Frazier & Frazier Industries Inc. is a gray and ductile iron foundry in Coolidge, TX, established in 1972. Being ISO 9001:2015-registered, the foundry works to uphold the quality standards, on-time delivery, and cost competitiveness that are industrial drivers, but Frazier also strives to enhance those standards by emphasizing customer service and short-notice responsiveness to its buyers in the energy, pumps/compressors, and agriculture and construction equipment markets. Relying on flaskless molding technology – which allows metalcasters to achieve flexibility in mold size and shape, while optimizing throughput – is one way it does that.
Frazier began operating Sinto mold and coremaking machines in the late 1980s. When the foundry acquired its FBOV 24x30 flaskless molding machine in 2021, it was to replace a machine installed in 1999. The design of the new FBOV fit well into the footprint of the machine that had been in place for more than two decades.
The FBOV 24x30 is one of six FBOV machines operating in North America. It has respective mold heights of 9 inches (cope) and 12 inches (drag.) The average maximum mold rate (without core setting) is 90/molds hour, and the molding system uses an “edge blow plus squeeze” process.
The first production run on the new flaskless machine took place in April 2022, and since then Frazier & Frazier has seen productivity savings thanks to reduced mechanical downtown, and less scrap thanks to the performance efficiency gains with the new machine.
Also, having integrated the Sinto Smart Foundry, performance analytics platform, Frazier’s operators have much less difficulty trouble-shooting issues that develop with the new machine’s operation.
“One improvement area for us has been overall quality of our castings,” according to Edward Frazier, vice president. We have seen vast improvements in the overall finish and tolerance of the castings by replacing the older machine.”
Along with the new molding machine Frazier also operates four Barinder automated grinding machines supplied by Sinto. “With other options in the market for molding equipment, I am proud that Frazier & Frazier chose to stay with Sinto for their new molding machine,” offered Brady Marshall, the regional sales manager.