While working in the warehouse steel industry back in the mid '70's, I noticed there was a niche market here in the Pacific Northwest for difficult-to-find, specialty metals. This was accompanied by an appreciate customer when their requiremet was satisfied in a hassle-free environment. A loyal customer base was established and led to sales of more everyday items.

As my involvement with the foundry business grew and I became a sales engineer in the early '80's, this same niche market was evident, but on an even greater scale. The foundry where I worked specialized in steel and iron castings with a machine shop, fabrication shop, assembly and testing services. This broad scale of service exposed me to many types of manufacturing. But, we were only competitive in a few areas and non-competitive in many, many others. The company was struggling financially and I started an attempt to not say "no thank you" to any requests for quote that came in.

One of the most evident of the unmet needs (because we received many requests) was for high-volume ductile and grey iron parts for which our manual molding practices were not suited.

I located an automated molding foundry in Alberta,Canada noted for their proactive approach to developments in the industry. So began my relationship with Lethbridge Iron works of Lethbridge, Alberta.