An official of a local major manufacturing industry hopes the economy will improve when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.

"We are down to about 100 employees, and we''re as low as we''ve ever been," said Garry Hayes, general manager for American Foundry Group. 

Hayes said the foundry had employed up to 200 people last year. The skills of their employees range from basic labor to degreed metallurgists.

AFG has the capability to make standard, commercial grade castings all the way up to Class 1 for nuclear power plants and nuclear facilities, Hayes said.

"Our biggest competitor is not foundries in Missouri and California but those in China, India and Mexico," he said. "We can compete with anybody in the U.S."

Being tied to an oil and gas economy hurts especially when a barrel of oil is at $45, Hayes said. When a barrel of oil cost $60 about two years ago, oil companies were drilling and ordering valves from AFG, and they were hiring more people.

"We do have good indications from some of our customers that their inventory is getting low eventually leading to orders," Hayes said. "The economy should be coming around ... but our crystal ball is not better than others."

The privately owned company is known in the industry as providing pressure-containing products, and they make a lot of valves, Hayes said. And it''s not just the gas and oil industry they service. AFG also provides their goods to the pharmaceutical, water and chemical industries and provide ground engaging tools for the mining and construction industries.

Sitting on about 15 acres, AFG has two buildings totaling 200,000 square feet. The corporate office and two other foundries are located in Bixby. AFG is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

AFG possesses up to 30,000 different patterns of valves and other products they produce for different industries. All the patterns are owned by their customers. They can produce castings from 100 pounds up to 5,000 pounds and can make up to 30,000 different parts, Hayes said. 

The heart of AFG is their foundry operations, overseen by Angel Larios, foundry superintendent. 

Steel is brought to a temperature of 2,900 degrees Fahrenheit that makes it molten and is poured into a "tea pot" that holds more than 5,000 pounds. 

"We have about five minutes to pour before it starts to lose heat and the metal starts getting solid," Larios said.

After the tea pot is filled, which takes about 20 seconds, two inches of basic insulation are laid atop the container to prevent heat loss. In an average day using one shift, the company produces up to 30,000 pounds of molten steel that is poured into castings. With two shifts, about 50,000 pounds would be produced.

The pot is then transferred down 150 feet by an overhead system to the casting department where the liquid is poured into sand molds that are connected to the cast. The cast is actually filled from the bottom up. After a 24-hour cooling period the molds are removed and the sand is recycled.

AFG has their own machining shop. 

"What we can''t do, we farm out," Hayes said. 

Employees can file burrs off a chrome moly nickel valve destined for a highly corrosive environment and is very expensive, he said.

If no machining is required, the company can get a product out within five weeks — up to 15 weeks if machining is required. 

All finished castings are inspected and certified to meet required specifications, from machining, hydro testing, and light assembly, AFG assures that each part is dimensionally accurate, according to the company''s website.

The company has turned to technology to ensure the highest degree of accuracy in meeting customer''s specifications. A coordinates measuring machine is computer driven and replaces a full-time inspector using micronometers and calipers.

Charles McAfee, quality engineer, said it would probably take three-and-a-half hours to "lay out" a product ensuring its technical specifications are accurate. The coordinates measuring machine can do the whole thing in 30 minutes. 

"CMM eliminates the human element thereby reducing variables and costs," McAfee said. "Customers are more comfortable with results from CMM." 

Hayes summed up the foundry''s operation.

"We cast it, inspect it, machine it, inspect it and ship it," he said.

-The 18th Guangzhou Die-casting, Foundry & Industry Furnace Exhibition