Investment Casting Plant Expansion Underway
Doncasters Precision Castings in Bochum, Germany, has started three-year, $52-million capital improvement program it reports will establish “one of the world’s most advanced facilities with the capability of producing the most complex, large industrial gas turbine castings in production today,” and also support capacity growth.
Doncasters Precision Castings-Bochum GmbH is part of the Doncasters Group Ltd., manufactures precision components and assemblies for the aerospace, IGT, automotive, petrochemical, construction, industrial, transportation, and recreation markets. The group has precision casting and investment casting plants in the U.S., U.K., and Europe.
The Bochum plant specializes in vacuum-cast turbine blades and vanes for aerospace and industrial gas turbines. It also produces the superalloys used in production of those components, and the expansion will create new employment roles in engineering, production, and finishing processes.
The work began in late 2025 to prepare for installing state-of-the-art, new directional solidification (DS) furnaces, a project that will continue into 2027.
This spring construction will begin for a new, 3,000-square-meter workshop, which will be completed by the end of 2026. The new workshop will house relocated equipment from the current work space, and will introduce new manufacturing capabilities for large cores. Doncasters aims to establish Bochum as its “center of excellence for core manufacturing.”
In mid-2027 a fully automated shell line will be installed, a project that will continue into 2028.
“Together, these developments will significantly increase capacity, strengthen capability, and position the site to capitalize on its long-term growth opportunities,” according to a company statement.