Passersby in downtown Perry Tuesday afternoon might have seen the enormous crane towering over the local landscape at Second and Bateman streets.
Doug Six, plant engineer at the Progressive Foundry Inc., said the crane was brought in to help install new cooling fans on the roof of the 66,700-square-foot factory at 1518 First Ave. in Perry.
“I’m not sure how much boon he had out, but I’m guessing it was over 175 foot,” Six said. “The units don’t weigh much at all, but because they’re located out quite a distance from the edge of the building, we have to have a big crane like that to boom out and safely carry the load.”
When you are melting scrap iron at a temperature of 2,750 degrees, controlling your coolant is crucial, he said.
“With our melt system, it’s all water cooled,” Six said, “so the coolant that’s in the melt system, we have to cool it before it can come back down and be recirculated, so all those dry-air coolers are located up on the roof. We had a couple that we were replacing, and then we added some capacity also.”
With about 70 employees using two Inductotherm heating furnaces and a 12.5 ton induction-powered holding furnace, the Progressive Foundry Inc. pours up to 95 tons of cast iron daily, producing such diverse products as agricultural implements, electric motors and pumps, hydrants, food disposals, conveyor systems, lifting equipment and others.
