B
enton Foundry was awarded a $3 million grant through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), with the help of Senator John R. Gordner (R-27), and Rep. David Millard (R-109).
The company’s footprint will expand by 70,000 sq. ft. and new robotic equipment will be installed. This will result in at least 50 new jobs and a rise in daily production to 225 tons, an increase of 50 tons per day.
“I would like to congratulate Benton Foundry… I am pleased to see how the utilization of new technologies can bring substantial economic development to the people of Columbia County and beyond,” said Senator Gordner. “I look forward to seeing so many life sustaining jobs coming to our area,” said Representative Millard.
The RACP is a Common-wealth grant program administered by the Office of the Budget for the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational and historical improvement projects. RACP projects are authorized in the Redevelopment Assistance section of a Capital Budget Itemization Act, have a regional or multi-jurisdictional impact and generate substantial increases or maintain current levels of employment, tax revenues or other measures of economic activity.
This is the largest grant in Columbia County History.
“The Benton Foundry mission is premised on a stable, qualified, productive and continually upgraded workforce. Benton’s craftsmen enjoy the benefit of appropriate state-of-the-art equipment in a safe, coordinated and ecologically aware manufacturing environment. The resultant gray and ductile iron castings are reflected notably in terms of quality, price and punctuality.”
Hot topics come and go – A current hot topic is corporate sustainability. As you are aware from previous issues of the Meltminder, Benton is a staunch advocate and continues to verify green initiatives on a daily basis throughout our manufacturing facility. Some larger corporate customers write sustainability reports and spell out goals and initiatives to be evaluated. We will analyze some of these initiatives here and abroad, along with how we define sustainability.
From an environmental viewpoint, our sustainability goals are as follows: 1) Minimize the use of fossil fuel 2) Pollution Reduction 3) Reduce waste and use recycled materials. Let’s look at how these three concepts hold up when Benton Foundry is compared to foundries in India. Benton uses over 90% recycled material in our castings in an environmentally conscious manufacturing facility. We have reduced our electric Kwh/Ton produced by over 12% with a goal of 5% more. This reduction represents well over three million Kwh.
In addition, also consider this subject in light of all the product disruptions caused by shipping and other woes. In an August 2020, McKinsey Global Institute Report, stated that as much as 45% of earnings (EBITDA) can be lost to disruptions. As a result, SKF (the bearing company) is investing $60 million in their North American manufacturing facilities. Their Sumter, South Carolina plant will be the centralizing facility. They feel sustainability and proximity to market go hand-in-hand. This expansion will be green and according to US Environmental laws, this will be a sustainable facility.
Sustainability can also be looked at from a much larger viewpoint of maintaining lifestyle and standard of living. For instance, we all have heard about semiconductors. In 1990, the US produced 37% of what it uses. Now we only produce 12%. This is a two-thirds reduction. We have also heard of Chinese aggression towards Taiwan. One of the world’s largest producers located there is Taiwan Semi-Conductor. You have China possibly increasing control of the semi-conductor production and the US passively standing by. Thus, both lifestyle and standard of living may be affected by the failure to sustain domestic needs in normal times and also in times of peril.
Let’s now turn our attention to an India Foundry supplying a mutual USA customer of Benton’s. Let’s start with shipping costs that have gone from $2500/container to $15,000/container, (if you can get it at all.) A container can hold up to 20 tons of product. That means freight alone is $.40/lb. or almost a third of Benton’s sales price per pound for castings. Then there is the cross-country transportation via rail that can be an additional several thousand dollars, plus the fuel used by the train. In addition, there may be potential tariffs to be paid. Less-than-reputable importers sometimes understate the value of items, to reduce the amount of tariffs, shorting needed dollars to the US Government for projects they fund. These goods may arrive in US ports via ships that further pollute with no rule of law.
