AFS Corporate Member Ermak Foundry & Machining (Chaska, Minnesota) has acquired Patriot Foundry & Castings and RDS Dock Hardware of Franklin, New Hamp-shire. Customers will benefit from the combined capabilities to produce nonferrous products from green sand molds, no-bake/air set, permanent mold/gravity-fed die-cast, and the associated services of machining, heat treating, precision grinding, painting, anodizing/plating, and assembly. 

With new capabilities brought online by Patriot and its extensive partner network, Ermak plans to grow its regional and national network and expand into new markets. Patriot will have additional capacity, including rapid prototyping and part develop-ment through Ermak’s proprietary product development process, plus access to in-house heat treat, machin-ing, and permanent mold/gravity-fed die cast––providing customers with a broader, more cost- competitive one-stop-shop for nonferrous castings. 

“We started on this journey four years ago because we fundamentally believe in local manufacturing,” said Ermak CEO and Owner Reg Zeller. “Patriot fit perfectly in our long-term strategy of geographic and capability expansion.” 

Its customer base centered in the Midwest, Ermak serves a wide range of manufacturing operations, including transportation, infrastructure, outdoor sports, recreation, agriculture, automo-tive/racing, and explosion/fireproof equipment. Most of Patriot’s custom-ers are in the Northeast and include the Department of Defense as well as packaging, communications, aerospace, biotech and electronics industries. 

“Our emphasis has expanded to other nonferrous alloys in tandem with the installation of our automated molding and sand testing systems,” said Seth Cutler, president across the organizations. “Patriot expands our aluminum capability geographically, as well as our expertise in copper-based alloys, and adds the capability for assembly of complete parts.”

Ermak GM Eric Sloan said, “Er-mak’s access to capital and experience adding automation across the enter-prise allows for future expansion of Pa-triot and RDS Dock Hardware. With this acquisition, we will have nearly quadrupled the size of the company in four years. We’ve been focused on au-tomating both the shop floor and back office, so we have a strong foundation from which to scale the companies.”
RDS Dock Hardware offers cast components to build, expand and re-pair docks. RDS has a wide following in the New England area, with most sales driven by word of mouth.