beloved husband of 67 years to Lillian M. (nee Brandow); dear father of Robert A. Jr. (Lori Lowrimore) of California, William T. (Sandra), Thomas J. (Karen) of South Dakota and Nancy K, (John Mudry); cherished grandfather of Rosemary Mudry (Joel Warger), Allison Piedmont (Jeff), Martin Mudry, and Elizabeth, Robert and Caroline Horton; great- grandfather of George Warger
and
Ryan Piedmont; fond brother of Jeanne Riedel and the late George and William Horton; loving uncle of many nieces and nephews. Bob, a chemical engineer, and graduate of The Cooper Union, was well- known in his field, holding 39 patents and was inducted into the Investment Casting Institute Hall of Honor. He was an avid drummer and jazz enthusiast, occasionally being invited to sit in with well-known jazz bands at notable clubs including Birdland in New York City. He was a longtime member of East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church..
February 2018 ❘ 7
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