Rheocast Co.
N114 W19250 Clinton Drive, Germantown
Industry: Brass and aluminum die casting
Employees: 40
www.rheocast.com
The upfront cost for tooling is fairly steep in the high-pressure die casting industry and the tools are so important to the final product, Germantown-based Rheocast recently decided to move its tooling operations in house.
The company, which forges brass and aluminum parts, purchased a building across the street to expand into tool manufacturing. Rheocast occupies half of the 15,000-square-foot space, at N114 W19049 Clinton Drive, and a tenant occupies the other half, said Charlie Wright Jr., sales and marketing manager.
“If you’ve got good tooling, chances are you have a probability of making good parts,” Wright said.
After about $1 million in building purchase, renovation and equipment costs, Rheocast has started tooling operations at the second facility, he said. Three new employees design and machine the tools.
“It was a substantial investment for us,” Wright said. “We’ve been talking about it for a long time and never really found the right time to do it, but we came out of the recession well-positioned and we’ve been investing a lot in the company.”
Rheocast is part of The Fall River Group Inc., which also includes Fall River Foundry in Fall River, Wis. and Fall River Manufacturing on Milwaukee’s south side.
Rheocast’s offices and production are based out of its 40,000-square-foot main plant. In high-pressure casting, molten metal is quickly and forcefully rammed into a steel die with a rod. The resulting parts have a tighter structure and thinner walls than those formed in sand casting, another method of forging metal parts.
“The idea is that it’s a highly repeatable process and you can meet much tighter tolerances than sand casting,” Wright said. “Because we’re actually using pressure and ramming that metal in there really quickly, you can reduce the amount of secondary machining.”
There are six brass and three aluminum production machines, which have tonnage capacities ranging from 650 to 900 tons of pressure. Some steel dies cast one part at a time, while others may have space to cast eight parts in one operation. Brass is brought to 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit, while aluminum is heated to 1,300 degrees before the molten metal is injected into the dies.
Following casting, the flash is cut off with one of Rheocast’s eight trimming presses, and vibratory tumblers and grit blast machines are sometimes used for custom finishes.
Brass is a preferred material for parts in industries like water measurement and control, since they are lead-free, corrosion-resistant and have good electrical conductivity. Aluminum is lightweight but strong, and is used to make products including levels and gas valve bodies.
While a lot of companies offer aluminum high-pressure casting, not many domestic companies make brass parts in this way, which sets Rheocast apart.
Several years ago, pricing pressures were a concern as Rheocast competed with Asian brass foundries, but today many U.S. companies have started to evaluate the cost of bringing production back stateside. Oak Creek-based Master Lock Co. LLC, for example, recently reshored a brass lock case made at Rheocast.
“We just finished the first production order with them, and we’re really excited to see that work come back,” Wright said. “We’re not the cheapest option, but we pride ourselves on being able to service our customers. A lot of offshore companies don’t offer that.”
