Located at Alcoa's Howmet Products and Services manufacturing facility in Whitehall, Mich. a newly installed vacuum furnace -- equipped with new control technology -- will soon begin manufacturing production parts to meet customer demand in the aerospace market.
"The combination of a booming market for jet engine components and growing customer demand for aerospace products has driven the need for a new furnace and full manufacturing capacity. Through the use of furnace additions and the Alcoa Business System, our continuous improvement method, we have expanded the output of this operation by 30% over the past 10 months. The new furnace will be dedicated to airfoil manufacturing -- both directionally solidified and single crystal -- to support the needs of our aero-engine OEM customers," said Michael A. Pepper, vice president and general manager, Howmet Products and Services.
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