OCMA Officers, Trustees, Key Contacts, Environmental Affairs & HR Committees, and Members:

Let the "Madness" begin! By this evening we will know whether OSU knocked off favored Michigan State and increased their chances to "punch its ticket" for the NCAA tournament. Selection Sunday could be a real nail biter with several other outstanding Ohio teams preparing for the big stage including Xavier, Kent State, and possibly Dayton. Best news of all is that the tournament is starting in less than a week! If basketball is not your cup of tea, but baseball or golf is, Opening Day and The Masters is but weeks away. So what does this all add up to? A perfect segue to the upcoming OCMA annual foundry tour, always a popular event.

This year OCMA members will have the opportunity to tour the Alliance Castings Company, LLC in Alliance, Ohio on Wednesday, April 23, 2008. This green sand foundry makes side frames, bolsters, couplers, knuckles, and yokes for the railroad industry. With nearly 600 employees, the foundry uses slingers to make molds for the side frames and bolsters and jolt machines to make molds for the couplers, knuckles, and yokes. Alliance Castings Company, LLC operates a 30 ton arc furnace and melts low-carbon steel. Of major interest is the recent upgrade in the core equipment area. Formerly the foundry used eight (8) smaller cores for the side frame casting. Now the new core machine can create two (2) side frame cores in one cycle, replacing the former sixteen (16) cores. I have toured this facility a number of times and each time I have learned something new. I am sure you will enjoy it.

As with previous tours, we will tour the facility in two shifts, an AM shift and a PM shift. The AM shift will begin with an orientation meeting at 9:15 AM. Lunch for everyone will be held at the Alliance Country Club beginning at 11:30 AM. The PM shift will begin soon after the luncheon with orientation beginning at approximately 12:45 PM.

Detailed instructions concerning parking, entering the grounds and facility, a map and/or directions to the facility and to the Alliance Country Club, and other tour info will be e-mailed to meeting registrants just prior to the tour date.