General Motors executives announced in a press conference today the company will invest $59 million in precision sand casting technology at its Defiance, Ohio, metalcasting plant.
Addressing employees and members of the media gathered at the Tonawanda, N.Y., engine assembly plant, the executives announced a total investment of about a half a billion dollars in GM manufacturing. The Tonowanda plant will receive the lion’s share of the investment ($425 million), and GM’s Bay City, Mich., plant will receive a smaller chunk.
Eighty jobs will be created at the Defiance plant in conjunction with the investment. The metalcaster will use the funds to build engine cylinder blocks for the second generation of GM’s Ecotec engine. The engines, which should be available in GM cars in 2013, are intended to increase fuel efficiency and reduce noise.
“This is part of GM’s entirely new concept of making sure the planet is safe,” said New York Governor David Paterson. “It’s going to reclaim the U.S. as the greatest automotive producer in the world.”
GM installed precision sand casting technology at the Defiance plant in Spring 2007 with an investment of $61 million. Precision sand casting involves the pressurized filling of resin-bonded sand molds with high dimensional accuracy. In engine block building, the process allows the use of cast-in-place iron liners.
