Story ID: 
Chromalloy Opens Casting Center in Tampa
By: David A. Lombardo
Caption: A new 150,000-sq-ft investment casting facility has been opened in  Tampa, Fla., by Chromalloy Castings.
Word Count: 313
A new 150,000-sq-ft investment casting facility has been opened in  Tampa, Fla., by Chromalloy Castings. According to Tom Trotter, v-p and  general manager, it is the only facility in the world that can  investment cast aerospace gas turbine blades from the smallest up to and  including large, heavy industrial gas turbine blades and vanes other  than those made under contract ­for the OEMs.  “It’s about life-cycle cost management,” Trotter said. “We’ve come full  circle in that we started by offering anti-corrosion and thermal barrier  coatings for aero engine components. We saw a need for repair and  expanded into turbine blade and nozzle guide vane component repair. It  provided a cost-effective alternative to simply replacing a part with a  new one from the OEM. Unfortunately, sometimes they can’t be repaired  and now with investment casting technology we can make a new, much more  cost-effective replacement for our customers,” he said. “We are now able  to offer the industry a single source for engine component design,  engineering, tooling, machining, ­repairs, coatings and castings.”  The facility is designed to pour annually up to one million pounds of  super-alloy turbine components and parts for an engine hot section, or  critical gas path, for the entire range of aircraft jet engines, marine,  aero-derivative and heavy-frame industrial turbines, including the  largest power generation engines.. The operation makes vanes, nozzles,  high-pressure turbine blades and other components using such methods as  equiaxed, directionally solidified and advanced single-crystal casting  technologies. The company is also adding a $5 million, 40,000-sq-ft production  facility to manufacture the critical ceramic cores used to cast  super-alloy turbine engine vanes and blades. Ceramic cores are used in  the investment casting process to form complex cooling passages within  the components which are necessary for the hot and highly stressed  sections of gas turbine engines to operate effectively. The addition is  slated to be operational early next year.