PED Manufacturing celebrates 20th anniversary.

What Peter L. Day started in a garage 20 years ago has grown into a thriving $8.4 million, 110-employee investment casting business. Today, PED Manufacturing, Ltd produces air and vacuum melt ferrous alloy high spec castings for a variety of commercial, military and aerospace customers.

Richard A. Day, president and general manager, attributes the company's rapid growth and success to the aggressive pursuit of a goal: becoming one of the top suppliers in the business by producing top quality castings on time at competitive prices.

Day oversees the firm with support from Peter V. Day, vice president, Marketing/Commercial Products; Wayne Paola, vice president of manufacturing; and James Gardner, vice president/technical director.

They have surrounded themselves with an efficient infrastructure of seasoned investment casting experts with more than 200 years of combined experience. PED's engineering, manufacturing, personnel, quality control and sales departments are managed by experienced people who know how to get the job done.

"The current growth rate of PED can be directly attributed to the success of the infrastructure and operating system we've created," Richard Day said. "It really works."

PED is about 20 minutes south of Portland, OR, on a 4.2 acre industrial site. its plants and offices total 36,000 sq ft, most of which have been built since 1979.

The company produces castings weighing from 10 grams to 190 pounds. Current pouring capability in air melt alloys is 600 pounds and up to 250 pounds in vacuum melt. PED, which is capable of pouring a shape measuring 36 in. in diameter, uses a process that typically holds [+ or -] 0.005 in. per in. dimensional integrity. With tool rework and moldifications, tighter dimensional controls can be achieved.

PED pours all air and vacuum-melt ferrous, nickel and cobalt-base alloys, as well as aluminum bronze. Company engineers continually refine the chemistry ranges of alloys poured and extensively test various heat treat Working from this data, PED has developed tables that cross-reference varying alloy chemistries with several heat treat techniques and their corresponding mechanical properties. Therefore, PED applies tight alloy control through superior foundry practices with the use of an in-house spectographic analyzer.

The company has completed extensive development on Hastalloy B, precipitation hardening alloys and the duplex alloys, all of which have excellent mechanical properties. PED also has undertaken extensive research in the use of hot isostatic pressing HIP) to fuse internal discontinuities, eliminate costly repair cycles and to improve mechanical properties.

PED can produce under the pressure of extremely short lead times. Using a base of more than 40 qualified and tested tooling vendors, the firm is able to shorten lead times to a minimum. Through computerized processing and efficient production techniques, PED's first article and production lead times are among the fastest in the industry.

Over the past several years, PED's quality assurance system has been surveyed and approved to MIL-1 45208, NC-3800, 10CFR-50 and NAVSEA 250-1500. PED also has major weld procedure approvals for ASME Section 9, NAVSEA 250-1500 and many other customer-related specifications.

in addition to more than a 100 years of management team experience, PED supports full quality assurance, engineering, and drafting departments to assist in the design and implementation of new castings. As each new casting is developed, full documentation and technique cards are established for each manufacturing function. These records are stored for future use by the quality assurance and manufacturing departments.

PED is implementing SPC programs in all areas of engineering and manufacturing. The company requires all managers and supervisors to complete accredited SPC training and to implement its use in their respective departments.

Besides growth and quality, PED's efforts have paid off in other areas. For instance, the company was chosen Subcontractor of the Year by the Small Business Association for Region 10 in 1988. PED also has received several awards for outstanding performance in promoting teamwork, delivering on-time quality products and helping to advance the state of the art in industry.