Cores, molds, pours & slag-offs: two days at Navistar-Waukesha.

This editor's fourth working sojourn provides firsthand experience inside this large ductile iron foundry and machining center.

Monday

4:22 a.m. The alarm shouts me from my sleep at my parents' house in Brookfield, Wisconsin. After responding quickly to the buzzing alarm, I change into t-shirt, jeans and pull on the safety shoes. I guess it's too early even for my parents' gray-bearded black lab, who doesn't hear me shuffling down the steps and out the door amidst his snores.

Outside, the early morning darkness is filled with a chorus of birds, and I start the car and turn on the heater (it seems odd to be doing this in June) as I begin the 15-min drive west into Waukesha for my two-day visit at Navistar-Waukesha Manufacturing Facility. The ductile iron foundry and machining center will be my fourth working foundry visit since early 1992.

5:09 a.m. As I turn onto Perkins Avenue toward the Navistar-Waukesha facility parking lot, Greg Etter, manager-sales/customer service, is there with Jim Couden, area manager-molding. The foundry is a few miles from downtown Waukesha, not far from the Fox River. About 15 miles west of Milwaukee, Waukesha prides itself as "The Home of Les Paul," the jazz musician who is credited with inventing the electric guitar in 1941. The 57,000-population town is home to seven other foundries.

We head inside, stopping at the coffee machine (where Greg takes some ribbing from floor workers catching some caffeine before their shift) before heading to Greg's office.

5:15 a.m. Shuffling through a stack of papers that piled up while he attended a General Motors electronic data interchange (EDI) seminar the previous week, Etter talks about the many demands of working with automotive purchasers. After trading notes on the industry outlook and telling me about the projects the foundry has ahead on its shutdown (four days away), he goes into Navistar's story.

The plant was built at the turn of the century, and International Harvester purchased it from General Malleable Corp. in 1946. Originally a gray iron foundry, it became malleable iron and was later converted to ductile iron in 1979.

Formerly 100% captive to International Harvester and then Navistar, the firm entered the OEM casting market in the mid-80s after watching its output drop by one-third as the foundry industry witnessed an unprecedented shakeout.

Today, captive volume represents only 40% its annual production. Discussing the firm's niche, Etter says the plant serves diesel engines, suspensions for trucks and agricultural equipment. It offers customers just-in-time delivery, and provides daily deliveries to Consolidated Diesel Corp. and Caterpillar.

In 1984, it developed an on-site machining facility with a single cell setup. Today, with a 60,000 sq ft machining facility, it contributes more than 35% of the firm's total revenue.

6:10 a.m. Etter and I walk out to the coreroom, where we're greeted by Clancy Fox, coreroom supervisor. The state-of-the-art coreroom (overhauled in 1991) consists of nine phenolic urethane amine coldbox Redford Carver core machines with computerized automatic mixing system, as well as one shell machine. Above the machines are two computer-controlled mullers that mull sand enroute, delivering one of 10 preestablished formulations to the core machine hoppers. Sand and dry ingredients are measured by a load cell weigh system, and resin and catalyst are measured by mass flow meters.

Fox then explains the barcode system. As each new corebox is brought to the coreroom, a barcode identification is used to input the sand formulation number into the muller control system. When the corebox is mounted, this barcode ensures the sand preparation and delivery system will automatically deliver correctly sized batches of properly formulated sand.

I'm introduced to Bob Wolf (who left the construction business for a more steady career in the foundry last year), who goes over the process for blowing 3-lb test sample cores. Standing on the safety mat (the machine cannot operate when someone is standing on mat, thus preventing hands caught in corebox), he explains how to operate the machine. With a mix of 1-1.40% Macor, the machine is set to produce 457 cores/hr.

8:30 a.m. Fox, Etter and I climb the stairs to the coffee room and sit in Fox's office for a coffee break with John Harrison, molding supervisor, and Jack Jensen, area manager of melting. When asked about what concerns him most about the industry, Etter comments on the softening of the economy and how the outlook for heavy industry and automotive has looked better. He also mentions the need for more reasonable DNR, EPA and OSHA regulations. Of competition, he notes that the dropoff of foundries indicates that the oncoming threat of composites and powdered metals has arrived. "Also," he says, "the offshore foundries, namely Brazil, are raising their heads once again."

Talking about my next couple of hours in molding and pouring, Etter quips: "Be careful with your pours, we don't want the scrap. You can tell when you've got a new iron pourer--they'll affect a scrap rate more than anyone else in the foundry."

8:57 a.m. The foundry has three green sand molding lines: two 18 x 24 x 8/8 Herman Matchmasters that each generate 300 mold/hr (H1 and H2), and a 24 x 24 x 10/10 Herman Matchmaster with autopour that produces 260 mold/hr (H3).

On the H2, Willie Thompson (who's worked 30 years in the foundry industry) shows me how to clean the drag mold of a two-on compressor support with the air blower and place the ceramic filter. "You have it easy today," he says, "since it's a no-core job." As the drag comes out of the machine, I blow any loose sand out of the cavity and press the filter in the center, while Willie, using a mirror, checks the cope through a window, and uses a blower to blow any loose sand through the sprue hole. If there's a broken mold, he tosses white silica sand on top, to signal the pourer not to fill the mold, and sweeps his hand in front of me to signal not to waste the filter core.

