Articles: Industry News

AFS Corporate Member Mercury Marine (Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin) received the Sustainable Process Award from the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council.

The award recognized Mercury Marine for sustainability in the company’s manufacturing of aluminum outboard marine engine blocks.

The company uses recycled sources of aluminum, which saves energy. They also use less energy when melting metal.

AFS Corporate Member The C.A. Lawton Company (De Pere, Wisconsin) has merged with Temperform (Novi, Michigan) as part of a long-term acquisition and expansion strategy.

Day-to-day operations will remain the same at both Temperform and The C.A. Lawton Co. The companies said in a news release they are “creating a new specialty metals platform that will better position both companies for growth in the industry.” This merger will allow each company access to the other’s products and enhance value-added offerings across their customer bases.

AFS Corporate Member St. Paul Foundry (St. Paul, Minnesota) announced the successful completion of its annual AS9100(D) and ISO 9001:2015 surveillance audit.

“Our auditor said that our progress over the past year was some of the best he has seen in his career. He said the growth and maturity of our systems was exceptional. There were zero findings from the audit,” said David Hartigan, Quality Engineering Manager. 

Kent Foundry (Greenville, Michigan) is set to begin work on a $3.5 million expansion project that would bring 30 new employees to the metalcaster.

Kent is a manufacturer of gray and ductile iron castings, and its parent company Canerector Inc. (Toronto) announced the plans in July of last year. 

According to local reports, Brinco (Wilmington, Delaware) is planning to open a steel casting plant in Bristol, Indiana.

The Elkhart Truth reported Brinco will invest almost $35 million and is planning to hire 250 workers. The plant would produce rail parts.

AFS Corporate Member Saguenay Foundry (Chicoutimi, Quebec) was presented with a regional distinction Quebec Performance Award. 

The Québec Performance Awards are the highest distinction awarded annually by the Québec government to private companies and public organizations that stand out for the quality of their management and overall performance.

Grede (Southfield, Michigan), a developer, manufacturer assembler and supplier of ductile, gray, and specialty iron castings and machined components for automotive, commercial vehicle and industrial markets,  announced its first day of operations as an independent company. 

Following successful material development and product development with the SinterCast Mini-System 3000 since 2010, First Automobile Works (FAW) has ordered a fully automated System 4000 Plus to support the series production of a new heavy-duty Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) cylinder block. 

AFS Corporate Member Wellman Dynamics announced that the US Army Contracting Command has selected Wellman as the recipient of a Defense Production Act Title III award of $15.7 million. As a condition of the award, Wellman is required to fund a matching investment of $7.9 million. The total investment of $23.6 million will be used for plant modernization in response to the growing demand for Wellman’s products.

AFS Corporate Member Mueller Water Products announced it is adding a Kimball, Tennessee, facility that is expected to bring 325 jobs.

Mueller is investing $41 million in the project, which will use a 233,000 sq. ft. building that was vacated when another company closed this spring.

“The new location in Marion County supports the expansion of our manufacturing capabilities around our Chattanooga operations,” Mueller Water Products president and CEO Scott Hall said in a news release.

The facility is expected to open in 2020.