( ♪ music playing ♪ )
John: Well we are so thrilled that
you're still with us today here at Ship Shape TV.
Where we've been showing how to put
in a thru-hull fitting.
And it's essential that you let that
polyurethane adhesive setup,
prior to cranking down
on that flange nut.
And rather than having idle time what
we've done is we've changed locations
on you. We're now down in
Miami, Florida at the world's largest manufacturer
of marine hardware.
And we're at PERKO Inc. with
my good friend, Fred Perkins.
Hello, Fred.
Fred: Welcome to PERKO.
John: Thank you so much for the invitation.
Now I understand that somebody is going to
be giving me a factory tour.
Who is that individual and what's
he gonna show me.
Fred: His name is Wolf Henning and he's
gonna be showing you the casting process,
the plating process and I think
you'll find it just fascinating.
John: Again, thank you for the invite.
Fred: You're certainly welcome, and we're
glad to have you here at PERKO.
Wolf: John, what we have here is a PERKO No. 6
thru-hull fitting.
Marie behind us here
is machining the head of the
thru-hull fitting. She's machining off
the parting line flash.
Putting a nice smooth finish on the
head. Then she turns it around and
machines the end off.
John: Here at PERKO, you guys have
a foundry.
And it's a special type of foundry,
what's the real name of it?
Wolf: It's a non-ferrous foundry.
John: Okay.
Wolf: Where we pour brass,
manganese and aluminum.
John: Very good.
Now this is actually an alloy,
and let's talk about the
ingot that you're getting.
Naturally, it'd be bronze ingots.
And those need to get melted down.
But what do you add to the bronze
in order to give you something that's gonna
hold up in saltwater and freshwater.
Wolf: At the time that we melt the ingot,
we add pure zinc to it.
Which helps us get rid of some of the
impurities in the metal that float
to the surface and get stripped off.
John: How do you actually make the part?
Where does it begin?
Wolf: We start out by making the core
which forms the inside of the part.
The core is made on a core machine
in a core box.
The core box is heated up to about
600 degrees.
The sand is blown up inside
into core box. Where the
600 degrees "pures" the sand.
John: What kind of sand are you using?
Wolf: It's a silica sand, with a binder in it.
John: Okay.
Wolf: And the sand is cured
under the high temperature.
The core boxes open up and the cores
are removed. The cores cool down
and then they're used in the
molds to form the inside of the part.
John: Okay so you need to have a mold when
you're making castings.
But you also need to have some
type of a pattern?
Wolf: Yes.
John: What's that made out of?
Wolf: The patterns are made out of aluminum.
They're using multiple impressions on the pattern.
In this particular case there are
six impressions on the pattern.
Half of the part is on the top of the
pattern and the other half is on the bottom of the pattern.
John: So the same pattern is making
both sides to the mold.
There's two parts to a mold,
that have to come together.
Wolf: Correct.
John: What type of sand do you use in the foundry?
Wolf: We use an olivine sand
with a grey binder in it.
The sand is about 110 grit.
John: So the sand gets compacted,
and what do you do? Do you place the core
into the mold at this point?
Wolf: Well the sand gets compacted
into two halves and the mold separates.
The pattern doesn't move from
between the two halves. And then the core
are set into the mold.
The mold is then put back together again.
The two halves are put back together and they're
shuttled down the conveyor to the pouring station.
John: Let's talk about the pouring station
You've got all of this metal
heated up in a melting pot -
it's actually called a crucible right?
Wolf: Correct.
John: How do you get this molten
metal, from the melting pot
from where it's heated up.
Over to the pour station where
you're pouring it into the mold.
Wolf: We use an induction furnace.
The crucible is about 300 pounds,
heated up to about 2100 degrees.
From there it's conveyed to the
pouring station by an air hoist.
John: Now your pouring multiple molds at this point.
And how long does it take to
cool down to where you actually
have some resemblance of a part?
Wolf: It takes about 45 minutes,
before the mold hits their shakeout
where we can take the parts out.
At that time they're still very hot.
John: How do you break
the thru-hull from...
...what do you call it that's holding
all the pieces together?
Wolf: The parts are held on a runner and gate system.
John: Okay.
Wolf: And the thru-hull system
the gates are very thin and we could
break them off by hand.
John: Now with a mallet you're kind of
breaking these things off.
Wolf: Right.
John: From that point, it comes over here
to the machining area.
Wolf: Correct.
John: And you mill the face
on the thru-hull fitting,
you mill the backside.
Where does the threads actually get
cut into the thru-hull?
Wolf: The threads are cut into another
on another machining center.
Where they first take a skin cut off
to remove the skin.
And then there's the threading tool which
cuts the thread into their offset.
John: Hey right now we need to take another timeout
but keep it right here because when we come back,
we will go through the plating process.
And this is very fascinating!
We'll cover it, right after this.