9:48 a.m. Just yards away, around the corner from the H2 coreset station, Art Muzich is assigned to teach me the basics of pouring before I pour the riserless 44-lb compressor support casting. I'm amazed at the comfortable environment within the foundry, even at the pouring station--looks like I won't lose the weight I had on previous work visits. The autopour (which would go online during the shutdown), he says, will reduce the number of men needed in pouring. After watching he and the others pour iron for some time, he guides the 1000-lb ladle in my direction. With sleeves, pants and a safety shield, I give it a try. Like most of the other duties, I quickly learn it's harder than it appears. The first pour went well, but with the line moving, my timing was off and I shortpoured the next two.

Sensing my disappointment, Harrison says it takes some time before one gets the hang of pouring. He showed me the work instructions for the casting which, among other things, states: "4 second pourtime...pourhardand fast." Between ladle delivery, Muzich commented on my technique, saying I need to angle the ladle at a 45-degree angle to the sprue hole, and not to ease up as much when the hole appeared filled. Those castings will result in coldshuts, he says.

Nearby, Juan Anzaldua breaks apart the coupon from the test mold placed on top of the last mold of each ladle. Quenching it in water and grinding the edge, he places the coupon under a microscope to check nodularity. One heat, he says, showed a lower nodularity than specified. "This job needs to be pulled and checked," he says.

11:19 a.m. Etter, John Tomic, quality assurance manager, and I head over to a spot called The Chancery, for its all-you-can eat shrimp special. After talking about the firm's machining business for a while, I ask Tomic how he assures the foundry is meeting its quality targets. "I don't control quality," he says, "manufacturing does. I just see that our procedures are being followed." He talked about securing quality from the guys on the floor, checking each mold, looking for problems at grinding, etc.

On the drive back, Etter says he received a call last week from a foundry that experienced a runout and was in a jam, as its customer needed the castings shortly. "We took the job on for them, and it was a difficult job setting the cores, but we got the castings out on time for them," he says. "Years ago, foundries might not have helped each other, instead saying `the hell with you.' Today, we don't need any more foundries getting into trouble. The 1980s did enough of that. If we can help a foundry out in such a situation, we'll do it. And we definitely don't want to see the customer get hurt."

1:34 p.m. Up on the melt deck to sweat off the too-many shrimp 1 consumed. The melt department features three 23-ton Brown Boveri coreless induction furnaces and two 50-ton Inductotherm channel induction furnaces. A 5-ton autopour liquimetrics furnace is used on H3, and another Duca autopour will be installed shortly on the H2 line.

Jensen tells me the foundry doesn't desulfurize, and their key to quality ductile iron is buying good scrap and pig iron and tightly controlling chemistries. After two buckets cleanly drop scrap into the furnace (all scrap arrives at the bucket following a preheat conveyor operation), bags of SiC and a recarburizer are tossed in. Prior to tapping, the ladle arrives at an alloy station near the furnaces, where it is fed with master alloy 1.3-1.5%vol. weight MgFeSi and a cover steel 1% vol. weight. Lines I and 2 are tundish ladle treatment, while line 3 is being converted to tundish ladle treatment with autopour.

Before heading out for the day, Etter and I toured the rest of the grounds, and he discussed the onsite education center (featured in the March 1994 issue of modern casting), the first facility of its kind in Wisconsin. With a full-time educator from nearby Waukesha Community Technology College on hand, the center offers employees and spouses the opportunity for assistance in anything from basic math and reading to areas needed to advance in the skilled trades. Hourly employees are compensated with half-time pay for coming in on their own time.

Also, talking about the firm's environmental equipment, I ask about how closely OEM customers examine a foundry's environmental control capabilities. "It's not just lip-service when they say their suppliers are going to be environmentally proactive," he says. "They look around and make sure you're meeting or exceeding all regulations. They want to be certain you're going to be around tomorrow."

Tuesday

5:09 a.m. Etter meets me at the door again, and we stop for coffee again before I collect my safety gear from his office. Once again, the morning crew has a few words for Etter, as well as some tongue-in-cheek inquiries about whether I'll be taking their shifts for the day.

5:29 a.m. Up in the office of Dale Rush, mill room supervisor, he shows Etter his new 800-series bowling ring. Dale is a scratch bowler and plays on Navistar's team. He's been offered the opportunity to go on tour in the Midwest, but says he's more likely to stay in the foundry.

He walks me upstairs to the shakeout area, called "hard iron" at Navistar, where most new hires start. Handing me a mask, they station me at the beginning of the conveyor and explain the technique for breaking off the risers of alternator bracket and motor mount castings emerging from the conveyor. The alternator bracket casting is separated by dropping the casting on its riser, while the motor mount casting's three risers are hammered off. Even with four men on the line, you must work quickly to prevent backups. (There can be 300 mold/hr coming through with as many as three castings per mold.) When swinging the hammer, I soon learn it's best to hit it right the first time, because the hand holding the casting gets hot pretty quick.

