Kimura Foundry has plans to expand, celebrating one year anniversary

Kimura Foundry America (KFA) is a subsidiary of the Kimura Group in Japan. In November 2017 they broke ground in Shelbyville to build their first foundry in the United States. Then in just one short year Kimura Foundry America had its grand opening. The foundry is a replication of one of the Kimura Group’s foundries that are in Japan. The foundry utilizes new technology for creating its sand molds and cores using 3D sand printers.

Kimura Foundry America has three printers at this point in time. Two of the printers use a furan binder to bind the sand and the other uses a phenol binder, a cold hardening process that binds the sand. Looking to the future, KFA has plans of expanding and adding another printer very soon. Adding another printer will help decrease lead times and increase the amount of parts that can be produced. This foundry is a low production/ prototyping foundry that can create gray and ductile iron as well as different grades of steel castings. With the high technology of our 3D printers and the advanced pouring expertise, KFA is able to produce a defect free casting in as short as five days. The foundry has three furnaces at its facility, two 300-lbs and one 500-lbs. In the October 2019 expansion plans, there are plans to add a larger capacity furnace as well with a capacity of 2000-lbs.

With these weights, KFA is able to cast a wide variety of castings that serve many different industries such as the automotive industry, construction and agricultural. KFA can produce castings with complex shapes and wall thicknesses as low as 1.5mm. The final products will have dimensionalaccuracy of ±0.5mm and exceptionally smooth surfaces and zero defects. With the addition of our new quality engineer and new quality lab, we can use many different non-destructive tests to guarantee a quality casting. 3D scanning is used to analyze the dimensions of the castings to assure the part’s in tolerance. Ultrasonic testing and penetration testing are used to detect internal and surface defects respectfully. In the first quarter of 2020 we will be installing a computerized tomography (CT) inspection system for a better look at the inside of our castings. Also, in 2020, we will be implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Kimura Foundry America employs 24 people and together using our distinct process we produce a variety of low volume/prototype castings. Kimura Foundry America will celebrate its one year anniversary on November 7th and is looking forward to a profitable and busy 2020.