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| Standard Steel LLC: First-Class Forging |
 Sandard Steel’s customers include major Class-1 railroads in North America, freight railcar builders, railcar and locomotive maintenance shops, locomotive builders and regional transit authorities.
Standard Steel LLC is a leading manufacturer of forged steel wheels and axles for freight railcars, locomotives and passenger railcars. It is the only producer of forged steel wheels for railcars and locomotives in North America. Its customers include major Class-1 railroads in North America, freight railcar builders, railcar and locomotive maintenance shops, locomotive builders and regional transit authorities. Standard Steel is headquartered in Pittsburgh with its manufacturing operations in Burnham, Pa. The company’s manufacturing plant is currently operating at full capacity for both wheel and axle production and employs approximately 600 people. The company was founded as Freedom Forge in 1795, manufacturing iron bars and rods, and is likely the oldest continuously operating forging company in America. Over more than two centuries, the company has survived some tough times. The worst came in 2001, when operating as Freedom Forge, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In 2002, Farrell and Co. and CCIL – an affiliate of Citicorp Venture Capital – purchased the company out of bankruptcy and renamed it Standard Steel LLC. Subsequently, Standard Steel exited the commercial ring rolling and steel ingot businesses, and sold its Latrobe, Pa., plant, choosing to focus production at its Burnham plant only and on its most significant market – the railway industry. In 2006, the company was acquired by Trimaran Capital Partners and Farrell and Co. In 1904, the company produced the first solid forged and rolled wheel in the United States. In 1911, the company developed a rolled steel center for bolted-type tires. In 1926, it introduced a slow cooling process to reduce susceptibility to internal stress fractures. Four years later, the company introduced the Freedom Wheel, the industry’s first heat-treated railroad wheel. Freedom Forge modernized its wheel shop in 1982 when the S-Plate Wheel was introduced, but shortly after celebrating its 200th anniversary in 1995, the company decided the shop needed another overhaul. The overhaul began with replacing a 1917 vintage wheel mill, which was no longer efficient, despite upgrades over more than 80 years. The state-of-the-art, computer-controlled, wheel rolling mill is capable of producing the world’s most precise forged railroad wheel, the company says. Many other improvements were installed, ranging from the sawing of ingots through forging and rolling to quality control. The final step in the modernization was the world’s first phased-array ultrasonic inspection system for railroad wheel rims. Along with the operations overhaul, the company, in 1999, replaced its aging mainframe systems with a new-generation system that would provide integrated support for the entire enterprise, including: Designs for its wheel products are developed with the aid of computer-based finite element analysis. Standard Steel is a fully integrated manufacturer with control of its products from melting through machining and inspection. Products are produced to AAR M1003 and ISO 9001 certifications. The company melts 225,000 tons of steel annually and produces 86,000 railway axles annually. Included in the investment were new, higher horsepower band saws for cutting ingots, installation of more efficient robotics that move forged wheels through the process, new controls on the wheel rolling mill, and a state-of-the-art in-line wheel heat treating facility. Also included were new machining and inspection lines to handle the additional wheel output. |
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