Articles: Industry News

AFS Corporate Member Waupaca Foundry is one of 22 employers statewide recognized as a 2024 Vets Ready Employer by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and its Office of Veteran Employment Services (OVES). The annual award recognizes Wisconsin employers that have gone above and beyond to hire and support veterans and their families.

Approximately 10% of the foundry’s workforce are veterans of the armed services, and several team members have been employed while on active duty with the National Guard. The firm employs 3,500 people nationwide. 

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. 

In 1909, AFS Corporate Member Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry (WAF) got its start as the Manitowoc Brass Foundry Company and made castings for Harley-Davidson, Wisconsin Motors and Evinrude Outboard. Abraham Schwartz renamed the company Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry in 1912 and began expanding product lines and offerings, including opening a brass and bronze foundry in the mid-1920s, which primarily served Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. 

The Ohio State University’s Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) is leading a project to improve the cybersecurity and operational efficiency of 3D-printed sand molds used in metal casting.  

AFS Corporate Member South Milwaukee Foundry announced completion of several large capital improvement projects. It is part of the Appleton Group owned by global automation company, Emerson. 

To date, the 150,000-sq.-ft. foundry has:

Private-equity group Stellex Capital Management has acquired two Pittsburgh-area manufacturers: a ferrous foundry and a forging and machining business, from Arcosa Inc. Both of the acquired companies supply a range of components for railroad and industrial buyers. McConway & Torley is a steel foundry with plants in Pittsburgh and Kutztown, PA, and 60,000 tons/year of melting capacity from three electric arc furnaces. Its cast products include couplers for freight trains and transit cars, knuckles and coupler parts, yokes and followers, striker parts, and draw bars.

AFS Corporate Member General Motors recognized RYOBI DIE CASTING (USA), Inc. as a Supplier of the Year for 2023. GM recently celebrated honorees at the 32nd annual Supplier of the Year event in Miami, Florida. 

General Motors has recognized its top global suppliers of 2023 during its annual Supplier of the Year recognition event. In total, 86 suppliers were recognized with a Supplier of the Year award, and an additional eight Overdrive Awards were handed to suppliers who far exceeded expectations.  This is the 5th consecutive year RYOBI has received the award. 

AFS Corporate Member Unimetal USA, a global provider of carbon products, says it will acquire AFS Corporate Member Larpen Metallurgical Service, a North American supplier of carbon products.

With a 62-year history, Larpen has a strategic network and is positioned near river and ocean ports.

With a global workforce of 2,000, Unimetal manufactures and handles millions of tons of low sulfur green petcoke and calcined petcoke.

University of Northern Iowa announced Jerry Thiel, director of Metal Casting and Foundry 4.0 Centers for 32 years will retire on effective August 30. UNI noted his work at the centers has contributed significantly to the success of both programs.

Thiel has a diverse industrial background and has held management positions in the metal casting and related industries for over 49 years. He started at the University of Northern Iowa as a foundry specialist in 1992. 

AFS Corporate Member Grede, a partner in the mobility industry, donated $10,000 and over 350 volunteer hours last fall to Go Baby Go, an international collective of people on a mission to provide mobility to children in need.

Believing that mobility is a human right, and that with kids, play is paramount, Grede held an all-day event at its Southfield, Michigan, headquarters where employees partnered with Go Baby Go to build and modify 10 power ride-on cars for toddlers with mobility impairments in the metro Detroit area.