The Ford Meter Box Company, Inc.

Preparing for The Next 100 Years
Many foundries operate as job shops producing castings for a number of different customers and markets. It’s always a challenge to meet the changing needs of these growing customers, and as an owner or foundry manager, you may feel it would be simpler to be a captive foundry where you have better control of your casting design and production. The following is a brief overview of one such captive foundry, located in the heart of America, and how it has grown to celebrate its 100 th birthday and how it’s preparing for the next 100 years.

The Original Design of the First Water Meter Pit
When Edwin H. Ford was Superintendent of the water works in Hartford City, in 1898, he found the city faced shortages caused by excessive use of water. Ford solved the problem by designing a new in-ground meter box. He dug test pits in the backyard of his home and recorded the temperature at various depths throughout the winter.

The meter box design he developed in 1898 included a hat shaped cover over a tile pipe, which contained the buried meter. A double lid created a dead air space as an insulator to reduce heat loss. Over time, this design has been modified, however, the basic concepts are unchanged from Edwin’s original design.

Orders for the Ford box started slowly, however, word spread and by the early 1900’s municipalities across the country were ordering material from Ford. The business quickly out grew the basement space and since has grown to now occupy more than 500,000 square feet of office, manufacturing and warehouse space.

The Original Design Evolves Into Other Products
The original meter box designed by Edwin Ford was followed by many other innovative products for the water works business. By 1910, Edwin invented and patented the work lock for meter box lids and the wedge type yoke, which aided in meter installation and removal. Edwin continued his pursuit of solving problems in the water work business and between 1916 and 1929, nine patents were granted to Edwin for a variety of new products.

New Brass Foundry Started
As the Ford Meter Box line of products grew, so did the need to control the procurement of parts and materials. In 1914, the foundry was established to produce castings to meet the needs of the growing company. These castings were made from “water works” brass or “red” brass. Today, Ford Metter Box continues to pour 85-5-5-5 water works brass.

Custom Design Not A New Idea
During the early growth years, when calling on potential customers, many times Ford found he had no product to offer that would meet local conditions. He would then custom design a product that would solve the utilities’ problem. He’d make a sample of the new design and usually return with the order. That heritage of custom service is still part of the company’s philosophy. In the mid-fifties Ford introduced the Pack Joint compression coupling as a way to connect service line piping without flaring and threading. Today, the Pack Joint system is found on every style of valve meter setting, or coupling that Ford offers. The early sixties saw the introduction of the Ball Valve to the waterworks’ brass market. This valve is easy to turn and withstands very high working and test pressures. The Ball Valve replaced the key valve and is now used for every conceivable valving needed.

Innovation Results In A Vast Array Of Plumbing Products
Edwin Ford and his sons continued to design and develop water-handling products to solve specific needs. For example, to support and position meters in indoor plumbing or outdoor pits, the firm created machines and manufacturing techniques for producing Copperhorns and Coppersetters. Today, Ford is the largest producer of copper meter setters in the industry. The latest in Ford’s vast array of new products include pipe repair clamps, casting coupling saddles, flanged coupling adapters, and stainless steel tapping sleeves. Through it tradition of designing and developing products to solve a customer’s specific problem, the firm now manufactures over 30,000 different water handling or flow control devices.

Foundry… A Key Part Of The Manufacturing Process
According to Mike Jones, Foundry Manager, “The firm has continued to grow its captive foundry processes to meet the highest standards of product quality. We feel the foundry is the basis of any good manufacturing organization… you have to have a good foundry. You can see by our investment in the foundry operations that we really believe this. The firm now has four automatic molding lines, two new Roberts Sinto Flaskless Molding Machines and two Harrison Molding Machines. The Roberts Sinto FBO-II Flaskless Molding Machines also utilize customized, automated molding equipment. These highly automated systems provide us with the flexibility we need to meet our wide variety of casting requirements. All of our in-house castings are produced in red brass, which is a very durable material that will stand up to severe environmental conditions. We have over 2000 patterns, and a large percentage of them are multi-part patterns. We are producing 135 molds per hour on each of the Roberts Sinto Flaskless Molding Machines. We also have eleven manual jolt squeeze machines that we use for specific jobs that do not lend themselves to automated operations.

Raw Material In, Finished Products Out
The raw green sand is transported by conveyor over the top of the new FBO-II and dropped into the machine from above. The green sand molds are formed and discharged onto 116 mold cars where hot, red brass is poured into each mold. From there, the cars go through a cooling operation and are then discharged to a series of shake-out conveyors that separate the brass castings from the sand. The raw castings are placed on a round conveyor where the parts are separated by hand from the brass stem. Finally, the stem and brass scrap are placed on another conveyor and are recycled to the melting furnace where the brass is heated to 2300 degrees and used as melt for future castings. From the casting line the raw castings are sent to a wide variety of automated CNC machines, thread making machines and other manual or automated equipment that make the necessary design enhancements for each product. The castings are sold as parts or multi-component assemblies for a wide variety of products.”

Technology… Preparing For The Next Millennium
David Kunkel, Vice President of Manufacturing for the Ford Meter Box said, “In planning for our next hundred years, first we have to look at technology. For example, we have always used tight flask molding. We had never found a flaskless molding system that met our quality criteria for sand castings. When we first saw the Robert Sinto FBO-II Flaskless Molding Machine at CastExpo, we were so impressed we would have bought it on the spot if we knew where we were going to put it. As soon as we had the first FBO-II in and operating, we ordered the second FBO-II, so that speaks for itself. New technology is always going to be important for growth at Ford Meter Box.”

The Future Will Depend Upon Our People Kunkle continued, “Our employees are very important to our continued growth. It’s the people on the production line that make the product, and they are very skilled at it. That’s what keeps everything working. We have a completely outfitted employee workout room with all kinds of athletic equipment for weight training and aerobic exercise. The majority of people work on an incentive basis and have for over 30 years. We also have a number of employee benefit programs. We feel it’s like getting married when you come to work here; it’s for the long term. There is one employee that’s retiring after nearly 40 years of service and he is not our senior employee. You can see our employees are our strength for the future. They are going to help us grow for the next 100 years.”

Company: The Ford Meter Box Company, Inc.
Location: Wabash, IN
Management: David Kunkel, Vice President Manufacturing; Mike Jones, Foundry Manager
Owner: Descendants of Edwin Ford
Employees: 735
Plant Size: 500,000 sq ft.
Products: Flow control devices
Markets: Municipalities in U.S., Canada and International
Type of Process: Green Sand
Automatic Molding Equipment: (2) Roberts Sinto Flaskless Molding Machines with automated mold handling equipment; (2) Harrison Molding Machines; (11) manual jolt squeeze machines
Pattern Size: 14” x 19”
Metal Poured: Red Brass