We have 17 employees with over 30 years of seniority and four with over 40 years. Pictured above are 40-year employees. They are Ed Whitmoyer, Tom Foust and Bill Keefe. Absent from the photo is Tim Brown.

Pictured on the left are 30-year employees. Back row Jeff Hall, Ed Whitmoyer, Glenn Cregar, Nathan Foust, Rob Bowman, Tim Kepner, Tom Foust and Albert Phillips. In the front row Mike Machuga, Donna Remley, Dave Eveland, Sherry Steele, Roger Green, Bill Keefe and Annette Brown. Absent from the photo are Tim Brown and Scott Vandine.

Thank you all for your loyalty and your many years of service.

The image below is one of our two new Laempe LL20 core machines that are scheduled to start production around August 15th. This was featured at the AFS Cast-Expo in April.

The image in the upper right is one of our two new Foxall robotic grinding cells. We now have eight robotic cells in our fleet (bottom right image) grinding over 75% of all products shipped. The center right image is our two new BCT 34 cubic foot cleaning machines. This equipment was also featured at the AFS Cast-Expo in Columbus Ohio. The image directly above shows our new manual grinding area for lower volume work.

D

uring our expansion, a major change has been made to storm water runoff and how it is handled. This comprehensive project involved multiple areas and different techniques in each. We put the new driveway into a wetland and, as a result, had to recreate the wetland acreage several times over. This resulted in the creation of a wetland across the street by the old spring house and another up the street at Red Rock Corners. Both locations are fenced in to protect them from the deer. These locations have to be inspected and reported to environmental agencies for up to a five-year period to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to which is filter rain runoff in order to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. In addition to the wetlands, we added a riparian buffer which means a collection of plants and trees beside a creek or stream that serves to keep sediment out of the water and provide shade to keep the water cool.

The wetlands and riparian buffer that we removed were full of diseased hemlock, insect infested ash, and several invasive species like mile a minute weed and knotweed. To replace them, we created: 1.6 acres of engineered wetlands (2.5 times what was removed) which included plantings of over 1200 native trees and shrubs in our section of High Quality Watershed. We replaced the riparian buffer with a similarly-sized, newly-engineered one containing well over 200 native trees and shrubs situated along our section of Coles Creek, a Class A wild trout stream. We created a 0.71 acre rain garden and bioretention area to take the runoff from our main employee parking lot.

This new area houses over 300 more native plants and shrubs, a 0.4 acre infiltration berm and retentive grading, a 0.25 acre amended soil zone to mitigate some of the highway runoff, a 2.7 acre vegetated swale with check dams and water quality filters, an underground extended retention basin, and filter bags at the storm drains. All of these measures were to increase groundwater recharge and decrease site sediment and organics discharge.

Rain that falls on the pavement and roof is diverted to the rain garden and the swale at the South end of the Plant. These features effectively clean the sediment picked up by the rain before we discharge clear water to the environment. These major installations were being done, in part, to satisfy requirements from the Army Corps of Engineers, PA Department of Environmental Protection, and Columbia County Conservation District, among others to get the approval for the construction of the building. We coordinated extensively with them from concept to completion. The cost associated with these environmental upgrades was well over $500,000.
As the installed measures mature, they will enrich the area with robust habitats for land animals, food for birds, and cover for fish. They will also add pollution control in the form of nutrient sequestration and filtration. The idea is to put the rain into the ground to recharge the aquifers and to prevent large runoffs from going into the stream system that eventually ends up in the Chesapeake Bay.
The foundry business has been stuck in images of manual work in a dirty environment. Benton Foundry has taken a different approach automating and modernizing the facility. Attention is paid to people’s health and comfort. This approach also extends to the outside of the facility with our clean environment process which gains favorable comments by other foundries, foundry suppliers and customers alike. “Benton Foundry is one of the cleanest foundries they’ve been in” is the most common remark. Thus, extending this mindset to the outside environment, while very expensive, is being done not only to satisfy regulatory requirements, but also our mission statements call to an “ecologically aware environment.”

A special thank you goes out to Steve Bason, Professional Wetland Scientist with Cedar Run Environmental; Ted Oman, Professional Land Planner with Oman, Inc.; Aaron Sisler—Civil Engineer with Borton Lawson; and Barry Travelpiece Professional Engineer for the Columbia County Conservation District.

1. Top Left is the Southern end of the property showing the newly paved area bounded above by the Vegetative Swale (A) and to the left by the Amended Soil area (B). Off new driveway
2. Top Right is the young Rain Garden and Retentive Grading by the parking lot.
3. Left Middle shows some of our beautiful new Wetlands across the street, by the old house site, protected by deer fencing.
4. Bottom Left shows areas of Riparian Buffer across the street by the pond whose purpose is to stabilize stream banks, help to cool the stream water and provide wildlife habitat.
5. Bottom Right shows the Wetland plot we created at Red Rock Corners.

Congratulations to Tim Miller (above), Benton Foundry’s 1st shift Employee of the Quarter. Tim works in our Melt Department as an Iron Pourer. He has been employed since 2003. Tim previously worked at S&B Foundry for a number of years. Tim lives in Danville, with his girlfriend Cathy. He enjoys hanging out at home, when he isn’t working. Tim was nominated for this honor as he is a long-standing, dependable employee. He is a pleasure to work with and his amount of experience is invaluable.

Great Job!

Congratulations to Ray Campbell (below), Benton Foundry’s 2nd shift Employee of the Quarter. Ray works in our Melt Department as a Crane Operator. He has been employed since 2010. Ray lives in Benton, with his girlfriend Linda and daughters Aiyona and Kensy. He enjoys spending time with them when he isn’t working. Ray has a wide range of skill sets and he is always willing to help out in any role where he is needed. He is conscientious and brings a pleasant outlook with him.

Great Job!

T

he amount of electricity generated by wind power has grown substantially over the past 30 years. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2020, wind turbines generated approximately 8.4% of the total U.S. utility-scale electricity.

As evidence of the increasing contribution of wind power to this country’s overall power generation, on March 29, 2022 for the first time ever – wind-based power was the second largest source of electricity (after natural gas-fired power plants) over a 24-hour period.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s U.S. Wind Turbine Database reports that, as of January 2022, the U.S. has installed more than 70,800 wind turbines as part of 1,500 wind power projects across at least 44 states and two U.S. territories. Moving forward, offshore wind farms will likely play a bigger role in the U.S. wind power generation.

Andrew Jubis (Above) – Penn State University – Andrew’s Ma-jor is Electrical Engineering. An-drew is completing his internship with Tim Schechterly, Benton Foundry’s Maintenance Manager.

Nate Suggs (Above) – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University College of Engineering – Nate’s Major is Bachelor of Science, Materials Science and Engineering. Nate has been completing a hands-on rotation throughout the foundry working in our Core, Grinding, Quality Control and Melt departments.

William “Billy” Gustafson, Jr. (Above) – Penn State University (Behrend Campus) – Billy’s Major is Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering Certificate & Plastics Processing. Billy is working with Tyler Johnson, Benton Foundry’s Mechanical Engineer.

Nathan Lohr (Above) – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University College of Engineering. Nate’s Major is Bachelor of Science, Materials Science and Engineering with a Minor in Engineering Science and Mechanics. Nate has been completing a hands-on rotation throughout the foundry working in our Core, Grinding, Quality Control and Melt departments.

Nicholas Stefanowicz (Above) – Pennsylvania College of Technology – Nick’s Major is Automation Engineering. Nick is completing his internship with Tim Schechterly, Benton Foundry’s Maintenance Manager.