News
Heat Treatment: The Finishing Touch to Iron Castings
As far as foundry customers are concerned, the more seamless the process, the better. Meeting their timeliness and quality expectations doesn’t hurt, either. State Line Foundries delivers on all counts when castings require heat treatment. “Heat treating isn’t something everyone gets excited about, but it’s important,” acknowledges State Line president Jesse Milks. It’s often a…
Read MoreStrengthening the OEM-Foundry Relationship
An OEM has a great deal of incentive to stick with a foundry. In most cases, finding a new supplier is expensive and disruptive. The foundry, of course, wants to stay in the OEM’s good graces – to not only retain the business but to grow it whenever possible. Therefore, both the OEM and foundry…
Read MoreNeed Emergency Castings? State Line Can Help!
The crew at State Line Foundries is very familiar with these emergency scenarios: A warehouse employee has discovered, to his dismay, an empty shelf. An overseas shipment is finally located and … is still overseas. A production manager takes a hard look at the limited number of castings in the supply chain and fears his…
Read MoreChoosing the right material for your pattern tooling
What’s the best material to use for your pattern tooling? That depends on numerous factors, including estimated annual usage (EAU), the geometry of the part and the durability required. Helping customers work through the trade-offs of material, cost and lead times is something that State Line Foundries’ sales manager and estimator Dave Murphy does intuitively…
Read MoreState Line is poised for growth in 2021
Look for a choppy 2020 to turn into a slow rebound during the first quarter of 2021, followed by accelerating growth throughout the rest of the year. Watch for State Line Foundries’ long-term approach to pay dividends, predicts the company’s president, Jesse Milks. “We’re well-positioned to take on additional business – quickly – when things…
Read MoreHow castability analysis can save time and money
Does your foundry conduct a castability analysis of new and existing parts? It’s an opportunity to identify tweaks to your casting design that can save you a significant amount of time and money. It can also improve the quality of your parts. State Line Foundries relies on proven processes to help maximize castability and provide…
Read MoreHow State Line helps pump manufacturers
When failure isn’t an option: Pump manufacturers know how much is at stake when their products are at work in the field. Pumps support underground mining and tunneling operations, firefighting, commercial sprinkling systems, wastewater, the oil and gas industries and other critical, high-performance applications. Pump manufacturers looking for casting partners need to be certain that…
Read MoreHow to find the right foundry for military work
Few foundries take on defense contractor-related work. It’s easy to see why. “The requirements for suppliers are pretty intense,” explains Jesse Milks, president of State Line Foundries, which pours iron castings for a variety of military products. Milks says the specifications provide a point of comparison between castings destined for military versus private-sector applications. “With…
Read MoreWhat does it mean to put the customer first?
Companies of all shapes and sizes – and across all industries – describe themselves as “always putting the customer first.” But the reality is often quite different. Businesses often fall short in this critical area, straining customer relationships and sometimes damaging them beyond repair. According to research conducted by Accenture Interactive, B2B buyers today aren’t…
Read MoreFoundry expert gets “pumped up” about SLF’s capabilities
Joel Yates is the definition of an expert – multiple consulting engagements, an advanced degree in metallurgy, decades in the foundry business, a teaching gig at a local college. When a high-end pump manufacturer needed to outsource a large number of castings, it turned to Yates as its key consultant. And the solution Yates found?…
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