New equipment enhances complex design capabilities

By Robert Cloud

Waupaca Foundry added a new horizontal molding line to its Plant 1.

For three decades, the foundry had only vertical molding capabilities, which allowed for more efficient high-volume production.

“By adding horizontal molding, our customers have a solution for value added services to produce low-volume, complicated parts,” said James Newsome, vice president of sales and marketing for Waupaca Foundry.

Horizontal molding allows for more “complex designs and complex core castings.”

Newsome said the green sand production processes were the virtually the same.

To explain the differences, Newsome described the two halves of the vertical molds as like “praying hands,” while the two halves of the horizontal molds were like “sleeping hands.”

Parts suited to horizontal molding production include housings, covers, turbo bearing housings, bodies, scrolls and pulleys.

The plant began installing a Sinto Horizontal Molding Machine in February. It will be the first such machine in operation in the United States, according to a press release from the foundry.

“This machine is the finest horizontal mold machine in the market,” Newsome said, adding that the machine can produce 200 molds per hour.

The Sinto HMM allows for quick pattern changes, automatic core setting and laser-guided automatic pouring.

Another benefit of the horizontal mold machine is that the operator can change a part while the other parts are being produced, according to Sara Timm, the foundry’s director of marketing and media. There is no down time when changing a pattern.

Timm noted that the horizontal machine also allows Waupaca to adapt a customer’s existing tooling from prior runs at other foundries.

“It gives us the ability to get up and running very quickly,” she said.

Waupaca Foundry held a first pour event at Plant 1 on Tuesday, April 18.

CORRECTION: The original post of this article indicated that the horizontal molding machine produced 200 parts per minute. It should read 200 parts per hour.