Centre Foundry

Centre Foundry is an affiliate company of privately owned DKM Corporation out of New York. Our company has been in existence for over one-hundred seventy years and has kept up with the latest trends and production practices in the gray iron casting industry. Our castings serve the specialty steel industry and alloy producers. We pride ourselves on being a versatile company with quality expectations that are second to none. The quality of our product plays a vital role in a shared success with our customers. We look forward to work with you and your company’s gray iron casting needs.

Facilities

One hundred thousand square foot foundry situated north of Wheeling, West Virginia. The foundry is equipped with a 100% no-bake sand system supported by two continuous sand mixers, and three molding pits.  We use a sand reclamation system which allows us to reprocess our sand and condition it to ensure optimal performance.
We have two operational Ajax channel induction furnaces of 55 tons capacity, each accompanied by three separate casting pits, all at different depths. Our largest casting pit is capable of pouring an ingot mold up to 200 inches in height. Our facility allows us to produce in excess of 100 tons per day. Pattern shop, spectrometer and modern laboratory facilities are on hand to ensure consistency.

Capabilities

While ingot molds, stools, and bottom pour equipment is the basic shop load, Centre Foundry has long been the leader in producing chill pans, chill bases, slag pots, slag runners, and other casting for the steel and Ferro-alloy producers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. We are able to produce all castings up to 55 net tons, 200 inches in height, slag pots that range from 5 to 330 cubic feet, and no restrictions on sprue plates other than weight.

History

The earliest recorded information about Centre Foundry is found 21 years before the Civil War. In 1840, James and H. Andrew Baggs jointly owned a business call Baggs Foundry. The foundry was erected in Ohio County, Virginia. The business was devoted largely to the production of cast iron heating stoves, grates for steam boilers, and similar small iron castings. At this time the foundry employed ten people.

The Company was then purchased by the Alexander J. Cecil and his brother Charles and John Young (shown at left) in 1855. They changed the company name to Cecil & Company and kept that name for ten years until they changed the name to Centre Foundry 1860. This was appropriate because the plant was then located at 25th and 27th Main Street, Wheeling, VA in the Centre Magisterial District of Ohio County.

1875

Found concern to enter in the business of producing nail machines, rolling mill machinery, and parts for the nail and steel industry. The second source of business was off of the Ohio River. Steamboat owners depended on the foundry for the repair of parts to keep their craft plying the river with heavy tonnages of nails, steel, coal, and other products of the Ohio Valley’s growing industries.

1881

Centre Foundry & Machine Company became the first incorporated business in Ohio County.

1923-1927

Outgrew the facility and moved to present location on an eleven acre tract in the Warwood section of Wheeling.

1970 - 1972

Centre was producing ingot molds ranging to 50 tons. The product line started to introduce Ferro-alloy chills, slag pots, blast furnace runners and cooling plates and other specialty castings for the thriving steel industry. With a new product line, here at Centre Foundry we wanted to ensure quality workmanship was being practiced from molding to cleaning, so Centre opened its own laboratory facility.

1973

Centre Foundry purchased two Ajax 2000 – 2500 KW channel induction furnaces. The furnaces are clean melting and emit no effluents. This also allowed the plant to meet the high quality analysis requirements of the customers

1979

Centre Foundry & Machine Company and its subsidiary Washington Mould were sold to Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation

1990’s to Today

Centre Foundry & Machine Company made its first foreign export shipment. In the 1990’s the majority of customers were in a 300 mile radius.

Today, Centre Foundry strives to maintain its focus on satisfying the specialty steel industry and alloy producers with quality gray iron castings.