Wheelabrator started in the foundry industry, where cast parts are often cleaned by shot or sand (abrasive) blasting. The traditional way to perform this operation was to use an air blast that carried sand or shot. The process was usually done manually and often in open environments, which was hazardous to the health of the operators and created unpleasant working conditions in the factory. In 1932, The American Foundry Equipment Company located in Cleveland, Ohio developed and marketed to foundries, an airless abrasive blasting machine, which became known as the Wheelabrator. The used a rotating wheel to sling the shot into the parts. The entire process was contained in a cabinet, thus greatly improving the factory working conditions and opening the doors for automatic handling of the parts to be cleaned or peened.
Shortly after the airless centrifugal blast wheel machine was developed, the company moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Mishiwaka, Indiana. By the 1970's, the company had grown to 1500 employees and had a 600,000 square foot facility. In 1983, the shot-making capability was moved to Bedford, Virginia and the following year, the foundry was relocated to Walterboro, South Carolina. The plant in Indiana was getting very old and was too large for the volume of business they were doing in the mid 80's, so it was decided to close the plant in Indiana and move the equipment business to Georgia. The company was divided into equipment assembly, (which moved to Shenandoah [Newnan] Georgia), and manufacturing, (which moved to LaGrange, Georgia). By 1991, they realized that dividing the business into two separate companies was a mistake and the Georgia plants were consolidated in LaGrange, except for the Blastrac machines which are still built in Newnan.
Wheelabrator's History
1906 -- American Foundry Equipment Company - Cleveland Ohio
1932 -- Developed the airless centrifugal blast wheel
1936 -- Moved to Mishiwaka, Indiana
1970's -- 1500 employees 600,000 square foot facility
1983 -- Shot plant moved to Bedford, Virginia
1984 -- Foundry moved to Walterboro, South Carolina
- Equipment moved to Shenandoah, Georgia
- Manufacturing moved to LaGrange, Georgia
1991 -- Both Georgia plants consolidated in LaGrange, Georgia
The company, now 62 years old, builds many different kinds of airless blast machines for foundries, aircraft and automotive industries, and builds equipment for the environmental industry. The firm's primary US location is in LaGrange, Georgia. As shown in Table 2 they build the wheelabrator machines in LaGrange and they build a portable blasting machine called the Blastrac, in Newnan, Georgia. They are affiliated with a foundry in Walterboro, South Carolina (formerly a sister company) that produces the cast parts, white iron and steel parts for the wheelabrator machines. They also produce equipment and parts, including the dust collector systems for the wheelabrator machines, in a small plant in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
North American Operations of Wheelabrator Corporation
The company sells about 70 to 100 machines per year, of which about 30% or so are standard and are sold by distributors. A Tumblast machine with fancy load and unload system sells for $80 to 90,000 while a small machine might be $25,000. Price and delivery date along with functional design are what the customer is interested in for these machines. And of course, Wheelabrator had reputation of service after the sale. Wheelabrator is developing a new machine called the Ultrablast which uses a steel flighted mill - a kind of rotary conveyor - to transport the parts through the blast chamber. The company feels that this is the machine of the future. The key to the machine is that it can handle many different sizes and shapes of parts and can operate on a continuous basis rather than on a batch basis like the Tumblast.
Parts of this page were excerpted from: Dr. M.V. Uzumeri and Dr. J.T. Black, Wheelabrator: A Case Study of Variation in Manufacturing Management, A Report for the Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management at Auburn University, January, 1995. For more information about this case study, contact:
Dr. Mustafa V. Uzumeri, Department of Management, College of Business, Auburn University, AL 36849, (334) 844-6531, uzumeri@business.auburn.edu
or
Dr. J. T. Black, Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Auburn University, AL 36849, (334) 844-1375
This project is made possible by the openness of the Wheelabrator Corporation and has received financial support from the Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management at Auburn University.
DISCLAIMER: Dr. M.V. Uzumeri bears total editorial responsibility for the contents of this document. No other party, specifically including the Wheelabrator Corporation, Auburn University, the Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management and any of their employees, is in any way liable for its contents.
Dr. M.V. Uzumeri, Assistant Professor, College of Business, Auburn University -- uzumeri@business.auburn.edu