Paul Robbins

Castool is a knowledge-based company that provides production tooling and technical advice to leading aluminum extruders and die casters, as well as die casting equipment and extrusion equipment throughout the world. Located near Toronto, Castool today exports more than 90% of its sales. Its customers include extruders and die casters in Western Europe and the Orient, as well as the US, Mexico, and South America. For many years, Castool has been a major influence in the evolution of both light metal extrusion and die casting. In extrusion, Castool pioneered both the fixed dummy block and the single cell die oven; and in die casting, successfully promoted the thermally and dimensionally stable shot sleeve and plunger tip, and also the vacuum system. Castool's single most important contribution to the two industries it serves is likely its introduction of the System Approach to production. The essence of Castool's System Approach is that in any production process, if two or more components work together to perform a single function, the effectiveness of none can be credibly evaluated in isolation. Properly employed, this holistic approach to production has proven to invariably increase productivity. It is now profitably used by many large extruders and die casters globally. The ultimate production system will have all major interacting components designed and produced by the same supplier. This will provide the unique benefits of undivided responsibility. With Castool, this is now possible.