GOLDENS' FOUNDRY

'Goldens' Foundry & Machine Co' is a ductile iron and gray iron foundry with operations in Columbus, GA and Cordele, GA. It has operated continuously since 1882. Goldens' provides castings to a variety of industries, including agricultural, construction, power transmission, defense, and large vehicles.

Contents

Operations

Casting Facilities - Columbus, GA

Large Casting Facility

Small Casting Facility

Centrifugal Castings

No Bake Molding

Casting Facilities - Cordele, GA

Machining Operations

Industries Served

Miscellaneous Links

Operations

Goldens' Foundry began operations in 1882 as Goldens' Brothers, founded by 24-year-old John Poitevant "Porter" Golden and 22-year-old Theodore Earnest "Theo" Golden. At the beginning of 1889, Goldens' Brothers was incorporated, with the financial support of Abraham Illges, and renamed Goldens' Foundry & Machine Company.
Goldens' is still owned and operated by descendants of the original three founders. John Thomas Boyd, Jr., vice president of sales, and George Golden Boyd, Sr., president and CEO, continue to lead the family-run company to this day. Likewise, George Boyd's three sons, George Jr., Ed, and John have assumed primary roles in administration, operations, and sales.
The foundry went through numerous upgrades, growing into a 150,000 ft² facility. With conjoined core, molding, cleaning, and machining, and finishing facilities under one roof, Goldens' is able to provide a single-source resource to casting consumers.
Goldens' employs more than 250 skilled workers in Columbus, GA, and approximately 40 in their new operation in Cordele.
'Quality Assurance'
Goldens' utilizes numerous techniques to ensure quality is maintained at both facilities. The company is ISO 9001-2000 certified by Lloyd's. Lean manufacturing principles are also in place throughout the facility, and 5S standards are in place in each department.

Casting Facilities - Columbus, GA

In Columbus, Casting operations in Goldens’ are supported by four Brown-Boveri Coreless Induction Furnaces, coupled with 1200 F preheating, and a comprehensive core shop employing isocure, shell and no-bake (air set). Steel is purchased from a variety of sources, and quality sorrel scrap.

Large Casting Facility

Goldens’ Large Casting Facility utilizes a Heinrich Wagner Sinto automated molding machine. Using this 48² x 18/18 high pressure machine, ductile iron and gray iron casting capability includes the cost efficient manufacture of large castings. The Sinto incorporates the Seiatsu blow squeeze process, and provides opportunity to produce short run and high-volume orders.
The goal with a tight-flask machine such as this is to create near net-shape castings, reducing the need for machining and other processing operations.

Small Casting Facility

Goldens' Small casting facility consists of three Hunter molding machines. The machines produce castings ranging from a few pounds to more than 200.

Centrifugal Castings

Goldens' utilizes a specific centrifugal cast operation for adding iron liners to steel drums. In Goldens’ centrifugal casting process, molten iron is poured into a hollow cylindrical mold spinning on a horizontal or vertical axis at speeds generating 40 to 70 Gs of centrifugal force. This force distributes the molten metal, promotes directional solidification, and improves casting integrity by forcing impurities to the inside surface.
Centrifugal casting at Goldens' is designed for specific product applications, as opposed to other foundries strictly devoted to the centrifugal process, such as steel pipe foundries. The centrifugal casting process was added in the late 1990s as a complement to the green sand mold processes already in place.

No Bake Molding

Goldens' added a fourth molding line, a no-bake sand operation in 2000. The manual molding operation allows production of much larger castings than the Sinto cope and drag machine, and is primarily utilized for Goldens' power transmission operations. This consists primarily of sheaves, pulleys, and sprockets.

Casting Facilities - Cordele, GA

Goldens' new second facility comprises the largest step in the company' 125 year history at expanding output. The 150,000 ft² facility, built in 2001, will complement the Columbus small casting operation. The new facility also houses a brand new Savelli cope and drag 28x36’ 12/12 molding line with automatic core setter to create small to medium sized ductile and grey iron castings.
Although not as fast as many vertically parted molding machines, the Savelli is capable of making ~120 molds an hour. The new machine, with the expanded resources it provides, will more than double the capacity of castings Goldens' can produce.
The facility also includes cleaning, finishing, and machining centers.
The building has previously housed two other foundries, Georgia Ductile and Wescast - Cordele. Both were foundries focused on supplying automotive parts for the US car industry.
Operations at the new Golden facility began in May of 2007.

Machining Operations

Goldens' machining facilities handles most operations their customers need. The operations primarily consist of turning, milling, and drilling operations, although operators perform a limited number of threading, painting, tapping, and sub-assembly operations.
The Columbus machining facility is the larger than the Cordele facility, having been there since the late 1800s. The Columbus machining facility includes a larger variety of machines as well, while the Cordele facility currently only maintains horizontal milling and drilling machines.
The Columbus machining center uses horizontal milling and drilling machines with table sizes ranging from 400mm² to 630mm². Vertical machines range from 20" x 39.5" to 22" x 44".

Industries Served

Goldens' serve a variety of industries, such as construction machinery, pumps and compressors, petroleum, mechanical power transmission, highway and off-highway trucks, farm machinery and equipment, and medical/surgical equipment. Goldens' utilizes both gray iron and ductile iron technology.

Miscellaneous Links

[1] Goldens' Foundry & Machine Co. website
[2] The American Foundry Society