The India Electricity Industry is 75% coal-fired and the Lignite Coal is of poor quality with as much as 40% ash content. The country of India alone has 21 of the world’s 30 cities with the most air pollution. Approximately 50% of the air pollution is caused by industry. In addition, a large number of small Indian foundries use cupolas which are a higher air polluting device. If you go on “YouTube,” you can access a number of videos of “Indian Foundries” where there is a lack of safety and clean air to breathe. There is little use of pollution control on furnaces and other areas of these foundries, where Benton has strict pollution controls. Work environments appear to be less than safe in some of these facilities. The large population makes workers expendable. Sustainability is generally not at the forefront in many of these facilities. Also, India has made no real commitments to reduce its’ carbon footprint as seen at the recently held meetings in Glasgow, Scotland. Carbon dioxide in India has increased over 300% since 1990. The US has significantly decreased its’ CO2 production. The above does not include all Indian foundries.
Cargo shipping and pollution.
- Four percent of human caused carbon emissions are boat related. If it were a country, it would be the sixth highest emitting country in the world.
- Ballast water and waste water are basically uncontrolled outside of US controlled waters, so dump at will. This includes raw sewage, oily water and other pollutants. No EPA at sea.
- Noise pollution has been shown to have negative effects on marine life.
- Wildlife collisions with boats are common and hazardous.
- Also, a major source of Nitric Oxide, NO2 a pollutant, comes from the ships’ engines.
- Solid waste is thrown overboard by ships registered to shadow owners, so they don’t pay garbage disposal fees in port.
In addition, Benton Foundry melts recycled auto cast and used rail products. We use the trim scrap of companies that punch out steel parts. Benton Foundry uses a reduced amount of pig iron, because we control our scrap inputs and have had this process in effect for several decades. In the 1970’s Benton used 1/3 pig iron in our charge makeup. We now use approximately 10% or less, a 2/3 reduction. The carbon additive alloys are all made of recycled materials. The copper and tin we use are recycled products. Other Ductile and Gray Iron alloys are all made at a hydro-powered pollution-controlled plant in Quebec that Benton has audited. Castings from India come with a wide array of chemistries and casting controls. They use twice as much or more pig iron than Benton per ton of castings; of which all is from virgin coal and iron ore, not recycled materials. Some materials come from a controlled environment and sometimes not. Companies should quantify, qualify and identify sustainability in their suppliers. Due diligence should be given to both domestic and suppliers abroad regarding sustainability. The total environmental cost does not appear to be computed or considered in the past on purchasing decisions as part of long-term corporate goals. If companies deal with an importer, they don’t have boots on the ground to really audit the casting source. Not all castings are created equally.
W
hen Covid-19 forced people to stay home, many of us found solace in a snack: potato chips. The crispy treats enjoyed around $350 million increase in sales from 2019 to 2020. When the chips are down, it seems, Americans gobble them up.
Any search for the origins of this signature finger food must lead to George Crum (Born George Speck), a 19th century chef of Native and African American descent who made his name at Moon’s Lake House in the resort town of Saratoga Springs, New York. As the story goes, one day in 1853, the railroad and shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt was eating at Moon’s when he ordered his fried potatoes be returned to the kitchen because they were too thick. Furious with such a fussy eater, Crum sliced some potatoes as slenderly as he could, fried them to a crisp and sent them out to Vanderbilt as a prank. Rather than take the gesture as an insult, Vanderbilt was overjoyed.
Other patrons began asking for Crum’s “Saratoga Chips,” which soon became a hit far beyond Upstate New York. In 1860, Crum opened his own restaurant near Saratoga known as Crum’s House or Crum’s Place, where a basket of potato chips sat invitingly on every table. Crum died in 1914, but today’s astounding variety of potato chips, from cinnamon-and-sugar Pringles to flaming’ hot dill pickle Lay’s are a tribute to the man American Heritage magazine called “the Edison of grease.”