After an hour in "hard iron," mill room supervisor and former radio disc jockey Don Brinkley takes me over to sorting, where I pull the castings coming off and throw them in the appropriate bin for shotblasting. Prior to the break, I spend some time sorting the castings from the risers on the vibrating conveyor that eventually makes it to the station I had just been in.

8:33 a.m. Rush and I head to the coffee machine and each grab a cup, as well as a sandwich (Tomic brought in ham and rolls for his birthday). Looking out over the operation from his office window, Rush describes how his department streamlined a huge bottleneck in shakeout and cleaning and finishing. "Two months ago, we reduced the number of casting baskets out here from 600 to 50. We redid the layout and asked employees for ideas. We found out we needed a few more employees on third shift, because there was more iron coming out at third shift than you could shake a stick at." He also adds that a refurbished Wheelabrator shotblast machine will be installed shortly, allowing the loading of castings without requiring the worker to step down off the fork truck.

9:21 a.m. Back up at the melt deck, Jensen shows me the bulletin board chart that shows they've poured 5158 ton/coreless refractory lining over a two-month-plus period. He attributes the long campaign to the foundry's careful control of chemistries and proper melt procedures.

A new scrap preheat system, he says, has resulted in productivity gains. He also adds that they learned that if the scrap temperature is too high, they've had to change the lining earlier, as excessive scrap temperatures result in early oxidation of the metal. He also shows me the melt deck's two-month-old Panel Mate, which lists the water temperatures in the coil and allows for easy monitoring.

After watching Augie Garcia slag off the furnaces, I'm given the chain-hoist shovel. Moving all the slag to the far end of the furnace (and feeling the radiant heat on my face), I then lower the shovel below the melt surface to collect the slag. After lifting it out, I swing the shovel around and dump the slag into the metal box on the deck.

11:15 a.m. Etter comes by the melt deck to pick me up for lunch. Today, we head to the Cafe for lunch. Joining us is Glen Diels, a recent retiree who Etter jokingly promised for years that he'd take to lunch if he ever retired. The former quality worker retired, and reminded Etter of his promise at the company picnic held the previous Saturday. Also with us is Rob Hutton, Rock Transfer & Storage. Serving the foundry industry in logistic services, the Milwaukee-based firm picks up diesel engine bearing caps for GM's Morain, Ohio, plant (Navistar is the exclusive manufacturer) and also warehouses several suppliers' raw materials for the foundry, assuring Navistar that it will never, for any reason, be short of those consumables.

Talking about the foundry's technical concerns, Etter shares the firm's five-year strategic plan, which calls for installing and debugging the autopour on the H2 (to take place in July), general melt furnace upgrades within the next three years, further increasing the flow and process of the mill room, extending cooling conveyors on the mold lines, considering expansion of both the foundry and machine shop and upgrading machining equipment to stay current with state-of-the-art technology. "And in the longer run," he says, "we'11 be evaluating a new molding unit."

1:10 p.m. For the last stop of the day, I head to the 60,000 sq ft machining operation, which is arranged in cells. More than 200 parts are machined in house by Navistar.

I'll be spending time with Sonny Stewart, a 25-year foundry veteran who worked at Allis Chalmers Foundry in West Allis, Wisconsin, before joining Navistar. He's worked in virtually every area of the foundry, and joined the machining area when it opened in 1985. Sonny explains the CNC bearing cap work, and I spend about 30 min broaching the caps, checking the cut dimensions with a special hand tool, fixturing them in a bin for dimensional checking and an oil wash, and stacking them in a shipment box. The firm ships 4.5 million fully-machined bearing caps a year.

2:09 p.m. After helping Sonny clean up the machine and area for the next shift, I head back to Etter's office, where he's on the phone with operations manager Dan Schrader, who's attending a Navistar leadership conference with Ted Hornback, plant manager. at the Truck Technical Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I drop off my gear, and he grabs some things for his trip out to Cummins Engine in Columbus, Indiana, for a contract meeting.

Pulling out of Waukesha and onto 194 for the return to Chicago, I'm lukewarm about returning to my desk. I'm ready to get back to the production of the magazine, but thoroughly enjoyed the two days of working up a sweat at Navistar. Having "sand in your shoes" is not a bad feeling.

RELATED ARTICLE: Editor's Workday

Site: Navistar--Waukesha Manufacturing Facility, Waukesha, Wisconsin 

Casting Data: All grades of ductile and austempered ductile iron; 2.75 lb.

Annual Sales: $55-60 million (35% of which is value-added machining).

Annual Shipments: 27,000 net tons.

Markets Served: diesel engines, suspensions for trucks, agricultural equipment.

Processes: coldbox coremarketing, green sand molding, coreless induction melting.

Value-added capabilities: painting and machining.

Size: 240,000 sq ft on 18 acres (foundry--173,000 sq ft; machining--60,000 sq ft).

Major Customers: Navistar, Dana Corp., Case Corp., Detroit Diesel Corp., Consolidated Diesel Corp., Reyco, General Motors Corp., Caterpillar.

Employees: 91 salaried, 378 hourly (United Steel Workers).

Year Founded: 1900. Dates Visited: June 24--June 25