Ross Aluminum

Casting forward┬áRoss Aluminum Castings has been supplying quality aluminum castings to a wide range of industries since its founding in 1931. Jaclyn Beck reports on the companyÔÇÖs recent investments. Six thousand years ago, when the art of metal casting was first used to make idols of worship, jewelry, or basic tools, natural clay from river banks would be pasted over carved beeswax, and then placed in the sun to dry. The clay molds would then be tied with metal wire to keep them together and heated to allow the wax to melt and dispense from the mold through a small hole. Liquid gold, silver, or bronze would then be poured into the clay mold, and after four to ten weeks of cooling, the clay would be broken to reveal the casting. ┬áToday, there are a variety of metal casting processes including ceramic, sand, and steel, and what was once a fine art has over the years expanded to a major industry of its own, supplying a wide range of industries for their production and manufacturing needs. Metal casting has become a worldwide business, as the transport sector and heavy equipment (such as farming and construction) take up over 50 percent of castings produced.Ross Aluminum is one company that has been recognized as a leading manufacturer and innovator of high quality castings. The company supplies aluminum castings to manufacturers of fuel pumps, hydraulic valves, and gear boxes for aerospace applications, as well as a range of aluminum castings for specialty and high-performance automotive and diesel truck markets, and for general manufacturing applications. The company has a reputation for producing aluminum castings with reliability, high integrity, and superior mechanical properties, and the ability to determine the most effective combination of alloys, aluminum casting methods, melting practices, gating design and heat treatments for any of its clientsÔÇÖ product performance criteria.With headquarters and a manufacturing facility in Sidney, Ohio, the company brings years of practical know-how and problem-solving to the challenges of todayÔÇÖs industrial, automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, and military industries, and is making a large investment in response to high-demand for value-added machining from current and new customers.In early 2008, the company made plans to double the size of its machining operation by relocating its machine shop from a separate site to an expanded and renovated area of its main casting plant. The expansion will allow Ross Aluminum to implement lean concepts throughout its facility. Once owned by a private-equity firm, in August 2007 Ross Aluminum became a subsidiary of Advanced Metals Group, a group of five aluminum and iron casting facilities committed to lean manufacturing. Advanced Metals Group brought the lean initiatives to Ross Aluminum when it purchased the company two years ago, and says the investment in this expansion will allow Ross Aluminum to stay current with the demands of its customers, while giving it the finishing capacity it needs to seek new business. At the plant, the amount of floor space devoted to machining will be increased and three new CNC lathes will be installed, as well as a new robotic cell for combining knockout and sawing to improve handling of larger aluminum castings over 100 pounds. Prior to the recent expansion, the company had invested in a 12,000 square foot facility dedicated to producing castings for a single customer. There, it installed a 4,000 lb/hour Modern Equipment Company jet melter. With the expansion, the melter has been supplemented by a 75 foot long, integrated launder line that supplies molten aluminum to eight permanent-mold casting production cells. This system uses in-line filtration and rotary degassing to ensure specified metal quality. The company has also been able to increase its production capacity for permanent-mold castings by 50 percent over the past year with the addition of a new melting and pour line. Metal casting has come a long way since 4000 BC. As a manufacturer of value-added cast products to a diverse market, whether you need twenty aluminum castings for prototype or 20,000 aluminum castings for production runs, Ross Aluminum offers complete and flexible services for fast turnaround and reliable quality.┬á ÔÇô Editorial research by Kristina Partaledis┬á