With more than 70 years experience in the industrial sector, Willman Industries offers a wide choice of materials, design flexibility, advanced foundry technology and equipment, and highly qualified employees who are dedicated to the unique needs of their customers.
Located in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin, Willman produces gray iron and ductile iron components in castings sizes ranging from a couple ounces up to 36,000 pounds with full green sand and no bake sand capabilities.
With a 180,000-square-foot foundry, which consists of a facility for no bake castings up to 20 tons, and a green sand casting center that allows casting volumes from prototype to several thousand units, Willman is able to economically produce high-quality products for its customers.
The facility also has three nine-ton cordless induction furnaces that are used for all-electric melt, and orders of one piece to 10,000 pieces.
Offering gray and ductile castings in addition to meehanite metals, no bake and green sand castings, provides customers with options for using large or small runs of one piece to more than 700 pieces annually and the no bake facility has two bays for molding medium-sized, semi production or one-on components up to 40,000 pounds in flasks or flaskless.
Larger casting volumes using cope and drag pin lift molding machines with flask size up to 42 inches by 60 inches are also possible on the automatic in-line molding, which allows for larger casting production, which reduces labor and material costs and increases production speed and quality.
Heat treatment is offered for stress relief and annealing is available for smaller castings, in addition to contract heat-treat requirements for outside vendors.
“We work with our customers on materials and component selection to make it more manufacturable,” said Jerry Hendrickson, vice president of sales and marketing for Willman. “Materials development for the application is needed more and more by customers who need our casting and technical expertise.”
Hendrickson says with many of the skilled craftsman and experts retiring from our customer’s workforce, customer demand is at an all-time high for technical expertise on materials and manufacturing processes.
“Many customers need that technical expertise and we can provide that,” Hendrickson said. “Our management team including the CEO, president and plant metallurgist all have degrees in metallurgy. I have a degree in materials engineering. We have 175 staff, management and hourly employees, so from a manufacturing and technical standpoint, we have covered the bases.”
Hendrickson says Willman is has a Six Sigma Black Belt and four Green Belts, certified by ISO 9001:2008 as well as certifications from American Bureau of Shipping, Meehanite M.A.C. 2000, and DNV.
“We are also a Meehanite-licensed foundry which allows us to legally make components with this material,” he said. “That is something that is very important to some of our customers.”
Industries served include construction, mining and gearbox manufacturing for drivetrain components and planetary components for large trucks, to military vehicles and off-road equipment, as well as for compressors, diesel engines, gas turbine engines, marine applications, electrical transmission products, machine tool industries and custom designs for specialty customers.
“Our customers are mostly OEM with some aftermarket customers, but I would say that most of our customers contract for 50 to 500 pieces per part number on an annual basis, so that accounts for 75 percent of our business,” he said.
Willman is also committed to environmental stewardship and eco-friendly castings where scraps are recycled and heat recovery systems recirculate to heat the facility. “We are doing things to improve our energy efficiency and operations at the plant because it makes good sense for the environment, but honestly, it makes good economic sense,” he said. “We are good neighbors, but there are economic benefits in terms of cost savings on material energy controls that also help reduce our carbon footprint.”
As a privately held company, Willman continues to reinvest in the facility by investing $14 million over the last 10 years for the facility expansion, better equipment and resources that allow the company to offer more capabilities and increase productivity.
“We are a low risk supplier in the business with an excellent track record in manufacturing, casting, and technical support,” he said. “For a company of our size, we have more experience and expertise in industry and a wider envelope of sizes, material, and quantity in one location than anywhere else in the U.S. I don’t know of another company that has what we have.”
To learn more:
Visit www.willmanind.com or call 920-668-8526.
