Member Profile


Mercury Marine Expands Facility to Accommodate Future Growth


Our History B


y the mid-1970s, Mercury Marine had been producing marine outboard and sterndrive


propellers but there was a need for more durable and better performing marine propellers. At the time, Mercury offered only bronze and aluminum high pressure cast propellers for its growing engine business. It was through the foresight of C. Peter Abele, then VP of Casting Operations, and his eventual successor, Dr. Larry Toriello, Foundry Manager, that the investment casting propeller plant was started in the mid 1970s to cast stainless steel propellers. An addition was made to the north end


22 ❘ August 2019 ®


of the iron foundry that included a wax press, hand dip and stucco tanks, drying carts, autoclave, burnout oven and induction furnaces. Propellers were first cast from 431 stainless with eventual transitions to 17-4PH and eventually 15-5PH stainless to improve casting quality. In the early 1980s a Shell-O- Matic automated dip and drying system was added to an expanded shell room. A fused silica shell system bound with a then-revolutionary 60-40 hybrid binder was used in those early days. After the closure of the Mercury iron foundry around 1991, another expansion of the investment casting facility occurred to bring the machining, grinding and


boxing of the propellers from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. After the move, all operations were under one roof. This dramatically improved efficiencies in the production of stainless steel propellers.


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MERCURY MARINE www.mercurymarine.com


Mercury Marine is a global marine leader in propulsion systems and services, integrated electronics and parts and accessories.


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