Articles: Industry News

Metals recycler MetalX LLC has selected a 190-acre site in Defiance, Ohio, for its previously announced aluminum recycling campus. Initial development plans include an aluminum rolling slab manufacturing plant, a scrap shredding and advanced sortation facility, and a dedicated logistics hub. 

AFS Corporate Member Le Sueur Inc. (LSI), a supplier of complex aluminum castings, machined castings, and plastic injection molded components, has completed the acquisition of Craft Pattern and Mold (Craft). 

Craft, based in Montrose, Minnesota, is a rapid prototyping and complex metal and plastics component manufacturer. Craft has over 30 years of industry experience and has established itself, along with its skilled employees, as a leader in delivering high-quality parts to customers. 

Wabash Castings Inc., Wabash, Indiana, has installed a new, $1.5 million JOEST Complete Shaker System that will improve operations and reduce landfill waste. The new shaker system allows the aluminum casting manufacturer to reclaim and reuse approximately 500 tons of sand per month, removing it from the landfill stream. 

AFS Corporate Member Metal Technologies Inc. (MTI) of Auburn, Indiana, has acquired Key 3 Casting LLC, which owns and operates two aluminum die and squeeze casting facilities as well as a ductile iron foundry. 

The facilities involved in the sale include Jackson Die Casting LLC in Jackson, Tennessee; Minneapolis Die Casting LLC in Minneapolis; and Northern Foundry in Hibbing, Minnesota. The combined operations have approximately $74 million in annual sales and 300 employees. 

AFS Corporate Member Bingham & Taylor celebrated a two-year expansion and upgrades at its Culpeper, Virginia, foundry with a ribbon cutting event on October 6. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin along with local and regional elected officials were in attendance to show their support for the company’s newly unveiled electric melt system.

Cinnaire, a nonprofit community development financial organization, has secured an $11 million New Markets Tax Credit Investment for AFS Corporate Member Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry (WAF), based in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. With it, the foundry will be able to expand with more manufacturing and office square footage. With the expansion comes 80 new jobs. 

AFS Corporate Member Progressive Foundry, Perry, Iowa, is launching another phase of its renovation improvements late this fall, with a $2.5 million investment to update its shakeout system. The company has purchased a new Didion media drum and several new conveyors from General Kinematics for the project, which is aimed at reducing casting breakage and lowering shotblasting cycle times. 

Television viewers nationwide will soon get a glimpse of the exciting world of metalcasting thanks to a fast-paced video from the American Foundry Society and the Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF). 

In July, Daedalus Investments LLC, parent company of Tech Cast Limited, announced it has purchased Oklahoma-based ClassIQ Manufacturing. ClassIQ provides additive manufacturing (AM) services in several markets, one of which is the investment casting industry.

Tyler Union, part of the McWane Inc. family of companies, broke ground on the expansion of its melting and molding operation. The new $24 million investment will add 54,000 sq.ft. to its existing footprint in Anniston, Alabama.