Columbia Steel super-sizes to success: this steel foundry has molded itself into a successful caster of large components through diversification, expansion and a commitment to optimizing production resources.

Columbia Steel Casting Co., Inc., Portland, Oregon, has found the secret to success in the foundry industry: manufacture parts that wear out.

The 385-employee steel and iron alloy facility casts wear parts such as cone crusher bowl liners and mantles, dragline chain, coal pulverizer tires for power plants, cooler grates for cement plants and rotor caps for auto shredders, all of which encounter enough wear and tear on the job to grind away the casting surface and require frequent replacement.

Columbia Steel, a foundry that has been in business since 1901, has endured and prospered in the wear-parts markets largely thanks to consistent management, diversification, expansion, and commitment to recycling and environmental protection.

Following is a look at how Columbia Steel has succeeded and what can be learned from this operation.

Consistent Management

The simplest illustration of consistency is this: since the 1920s, only four men have held the title of maintenance supervisor. Supplementing that, 45 current employees have worked at the foundry for more than 25 years.

Employees stay at Columbia Steel for a long time, perhaps inspired by 56-yr chairman of the board, H.M. "Bud" Bird. After leaving the Coast Guard in 1946, Bird assumed his father's ownership responsibilities at the foundry, where he has remained ever since, Bird's father, Hobart, started at Columbia Steel in 1916 and worked his way up to ownership.

"The foundry has weathered slow periods fairly well because Mr. Bird has a long-term vision for the company and is always reinvesting," explained Alan George, advertising manager.

"Having a private owner can really help a business. Employees know exactly who they're working for," he added.

This loyalty can create devotion in the company's workers. In 1957, after the foundry burned down, employees offered to work for no pay until the rebuilding was completed. The workers' commitment to Bird and Columbia Steel, coupled with Bird's decision to rebuild the plant rather than fold up, is one key to the foundry's lasting success.

Diversification

The more roots a tree has, the greater its stability. If diversification can be considered the roots on a steadily growing tree, then Columbia Steel is standing strong on a sturdy base.

Markets Served--The company's roots stem from dredging, mining and logging, and sawmill products, but after a transition to help the wartime efforts during World War II, the company began branching out into other markets because the need for large scale wartime castings had disappeared. Thus began a diversification plan that grew broader each decade.

In the '50s, during interstate highway construction in the U.S., the foundry ventured into aggregate and metallic mining markets. The early '70s brought in scrap processing equipment, the late '70s dragline coal mining products and the mid-80s cement-making products. As the foundry aimed for cost-effectiveness, it pursued other applications with current customers, such as complete rotor assemblies for scrap shredders. Over the last decade, Columbia Steel began making power plant and submersible pump components.

Another key to diversification is partnerships. Forming partnerships with other small businesses in markets that complement both of our strengths is something that has to be done, Bird said. The benefit of this "getting into markets that you wouldn't otherwise. For Columbia Steel, it was the pump and large dragline bucket markets," he said.

While the variety of markets served has expanded dramatically, the choices are not arbitrary. "We pick markets where we can add value for our customers. We sell a product, not a casting," said Marty Cox, chief financial officer.

Services Offered--Columbia Steel also has diversified its services to include a pattern shop, engineering center, fabrication department, welding department, heat treating ovens and machining area. These services stem from the foundry's strategic plan, including a decision to manufacture finished products in a centrally managed, vertically integrated facility.

A need for expanded facilities and an increased customer base fueled the foundry's growth, and five years after the decimating fire of 1957, it moved from the original plant to its present location in northern Portland.

Expansion: the Growth of a Foundry

The new foundry location began with a 280-ft-long foundry and an office building. This has expanded gradually to its present measure: 18 buildings encompassing 450,000 sq ft on 86 acres of land. Read on for a virtual tour of Columbia Steel's foundry.

Patterns--Of the foundry's total square footage, 115,000 sq ft is pattern storage. This holds over 21,000 patterns, including the 2000 new products (both new designs and modifications of old designs) generated each year. Most of the patterns constructed by the 18 patternmakers employed are wood. The pattern shop houses wood lathes, a pattern mill, table and band saws, planers, joiners, sanders and a controlled environment room for paint and plastics.

Coreroom--Columbia Steel uses olivine sand to produce cores due to the material's safety factors and refractory capabilities. The foundry processes 140,000 tons of sand/yr while keeping sand recipes to a minimum. After cores are produced, they are washed and fired to drive moisture out and transferred to a molding building. A nobake reclaimer processes 7 tons/hr of reclaimed core sand.

Molding--The foundry has 8 different molding lines based on the size and quantity of the castings being produced.

* Molding Groups 1 and 7: These two groups create green sand molds using overhead slingers for Columbia Steel's largest products. Group 1 makes molds for mantles and bowl liners for 7-ft cone crushers using 105-in diameter flasks. Group 7 makes molds in flasks ranging from 90-130 in, in diameter.

* Molding Groups 2 and 4: Molds for short and medium runs of medium-sized castings (up to 10,000 lb) are produced here using a 52-ton/hr sand slinger.