Still, historians who have peeled the skin off this story have hastened to point out that Crum was not the sole inventor of the chip, or even the first. The earliest known recipe
for chips dates to 1817, when an English doctor named William Kitchiner published The Cook’s Oracle, a cookbook that included a recipe for “potatoes fried in slices or shavings.” And in July 1849, four years before Crum supposedly dissed Vanderbilt, a New York Herald reporter noted the work of “Eliza,” also, curiously, a cook in Saratoga Springs, whose “potato frying reputation” had become “one of the prominent matters of remark at Saratoga.” Yet scholars are united in acknowledging that Crum popularized the chip. It was in Saratoga that the chips came into their own – today you can buy a version of Crum’s creations under the name Saratoga Chips and in America that they became a culinary and commercial juggernaut.
For a long time, chips remained a restaurant –only delicacy. In 1895 an Ohio entrepreneur named William Tappenden found a way to keep them stocked on grocery shelves, using his kitchen and, later, a barn turned factory in his backyard to make the chips and deliver them in barrels to local markets via horse-drawn wagon. Countless other merchants followed suit.
It would take another bold innovator to ignite the revolution, the result of which no birthday party or football game or trip to the office vending machine would ever be the same. In 1926, Laura Scudder, a California business-woman, began packaging chips in wax-paper bags that included not only a “freshness” date but also a tempting boast – “the Noisiest Chips in the World,” a peculiarly American marketing breakthrough that made a virtue of being obnoxious.
Americans consume about 1.85 billion pounds of potato chips annually or around 6.6 pounds per person.
Smithsonian Jan.-Feb. 2022
Edith, Isabella, Lucy, Ann, Carrie, Eliza and Dorothy
W
hen Dorothy 6 came up as a possible name for Tom Kazar’s restaurant, it just clicked.
Kazar said he was already thinking of naming his restaurant after a blast furnace, and his brother David, who’d died a few years earlier, had worked on the crew that demolished the Dorothy 6 blast furnace in the late 1980s.
So Kazar named his Homestead restaurant Dorothy 6 Blast Furnace Café and came up with the slogan that doubled as a jab to U.S. Steel – “If we can’t pour steel, we’ll pour beer.” The café opened in 2014, and the menus explain the story of its name.
The tradition of giving women’s names to blast furnaces is one that’s steeped in honor but is also a marker of the time.
Naming a blast furnace after a loved one was a way to honor the family, said Ron Baraff, director of historic resources and facilities for Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, adding that the machinery was “a source of pride and ingenuity and progress.”
Plus, they are bold and delicate machines, he said.
At the height of steel production, there were 75 blast furnaces in the region, Baraff said. The best way to describe what the machine is and does is to think of it as a manmade volcano used in the iron production stage of steel making.
Rivers of Steel created a map that shows the growth and the decline of steel industry in this region.
While some furnaces were labeled with numbers or letters, others had names. In the Pittsburgh region they were Edith, Isabella, Lucy, Ann, Carrie, Eliza and Dorothy.
A centuries – old tradition
The tradition is “in the same vein of naming a ship after a woman,” Baraff said, adding that it goes back to the early to mid-19th century.
If you look back in history, riverboats, ships and countries were commonly referred to with female pronouns. There is some symbolism to it as well – that a ship can be a mother figure, protecting and providing for the people on it. So it has that connection to people, like the blast furnaces, she said, adding the furnaces have a protective shell.
Today, the last two working blast furnaces in the state are at Mon Valley Works – Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock and North Braddock, Baraff said, adding that those blast furnaces don’t have names.
The lack of blast furnaces is in part because now there is more steel recycling than steel production, he said. If you want to see a blast furnace up close, the Carrie Furnaces in Swissvale are the only ones left in this region to visit.
Carrie 6 and Carrie 7 remain, of the original Carrie 1 to 7.
And they are the last of their type, Baraff said, adding that the blast furnaces were put in place in 1907 and were last updated in 1936 before they closed in the 1980s.
