[AT] California and casting foundries, was Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity - StarTribune.com

[Grant Brians]

My son works in a local foundry here in California. Pollution controls 
are actually not a big issue for them, they do specialized steel 
castings, largely for the technology companies. Back in the 1980s I had 
a fascinating conversation with the managers of the foundry that made 
the Sprinkler pipe fittings and parts that I preferred. They said that 
their main issue as far as emissions was visible water vapor. This was 
because it was an Aluminum foundry and they used a combination of clean 
metal and their own scrap to create the castings. The water vapor 
visibility made people think that they were polluting! Now, the ubiquity 
of pollution control technology has brought down the cost and complexity 
of installations unless there are paint or other contaminations of the 
metals....
      I also found that when I bought planter plates for my Ventura Bean 
planters that were made after about 1980 that they are now aluminum 
alloy rather than iron because of the lower cost of small batches of 
aluminum parts than cast iron low grade materials....
              Grant Brians - Hollister,California farmer

On 1/11/2020 11:46 AM, bradloomis at charter.net wrote:
>
> http://www.startribune.com/for-tech-weary-midwest-farmers-40-year-old-tractors-now-a-hot-commodity/566737082/?refresh=true&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosfutureofwork&stream=future
>
> I was speaking with an acquaintance this morning who teaches Material 
> Engineering at Cal Poly SLO. I asked about his recent trip to Iowa, 
> did six weeks a NIU? Apparently he teaches casting, probably from the 
> metallurgical standpoint. He mentioned he had visited several 
> foundries in the area, JD and affiliated, I assume. With the recent 
> discussion on casting parts here I got interested. Didn’t have time to 
> elaborate, but I did find out that there are 57 foundries in 
> California. Hard to imagine with all the pollution controls.
>
> Bradford
>
>
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