Lost-foam casting cutting component weight, cost

LOUISVILLE. The use of its lost-foam casting process not only cuts component weight and cost significantly, but is also helping truck manufacturers keep their production lines supplied with critical parts despite the recent surge in truck orders, said Grede Holdings chairman, president & CEO Doug Grimm, who spoke with FleetOwner here last week at the Mid-America Trucking Show.

By switching components such as spring hangers, differential carriers and exhaust manifolds to the lost-foam process, he explained the company is able to free up other ductile and gray iron casting production to meet sharp increases in demand for components as medium- and heavy-duty truck makers boost production output in a strengthening market, according to Grimm.

Additional benefits Grimm cited from the lost-foam process include up to a 30% reduction in weight and up to a 40% decrease in cost.

With approximately 30% of its business supporting truck manufacturers, Grede has 15 foundries and three machine shops in the U.S. and Mexico, including two Mexican foundries that are being acquired to support truck plants in that country.