Rivers of Steel leads public tours
(https://www.riversofsteel.com/things-to-do/tours/) at Carrie Furnaces from May to the end of October.
“You can go into the furnaces themselves and hear about the stories and what it was like to work there,” Baraff said.
Peculiar Pittsburgh (https://Archive.theincline.com/stories/Peculiar-Pittsburgh/)
MJ Slaby
Congratulations to Annette Brown (above), Benton Foundry’s 1st Shift Employee of the Quarter. Annette is also our 1st Shift Employee of the Year! Annette has worked at the Foundry for over 34 years. She works in the Human Resource Department and is a fundamental asset to employee relations. She assists the HR Manager, answers the majority of the incoming phone calls, as well as, assisting with the day-to-day needs of 200+ employees. Annette enjoys helping out in her community and spending time with her family and her two boxers when she isn’t busy working.
Thank You Annette for your dedication!
Congratulations to Joe Tabor (below), Benton Foundry’s 2nd shift Employee of the Quarter. Joe is also our 2nd Shift Employee of the Year! Joe has been employed at the Foundry since February 2020. He works in our Maintenance Department as a mechanic. He is adaptable and open to helping out on other shifts as needed. Joe lives in Dushore and has three children. He enjoys spending time with his family, hunting, fishing and being outdoors in his spare time.
Awesome Job Joe!
PPL Business Energy Efficiency Program offers incentives for eligible pre-approved phase 4 improvement projects. Benton Foundry entered our application for 73 new LED lighting fixtures in our pouring and molding departments which received approval under this project. This also included a lighting control panel with dimming features. Ed Gill from our Maintenance Department was in charge of this project which was recently completed and approved for a rebate in December. This will be a savings of 344,289 kWh per year.
J
ust a few pictures of our three new sand silos being set into place. All three are the same physical size. Two of the silos will hold up to 200 tons of new sand for our core room. The third silo will hold 120 tons of bentonite for our green sand system. These silos will enable us to unload raw materials under a roof and they are strategically located for our new core machines.
W
e would like to welcome David (Dave) Gangle to our sales team. Dave is a Mechanical Engineer and he and his wife, Justine live in Birmingham, AL. They have two sons, 23 year old Lake and 18 year old Cole. Dave previously worked at Elyria Foundry and he has a lengthy history of casting sales and technical service. He also worked in the thermal processing equipment industry. Dave will be covering the Southeast.
Welcome Aboard Dave!
O
nce again, Wilkes University engineering students visited the foundry. These students are Mechanical and Electrical Engineering majors, under the direction of Dr. Ali Razavi. Dr Razavi and his students have previously visited our facility and are particularly interested in our melting department. They are intrigued by our manufacturing process and engaged in productive dialogue throughout their tour. We enjoyed sharing our manufacturing knowledge and Discovery Center with these students.
The more wrinkles your brain has, the more intelligent you are.
Free weekly credit reports have been extended into April 2022.
Changes to your credit report—which can impact your ability to get a loan or a credit card happen almost daily, says Syed Ejaz, a financial policy analyst at CR (Consumer Reports), so checking your report regularly is a smart way to catch potential errors and stay on top of your financial health.
Before the pandemic, credit bureaus (which by law must provide a single free report annually) could charge you about $12 for each additional report you requested. During the pandemic, the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – began offering consumers free credit reports, and recently announced that they will continue to do so on a weekly basis until April 20, 2022.
Take Action: Obtain copies of each of your reports from all three bureaus at annualcreditreport.com
Consumer Reports
CR.ORG
June 2021
Congratulations! to the following employees for being among the top five AFS (e-learning) students in the months of:
October: Ben Hatch & Ana Ponce
November: Kyle Hall & Ben Hatch
December: Thomas Yancheck & Kyle Hall.
