Pump and valve manufacturer KSB Group (Frankenthal, Germany; www.ksb.com) is investing about $75 million in its U.S. site in Grovetown, Ga., of which $40 million are going to the new foundry.
Investments in the KSB subsidiary GIW Industries are to prime the site to meet the mining industry’s rising global demand for white cast iron pumps.
The new facility has been fully operational since this summer and extends to about 4,650 square metres. It houses new heat-treatment and melting furnaces, sand silos and six cranes. The production building is particularly suited to make components for the large slurry pumps manufactured at the site. The new foundry’s capacity exceeds 9,000 tons of castings per year, with some of them weighing up to 20 tons.
At the Grovetown and Thomson sites, GIW Industries manufactures mostly heavy-duty pumps and associated equipment for the mining industry. The centrifugal pumps are built to transport a mix of rocks and water and are used in various settings, ranging from mineral processing to waste water treatment.