Here's something for the truckers

I can't figure out how to embed a video, so here's a link to my companies foundry side on youtube- The first one that comes up should be trimming rear axle carriers for large trucks. If you watch more of the videos, you can see some pretty cool stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5dUpmtdnbI&list=UUCLgYhnqynzB64zqHoCkODA

Donovan from Wisconsin

Thats a Mack rear end casting I should know I Work at Brillion Iron works as a grinder I ran both of the press we have.

I live east of Brillion on HWY 10 near I43. Had a few Macks, now run IH 9400. Stop in some time.

Donavan;

Liked the videos. Watched several of them. I worked 34 years at Rockwell mostly manufacturing truck and trailer axles. Was fascinated with the trim tooling. Especially liked the die change storage and change table. Sure looks a lot easier than our old cable operated lifts.

Do you cast the parts there or is this a trim only plant?

Gene

That was an interesting video, Foundry's have always
amazed me. Casting parts in general. How they cast
parts with a water jacket. And the machining to make
the part usable.

Before the automation I would bet there would be a
lot of people working at a place like that.

We make the presses and tools, and sell them to foundries. Only trimming we do is testing the tools.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Thanks for that Don. I have long wondered how cast pieces get from close to exact.

Many of the castings go on for machining after being trimmed in the press, but there are some that are 100% complete and ready for assembly when done in the press. One of those parts are grouser pads sold by Bobcat, for going around the tires. We've made tools for 2 different sizes.

We've got a press running in Brazil that does crankshafts, I think for Ford and VW. There is another press in Michigan doing camshafts. That foundry supplies 100% of the North American market, and 100% of Toyota (and I'm sure many other car companies) camshafts. Toyota sold over 1,000,000 cars & trucks last year if I remember right, and many of those are DOHC.

Also have 2 presses in Mexico doing brake components such as calipers and hanger brackets, rotors, etc...

Several other presses out there, and lately business has been good on the tooling side. Haven't sold a new press in over a year but we've had a few good bites as of late and some potential customers walked throgh just this last week.

We also manufacture plastic thermoform tooling, paper dining ware tooling, medical and other food industry products. It's a very diverse shop and when one gets slow, the other ussually seems to pickup some.

Donovan from Wisconsin