Tupy is a Brazilian multinational that has become a global reference in the manufacture of cast iron components. Given that they have four manufacturing plants, two of which are in Mexico, their revenue is predominantly generated from exports
83% of the revenue comes from the external market, while 17% is derived from the internal market.
Primarily, the company applies its custom cast products in agricultural and construction machinery, trucks, buses, passenger cars, engines, steel shot, and power generators. Thus, it participates in a significant portion of the tools used for enhancing the infrastructure of a building or an economy. See the origin and application of revenue below:
Origin: 64.2% NAFTA; 17% LatAm; 13.4% Europe and 5.4% others; Application: 80.5% Commercial and off-road vehicles; 13.9% Passenger cars and 5.6% Hydraulics.
In order to diversify its operational area, the corporation expands its client portfolio to globally recognized brands. Thus, its products are indirectly present in a large part of daily life and essential for human development.
Main clients: Cummins, Ford, FCA, Mercedes-Benz, Perkins, VW/Audi, Iveco, MAN, John Deere, Komatsu, Kubota, and Peugeot
The casting process
In summary, this procedure is the selection and transformation of raw materials (scrap, metal alloys, etc.) into liquid metal, followed by the formation of the metal piece with cooling, demolding, and finishing.
Iron casting flow goes through: melting, molding, pouring, finishing, machining, and core making.
First of all, the melting aims to transform scrap, pig iron, and metal alloys into cast iron alloys with chemical compositions. These materials are subjected to a series of furnaces and metamorphose into a liquid metal at temperatures above 1500ºC.
After that, the molding, where a sand aggregate is compressed into a mold to form the external shape of the product being manufactured, is performed.
Thirdly, the core making, which consists of the process of creating sand molds that will structure the interior of the piece, occurs, thus the male molds give shape to the internal cavities of the final product.
Next comes the pouring, with the molds already assembled, the cast iron alloy is poured into the mold to fill all the empty space there. After pouring, time is allowed for the cooling of the piece followed by demolding.
Subsequently, the finishing uses steel shot to clean the interior and exterior of the component, burrs are removed with metallic abrasives and finally all tests are performed according to the requirements of the company and the client, such as: X-ray, dimensional inspection, ultrasound, acoustic resonance, and hardness.
Finally, comes the machining performed either at Tupy or at the client, where the dimensions and geometry of the final product and its assembly are checked.
Images of the melting, core making, machining, pouring, and finishing processes
Albano Schmidt, Hermann Metz, and Arno Schwarz founded Tupy on March 9, 1938; before that, they all had an intimate connection with iron artifacts. Ten years before the foundation, Albano challenged his companions to discover the formula for malleable cast iron, after several attempts and errors, even without laboratories or manuals, they took only 7 years to achieve the goal.
Shortly after that, they used the same facility to manufacture the first connections branded with the company's name.
First building of the company and the loading of connections for maritime transport
Seeing the significant increase in demand in the country and already becoming a sales leader, it was necessary to construct a new headquarters migrated in 1954. This change ended up giving the city of Joinville a new neighborhood around the headquarters, today this locality is one of the most populous in the city.
After Albano's death in 1958, the presidency was transferred to his son, who with an innovative vision created the Tupy Technical School with the aim of creating qualified labor to meet the new challenges presented by the market.
Aerial view of the headquarters and the technical school.
With the growth of the automotive market and the first contract closed in this sector, the second foundry unit emerged in 1963 with the exclusive purpose of producing automotive parts. Soon after, in 1972, the company's first Research Center was created, giving it an extraordinary vocation to operate in the automotive sector, a business that occupies 60% of revenue even today.
Also in the 1970s, the company began exporting its products to South American and European countries, and from 1976 the company established offices in the United States and Germany.
In 1995, 14 years after the death of its second president, the company ceased to be a family business and its control passed to a group of pension funds and banks. With this, the company began to focus all its efforts on exports, consolidating itself in the global market.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the company had to adapt to new regulations and manage its environmental impact; years later, it managed to master the process of using vermicular cast iron, which allows large-scale production of engine blocks, making this the flagship product of Tupy.
In 2012, the company acquired two foundries in Mexico and expanded its components for agricultural, construction, and mining machinery.
Foundries in Mexico, Saltillo and Ramos Arizpe
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