In the spring of 1981 I was fortunate to tour foundries in Western Europe and England with a group of 30, sponsored by Foundry Magazine.

After the devastation to industry during WWII, most foundries in those countries had to rebuild mostly from scratch with financial help from the United States. General George Marshall and United States political leaders knew all these war-torn countries had to rebuild quickly to avoid massive poverty and social unrest, so the “Marshall Plan” was enacted.

Fast forward to 1981. It was very interesting to see how modern and productive most of the facilities we visited were.

One in particular was fascinating. George Fischer Corporation in Schaffhausen, Switzerland was amazing. This foundry was the research and development facility for the largest foundry equipment manufacturer and supplier in the word. It was interesting to find out even though they were the largest foundry equipment development company in the world, they had no presence in the United States. Through all my reading and research, I had not even heard of them until this visit.

There were two processes I saw and instantly realized the value of for the steel foundry industry, and in particular my employer Spokane Steel Foundry.

George Fischer Corporation had developed a way to cast steel at 2,200 degrees fahrenheit in copper permanent molds. That meant the same mold could be used over and over for high-quantity production of the same shape. I had previously been employed in the aluminum foundry industry and was well-acquainted with casting aluminum in cast iron permanent molds. I could see the potential of this process. It eliminated all the expense and mess of casting into expendable molds while reducing the required labor.

It did require expensive molds and operating machinery, but I felt the reduction in cost would more than offset the costs. Over the next few months, after returning to Spokane, I showed the company president the return on investment and he went ahead and signed a license agreement to implement the process. Unfortunately about that time, significant changes including the US tax laws and the outsourcing of steel castings first to Japan and then to China caused a rapid and devastating reduction in the US steel foundry industry, and by 1984 Spokane Steel Foundry laid off 2/3 of its employees, including me, so the process was never used.

The second thing I saw was the use of “pods” of industrial robots to remove the gates and risers from steel castings.

For decades, common practice for this operation involved cutting off the gates and risers with acetylene cutting torches. This was effective but was labor intensive, somewhat inaccurate, left unsightly surfaces, was hot and tiring for the operators, and lent itself to industrial accident. The employees had to bend over, pick up the heavy rough casting from a tote box (sometimes with no mechanical help), place it on the cutting table, manually manipulate it to make multiple cuts, and then place the trimmed casting in a second box to be moved to a grinding station again to be handled and ground manually by another employee. Again, hot heavy work.

The robots picked up the casting, manipulated it and cut off the gates and risers with a large abrasive wheel, and passed it to the next robot to grind rough parts smooth and place the casting on a conveyor or in a tote. The pod did require one person to program for each different design casting, change cutoff and grinding wheels, and do routine machine maintenance. This required operator retraining, yet it reduced system labor, working hazards, and an improved product.

This system required much higher initial cost, but the return on investment was worth it. Again, Spokane Steel Foundry chose not to invest in this system and they are still cleaning up castings the same old way today.

The worth of industrial robots to complete repetitive tasks has been well documented, and their use can be seen in television commercials in the automobile industry.

Unfortunately, the foundry industry is still not taking advantage of modern technology in many ways.

Ken Kaiyala