Have a Question?
We hope to provide answers to all of your most frequently asked questions here. Should you have a question that we haven’t answered, don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know. We’re here to help!
Since 1947. We started out as a pattern shop, then started up a small sand foundry in Chicago’s west side. Added a small machining facility prior to the CNC technology of today.
Today we have 2 foundries, a complete CNC machining facility, and engineering campus, all located in Somonauk, Illinois. We are a third generation, privately held corporation.
Yes, we are currently certified to ISO 9001:2015.
Both O’Hare and Midway are approximately 90 minutes from our facility.
Yes, we not only encourage visits, but many of our customers audit our plants on a regular basis.
We currently have 8 furnaces. Since we pour multiple alloys daily, we segregate our metal to avoid cross contamination. Each furnace is dedicated to a specific alloy. Metal certifications are provided upon request.
We pour 319 alloy, 319SR alloy, 356 alloy, Almag 535, Tenzaloy 713, and others upon request.
From ounces to 150 pounds.
Squeezer, Rotolift, Cope and Drag, floor molding, and Sinto Automatic Molding machines.
Yes. Our pattern engineers can provide temporary tooling such as wood or Renshape patterns for prototypes, and tooling that is machined from aluminum billet directly from your CAD files.
We degas every heat in each furnace with argon prior to any pour. We also pour a test chip that is solidified under vacuum, then cut and polished, to expose any porosity, prior to any pour. Our furnace tenders check the temperature range of the metals of all pours during heat. Our sand system controls the moisture content of the sand on a continual basis. Too much moisture in the sand can introduce gas into the casting surface. Gating is developed and installed by our flow analysis software prior to running any production. This ensures proper metal flow into the mold eliminating any possibility of turbulence porosity.
Yes. We have a separate building, approximately 1 mile from our foundry. We currently have 16 CNC machining centers, ranging from small verticals to large horizontals. Size: We can machine any casting that we presently pour.
We have a complete quality program that adheres to our ISO certification. Ongoing checks are run at the machine, and all critical dimensions are checked on our coordinate measuring machine. We provide our customers with documented data charts on all critical dimensions.
Although it varies from workload, patterns range from 8-10 weeks, raw castings from 4-6 weeks, machining from 4-6 weeks.
We offer many secondary options. The most popular are powder coat, wet paint, polishing, a variety of types of anodize, pressure/leak test, several mechanical finishes to the cast surface, minor assembly, and more.
.Iges files, .step files, etc. We use SolidWorks and flow software on a daily basis. Solidworks will translate 99% of the current files being used today. Also include information about quantities such as estimated annual usage. Specify alloy, also list any special requirements the part may experience in usage. Does the part have to be pressure tight, experience any unusual load, characteristics that our years of experience with castings may help in your decisions about alloy and wall thicknesses. We have an engineering staff that would be glad to guide you with your new casting project.
