BODINE ALUMINUM OPENS PLANT WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY
TO SUPPLY TOYOTA

Toyota City―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION announced today that Bodine Aluminum, Inc., its St. Louis-based aluminum parts-manufacturing company, officially opened a new $60-million plant today in Troy, Missouri. The facility will supply cylinder heads and intake manifolds for the Toyota Camry manufactured by Toyota Motor Manufacturing, USA, Inc. in Georgetown, Kentucky. The new plant creates 80 jobs, introduces low-pressure casting capability to Bodine, and allows Toyota to discontinue the export of two key engine parts from Japan.

Bodine Aluminum, Inc. was acquired by Toyota in 1990. Purchasing Bodine and introducing new technology is part of Toyota's effort to localize production and expand its U.S. supplier base. As low-pressure casting technology was not available from any U.S. suppliers, the decision was made to purchase an existing producer and bring the technology to the U.S.

"Using low-pressure die casting to make cylinder heads is very unusual in the U.S.," said Robert Lloyd, president of Bodine. "Building a foundry of this quality in the United States represents a significant technology infusion."

Low-pressure casting works by forcing pressurized air into a furnace chamber holding liquid aluminum at 1400 F and sits atop the furnace chamber with a formed core of sand and resin. The die forms the outside of the casting while the core forms the inside and then is removed later in the process. Rather than being poured into the die and allowing gravity to set the cast, the molten aluminum rises into the die. The benefits are a higher yield rate, higher quality, and lower cost.

Construction of the new 120,000sq.ft. facility started in the summer of 1991, with production beginning in January 1993.
The plant will begin running two shifts in May and is currently shipping about 360 castings per day, with plans to produce 900 per day by July.

Bodine's St. Louis facility will continue to supply other customers with aluminum cast parts for diesel engines, electric power generators, and other products. Although this facility does not use low-pressure casting technology, it, like the new Troy facility, is organized according to the principles of the Toyota Production System.