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Arcast Inc
Arcast: Applying advanced melting and atomisation expertise to the production of a new generation of metal powders Arcast Inc., based in Oxford, Maine, USA, is today emerging as a leader in advanced melting and metal powder atomisation technologies, with a diverse international customer base. As Metal AM magazine reports, the company provides processing solutions for some of the most challenging alloys, as well as offering through its new venture, Arcast Materials, a range of commercially-produced metal powders.
In 2005 in the US state of Maine, Rayland O’Neal established O’Neal’s Manufacturing, a machine shop specialising in components and fabrications for the radio frequency broadcast equipment industry. After some years of initial success, it became apparent that this sector had fully matured and orders were becoming harder to come by. It was around this time that O’Neal had a conversation with his old school friend, Sasha Long, who had been working in the UK in the field of specialist vacuum furnaces and melting systems. Long had identified this as a field of burgeoning interest and activity, and persuaded O’Neal that this was an area of manufacturing that was worthy of further investigation. It quickly became apparent that the capabilities and machining skills acquired in the RF equipment business could be transferred to the manufacture of certain kinds of metallurgical process equipment. As a result, Arcast Inc. was incorporated in 2010 by O’Neal, and Long followed shortly after in partnership as its two principals.
Vol. 4 No. 4 © 2018 Inovar Communications Ltd
Early success in specialist melting systems Initially, the company strove to establish and develop a niche range of products focused on specialist metal melting furnaces. It was fortunate to win some small but important early contracts for custom metallurgical
equipment from a number of prestigious customers that included NASA and Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was this business, plus valuable development grants from the National Science Foundation and some remaining work for its RF customers, that provided initial cashflow and allowed the company to survive.
Fig. 1 View inside an Arcast atomisation chamber
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