Nation's largest metal caster expands production capabilities

(WAUPACA, Wis.) April 5, 2023— Waupaca Foundry is expanding production capabilities at Plant 1 located in Waupaca, Wisconsin adding horizontal molding to existing vertical molding capabilities. The company is recognized as a leader in green sand vertical molding, and expanding production into horizontal molding will diversify its product portfolio. To mark the event, the foundry will hold a “first pour” event on April 18, 2023. 

“We are making this investment as a direct response to customer demand,” said Mike Nikolai, President, COO and CEO of Waupaca Foundry. “We have made strategic capital investments in key areas of production including the use of material handling automation, now we are adapting to customer needs by offering both horizontal and vertical molding.”  

This production expansion directly addresses customer concerns about tooling costs for low volume, complicated parts that were previously produced using the vertical molding process.

“Waupaca Foundry has a strong reputation for high volume production,” said James Newsome, vice president of sales and marketing for Waupaca Foundry. “By adding horizontal molding, our customers have a solution for value added services to produce low-volume, complicated parts.” Parts suited to horizontal molding production include housings, covers, turbo bearing housings, bodies, scrolls, pulleys, sheaves, and those iron castings with complex core designs.

Installation on the new line began in February 2023. The plant is installing a Sinto Horizontal Molding Machine which will be the first such machine in operation in the United States. The features include:

• High speed production with a mold rate of 200 molds/hour,
• Quick pattern changes of 18 seconds within cycle time,
• Excellent mold strength and accuracy,
• Automatic core setting,
• Laser guided automatic pouring,
• The machine fits into the existing footprint of the plant

The Sinto Horizontal Molding Machine is paired with an ExOne S-Max Pro 3D core printer which allows production of complex core assemblies as a single piece core and creates the ability to produce rapid prototype castings.

“From the inception of the project, the Sinto America and Waupaca teams have been working closely on planning, designing and executing this project to seamlessly integrate it into Waupaca’s plant,” said Michael Halsband, CEO of Sinto America. “With Waupaca’s experienced manufacturing staff and Sinto’s Smart Foundry technology, we are confident that this system will set new performance standards for speed on horizontal mold machines in North America.”

The new process allows Waupaca Foundry to adapt existing matchplate tooling of equal or smaller size quickly in order to respond to customers’ tight deadlines.  

Waupaca Foundry is North America’s largest iron foundry with iron casting production, machining and finishing plants located in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana across the United States. Every day, 4,000 team members melt 9,500 tons of durable gray iron castings, ductile iron castings, and austempered ductile iron castings. Waupaca Foundry iron castings are used in some of the most demanding applications including the construction, agriculture, oil and gas, industrial, and rail markets worldwide. 

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