AFS Corporate Member Torrance Castings hosted the AFS Engineering Division on February 18 for a plant tour. The foundry received the Engineering and Smart Manufacturing Division’s Plant Engineering Award, which recognizes companies for innovative solutions to modern issues in the foundry industry. 

Torrance Castings used automated casting cooling racks to eliminate the process bottleneck associated with variable cooling times. The new, more efficient process uses automated robotics and a “cooling house” that allows each mold to be placed in a designated area to reach its unique cooling time before the system retrieves them to move forward. This allows for much greater flexibility and casting throughput, among other benefits.