Good Job to our Lab! Twice a year Benton Foundry participates in the Iron Casting Research Institute’s (ICRI) testing. This was the 49th round of Spectrometer Proficiency Testing. These tests measure repeatability and consistency between various technicians within a lab and reproducibility and consistency between different labs. Certified reference standards with unknown concentrations of numerous elements are analyzed and results forwarded to the ICRI. They found no statistically significant differences for repeatability and reproducibility. Benton Foundry’s Lab has continually been recognized for consistently high performance in these exercises. 
Thanks to Ron Steward, Ana Ponce, Jackie Showers, Tim Antoniello, Cody Snyder, Don Copeland and Bill Simback. Congratulations!
A thank you goes out to Tina Bizup, Walt Lutcavage and Gene Eckroth for providing transportation services. Usually their services are unplanned and when they provide transportation, it imposes on the rest of their work day. They willingly help out without complaint.
Save The Date: Saturday – August, 13, 2022
Healthy Trees, Healthy People:
Get Your Daily Dose of Trees Campaign
Trees provide a myriad of social, economic and environmental benefits. These benefits include, but are not limited to,
sequestering carbon dioxide and reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, improving water quality, providing natural sunblock and reducing your chances of sunburn, alleviating mental fatigue, reducing crime rates and diminishing stressful noises. Trees enhance the quality of life.
Trees Help Reduce Skin Cancer.
Shade from trees reduces exposure to UV rays, the primary cause of skin cancer. In 50% shade, sunburn protection lasts 2.5 times longer than when standing in direct sunlight.
Trees and shrubs can reduce stressful noises by 50%. Trees Decrease Mental Stress.
Exposure to forests decreases mental fatigue by relaxing and restoring the mind, and lowers blood pressure and heart rate. Kids who play in nature are more relaxed and attentive, which improves learning and performance in school.
Trees Reduce Heat Stroke and Heat Exhaustion.
A tree’s canopy and shade reduce temperatures by up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Trees Keep The Air Clean.
Childhood asthma rates are lower in the urban neighborhoods that have a higher density of trees. In 50 years one tree provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control.
Tree-lined streets encourage walking, helping meet daily exercise requirements.
Trees Promote Healing.
Nature helps patients refocus their attention and increases their pain thresholds, leading to improved coping and healing strategies.
Foods From Trees Are Healthy To Eat.
Fruits and nuts are good for the body because they contain antioxidants that boost the immune system and healthy fats that decrease bad cholesterol.
(www.paforestry.org)
Scott Vandine
Randy Kadtke
Tamir Johnson
Shawn Frey
Boane Berg
Fred Hittle
Matt Lobos
Gene Ryman
Mark Coleman
Nicholas Kosek
Marty Pelas
Vallerie Fowler
Ken O’Brecht
Colton Young
Matt Shultz
Mike Shultz
Eric Barnes
Joe Sharkuski
Ryan Bown
Harry Fry III
Mike Modla
Jeff Jones
Lou Sappè
James White
Al Schumacher
Ron Steward
Lynn Sheatler
Stuart Wolfe
Joe Timko
Tammy Norton
Nate Foust
John Andrews
Jaiden Hayman
Tom Foust
Corban Peterson
Nick Stefanowicz
Greg Vandine
Ryan Keeler
Tim Shepherd
David Straub, Sr.
Austin Puterbaugh
Sherry Nerio
Ray Campbell
Julian Thouvenot
Mike Machuga
MaryAlice Green
Chris Madl
Sue Hanna
David Yoder
Bob Little
John Wood
Della Norton
Annette Brown
Ed Whitmoyer
Andy Spencer
Mike Schumacher
Nuria Artero
Jonas Roper
Gilberth Aleman
How many national parks are in the United States?
Answer will be in 1st Quarter 2022
Answer from 3rd Quarter question: What was the first advertised toy (on TV)?
Mr. Potato Head
Boredpanda.com
“All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.”
~Adlai E. Stevenson
