ThyssenKrupp Waupacca: Innovative casting earns ThyssenKrupp international award

For more information please contact
James Newsome
ThyssenKrupp Waupaca, Inc.
Telephone: +1 715-258-1781
E-mail: james.newsome@thyssenkrupp.com

Casting also receives best-in-class award

ThyssenKrupp Waupaca, the largest producer of gray, ductile and compacted graphite iron in the world, received special recognition in the international casting awards. The NEWCAST Award, presented by Messe Düsseldorf, the German Foundry Association and the German Foundrymen’s Society, highlights castings that illustrate the advantages of cast components over other manufacturing processes. Innovative castings are recognized in three categories; this year ThyssenKrupp Waupaca was honored in a special award.

The same casting also received a Best-in-class Award in the 2011American Foundry Society/Metal Casting Design & Purchasing Casting Competition.

ThyssenKrupp Waupaca’s Plant 2/3 facility in Waupaca, Wis. collaborated with John Deere engineers to design a single cast component that avoided the need for multiple cast, fabricated, and/or weldment parts. To make it castable, design changes were required to a 170-pound auxiliary drive casting for use on a John Deere tractor engine. This single casting is now common across multiple tractor options.

Due to the complexity of the geometry and challenges drawing the pattern from the green sand mold, ThyssenKrupp Waupaca was able to successfully produce some exterior features of the auxiliary drive casting with Isocure cores that were then inserted into the green sand mold to produce the casting. “This project is an example of our team’s ability to innovate in a collaborative setting,” said Gary Gigante, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Waupaca. “Making changes this significant are the result of our team thoroughly understanding our customer’s product applications and using in-depth casting knowledge to provide a cost-effective solution.”

Cast tractor auxiliary drives are not new, but the redesigned component is viewed as highly innovative and is a “best practice” leading to future collaborations between ThyssenKrupp Waupaca and John Deere. Benefits of the cast component are:

· eliminates multiple part numbers and reduces inventory levels/costs and administrative costs;
· simplified assembly;
· accommodated space and weight restrictions;
· reduced overall costs.

ThyssenKrupp Waupaca, Inc., the largest independent iron foundry in the world, produces gray and ductile iron castings using state-of-the-art technology. Markets served include automotive, truck, agriculture, construction, hydraulics and commercial vehicles. With headquarters and three plants in Waupaca and one in Marinette, Wisconsin, as well as plants in Tell City, Indiana, and Etowah, Tennessee, the Foundry employs approximately 3,000. ThyssenKrupp USA, Inc. and its subsidiaries account for approximately 17,500 employees and annual sales of USD$6.7 billion in fiscal year 2009/2010.

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