Published February 2002

Foundry plays role
in Olympics

By Todd C. Frankel
Herald Writer

A Marysville company’s handiwork is now part of Olympic history.

As the Olympic torch made its way across the country for the 2002 Winter Games, SeaCast Inc.’s castings were along for the journey.

The foundry, which employs 50, ran 24 hours a day for three months to make 16,500 aluminum torch midsections.

Those castings were topped with a glass crown and given a plastic tail to comprise the familiar Olympic icon for the Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“This is by far one of the most visible projects we’ve ever done,” said Computer Systems Manager Paco Joyce.

For a business that usually makes obscure metal parts for the Boeing 747 and the lumber and mining industries, the torch has caused considerable excitement at SeaCast’s offices.

SeaCast’s road to the Olympics began in late July when it was contacted by the Coleman Co. of Wichita, Kan. (the cooler and camping company), about making the torch midsections. SeaCast was given the job after three foundries submitted prototypes.

Making the 18-inch-long tubes was not easy. The foundry uses a time-consuming process called investment casting, or lost-wax process, that begins with a three-dimensional computer drawing that is carved into two metal blocks by a computer-guided machine. Each block represents half the torch.

The blocks are strapped together. An orange wax is injected in between the blocks to create something “almost like a Jell-O mold,” Joyce said.

The hard-wax torches then are dipped into vats of liquid ceramic and silica sand in groups of four. This process is repeated seven times until a hard shell forms. The dried molds are put into ovens at 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, fusing the sand and ceramic.

The molds head to a kiln, where the wax drips out — thus, the lost-wax process. Then the void is filled with liquid aluminum and allowed to harden. The ceramic mold is broken off, revealing a torch with exacting detail.

As the weeks passed and the workers rushed to get the torches finished in time for the nationwide torch relay, there were some nervous faces at SeaCast.

“We were worried about delaying the Olympics,” Joyce said with a smile.

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