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March 2003
We arrived at the facility just off State Route 33 about 4:00 Wednesday afternoon. The plant is relatively new; built in 1995; and poured it’s first Aluminum in February 1996. Amcast produces upper and lower control arms and heat treats steering knuckles for Ford and GM at this location. The tour was arranged by Mike Balazs, Quality Manager at Amcast, and a director on our board.
We met with our host initially in the Team Training Conference Room. Our host, Ken Stakas, Wapakoneta General Manager; explained that all employees participate in APS (Amcast Production System Lean Manufacturing) workshop training. This workshop results in a plan for the future State of the Business.
The results of the last teams to train were evident in the room, with a poster from each team outlining the production process and recommended improvements. Ken told us about 85 % of the employees have participated at this time, and many new ideas have been implemented in the plant from the workshops.
Mr. Stakas and our other tour guides, Mike Balazs, Paul Lyons, Ron Luebke, and Froilan Seguil; then led us on a tour of the plant. The plant is very clean, and well organized. Like most cast shops, the process begins at the rear of the plant in the melting area.
There are two cast lines, with their own holding/melting furnaces. The melting team uses cast ingots and returns as melt stock, bringing the bath to around 1350 degrees F. One line has a 35000 lb capacity with a 3500 lb per hour melt rate; the newer line has 55000 lb holding capacity with a 5500 lb per hour melt rate. Upon tapping there is some alloying, and the metal in the transfer ladle is degassed as well.
The metal is forced up into the permanent molds under pneumatic pressure. Once removed from the mold by manipulators, the casting is quenched, inspected, and placed on a belt for transfer to finishing.
The finishing process is very automated, with robots placing the casting in a trim press to remove the parting fin, using a circular cutter to remove the sprue, a pencil grinder further reduces the paring fin, and the casting is placed on a belt for real time X ray. The newest unit automatically reads the X ray results. The part is then inspected and hand processed as required before moving to the annealing department.
The parts are annealed at 1005 degrees for six hours, and then quenched in a controlled bath. The castings are then aged in another furnace at 350 degrees for three hours.
Some parts are checked with dye penetrant at customer’s request.
Ken reported that the scrap has been reduced by more than two thirds in the last eighteen months. A number of parts were running at levels of a couple of thousand parts per million (~2.0%).
The door prize winner was David Newman.