* Molding Group 3: This semi-automatic molding line produces 36x36x12/ 12-in cope and drag molds;

* Molding Group 6: Small castings produced by Columbia Steel using matchplate, loose, and cope and drag patterns are produced here.

* Molding Group 8: This semi-automatic molding line produces 36 x 66 x 14/14-in. cope and drag molds (Fig. 1);

* Molding Group 9: Large chains are produced in this molding group, using nobake molds. To make large chains, every other link is precast and placed into special molds around which connecting links are poured to form a chain (Fig. 1). The largest chain produced is a 6-in, chain composed of links weighing 865 lb each.

Melting and Pouring-Columbia buys steel scrap locally and worn down castings back from its customers. Melting and pouring occurs primarily in three electric arc furnaces: two 10-ton and one 4-ton, running two at a time and capable of melting up to 250 tons of steel/day. Five induction furnaces (each with a 1,000 to 2,200-lb holding capacity) are used in conjunction with smaller runs. Four 20-ton hot metal cranes transport metal from the arc furnaces to large molds (Fig. 2).

Shakeout, Grinding, Cleaning and Heat Treating-- After cooling, castings are shaken out in one of four shakeouts in the main foundry. Grapples pick up the castings, most of which are too large to be lifted manually, and air cannons knock off the gates and risers. Castings enter one of five airless shotblast machines; the largest, 12 ft in diameter, can handle 20-ton loads. Since most of the products cast are for high strength applications, castings undergo heat treatment in fifteen 10 to 50-ton heat treat ovens.

Machining, Welding, etc.--The foundry created Columbia Engineering Works, a 70,000-sq-ft machine shop named after the original foundry, in 1996. Recognizing a niche for large-scale machining and fabrication work, Columbia Steel moved its existing machine tools, including CNC machines into a new building and added more equipment. The vertical boring mills, planers and horizontal mills were joined by an 18-ft-diameter vertical boring mill, a 6 x 6 x 22-ft CNC planer, a 20 x 30 x 9-ft 50-ton heat treatment furnace, and fabrication and welding facilities.

This facility's capabilities allow the foundry to sell ready-to-use components, such as a shredder rotor assembly (Fig. 3) weighing 96,000 lb that required the casting and machining of the main shaft, rotor arms and wear caps. At completion, it has become a rotating assembly, complete with bearings, bearing housings and drive couplings, ready to place in the shredder.

A Commitment to Reuse

The foundry constantly asks itself how technology has changed and what it can do to implement these changes, thereby reducing costs and reaping other benefits. Many of the improvements implemented by the capital planning committee's decisions also have environmentally-based benefits.

Water Recirculation--The foundry uses six closed-loop recycling systems for water processing, which cut new water use by 98% over 10 years. The system allows the foundry to recycle 1.5 million gallons of water/day. Water rates have risen 2300% during the past 20 years, but the foundry pays about the same amount per month as it did two decades earlier due to lower water consumption.

Sand Reclamation--Currently, Columbia Steel experiences 5% sand loss and is aiming for 1-2% through improved sand reclamation. Reducing lost sand by that 3-4% would result in a one-year payback period. In order to achieve this goal, another cluster of sand reclamation equipment will be installed soon.

Lighting and Electricity--The firm recently completed a lighting overhaul in most of its 18 buildings. Based on the recommendations of an electric utility consultant, it replaced over 400 high pressure sodium bulbs with lower wattage metal halide lights and retrofitted 400 fluorescent lights with smaller bulbs and energy efficient ballasts. These changes save 750,000 kWhr/yr and produce brighter working conditions for employees.

Air Cleanliness--The foundry has 21 dust collecting baghouses that exhaust 500,000 cu ft of air/mm. from the buildings and operate at better than 99% capture efficiency. "Over the past decade we have been on a continuous aggressive program to identify and minimize our remaining point sources of air pollution. In the air pollution control arena, we are considered a 'natural minor source' (lowest possible category) by the EPA," explained Bruce Schacht, environmental engineer.

Columbia Steel's recycling and environmental efforts make a sizeable difference, both to the environment and to foundry costs. "This recycling adds up to 200 tons of scrap steel, 600 tons of sand and 1.5 million gallons of water each day," Schacht added.

Eyeing the Future

More than 100 years since Columbia Steel first opened its doors, the firm continues to thrive despite an ever-changing economy and marketplace. Its privately held, consistent management continues to look for new markets, expand the capabilities of its facilities and recycle its production resources.

RELATED ARTICLE: Columbia Steel Casting Co., Inc., Portland, Oregon

Metals Cast: Manganese, high strength martensitic, chromium molybdenum, heat resistant stainless and carbon steels and chromium alloy iron.

Mold Capabilities: Green sand and nobake.

Core Capabilities: Nobake and oil sand.

Melt Capabilities: Electric arc and induction.

Size: 450,000 sq ft.

Markets Served: Aggregate, cement plants, surface coal mining, metallic mining, coal-fired power plants, scrap shredding, solid waste recycling and brick manufacturing.

Employees: 385.

Year Founded: 1901.

Management Team: N.M. "Bud" Bird, chairman of the board; Don Falk, president; Martha Cox, chief financial officer; Phil Rolfe, marketing director; and Bruce Johnson, vice president and chief engineer.