Articles: Industry News

AFS Corporate Member Waupaca Foundry has named Michael Hawthorne as its new chief executive officer. He succeeds Mike Nikolai, who left the company after nine years as CEO and over three decades of service at the company. 

“We’re excited to welcome Mike Hawthorne to the Waupaca Foundry family,” said Chairman Daniel Collin. “He brings over 30 years of industry experience and understands the roles that engineering, design, system integration and operational excellence play in achieving breakthrough results.”

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. 

AFS has installed a live chat tool located on the bottom righthand corner of the AFS homepage (www.afsinc.org). The online assistance feature can help visitors navigate the website and find content, and it can answer questions regarding the webpages, class registration, webinars or events, and purchasing products. The chat tool includes a library of FAQs and articles and is supplemented with a link to chat with a live person. Check out the new online assistance feature to enhance your browsing experience.  

AFS Corporate Member Humtown is continuing its educational youth outreach program in 2025. “Through the Lens of My Friends” is a student peer-to-peer project in which Humtown trains students from nearby middle and high schools, who then give in-depth facility tours to their classmates.

Humtown parlays the tours into a video series showing the knowledge transfer to kids by kids, exposing students to the world of 3D printing as well as the numerous career opportunities in modern manufacturing. 

Honda has provided a first look at its innovative approach to manufacture electric vehicles (EV) by late 2025 at the Honda EV Hub in Ohio, detailing the company’s flexible approach that positions Honda to build internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid-electric, and battery electric vehicles (EVs) on the same production lines. 

Two standards on the Reduced Pressure Test and the Specific Gravity Test for aluminum melts were recently approved as part of the AFS Standards Initiative. These standards are the first two fully approved standards, but more are currently being developed on Grain Refinement of Aluminum Alloys, the Use of Printed Sand in Casting Production, and Furan 3D Printing Safety, among others. 

AFS Corporate Member Wabi Iron & Steel, New Liskeard, Ontario, will receive $3.3 million from FedNor’s Regional Economic Growth Through Innovation Fund.

Senior leaders from across the U.S. Army gathered early in December at AFS Corporate Member Rock Island Arsenals Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center for a two-day war game about advanced manufacturing.

The session focused on enhancing and synchronizing efforts so the Army can best leverage technology to achieve its modernization and readiness goals. Advanced manufacturing is viewed as a potential game-changer for how the Army designs, produces, delivers, and sustains materiel capabilities. 

AFS Corporate Member Kent Foundry has received local municipal go-ahead for a $10- to $12-million expansion to its Greenville, Michigan, plant. Plans for the project will likely be unveiled in the late first quarter or early second quarter. 

On November 19, the Greenville city voted unanimously to approve establishment of an industrial development district for Kent Foundry.  Kent Foundry, a manufacturer of gray and ductile iron castings is owned by Canadian-based  parent company Canerector Inc. of Toronto.

AFS Corporate Member McWane Ductile of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, was among the winners of OSHA’s 2024 “Beat the Heat” contest. The annual contest highlights strong efforts to help protect workers from heat hazards.

This is the second consecutive year that one of McWane Ductile’s foundries have earned the recognition––in 2023, McWane Ductile Ohio in Coshocton won the award.