The machine shop is Viking Pump’s largest facility. Since its opening in 1960, the shop has undergone multiple expansions and has now grown to 320 thousand square feet. Today this facility houses many departments including machining, tooling, assembly, paint, shipping, quality, procurement and planning. In the machine shop, parts are machined from castings and bar stock. Dimensions, especially those inside the pump cavity, must be precise to ensure the pumps operate efficiently and are capable of high pressures and self-priming.

Located on Viking Road in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park, the 78,000 square foot facility is used to produce gray iron, carbon steel, 316 stainless steel, and 770 non-galling stainless steel. 
In a foundry, parts are cast by pouring molten metal into a hollow mold. To create a mold, core and mold technicians pull patterns for the various cast parts. Each pattern is a template for one side of one or more parts. Sand is compressed against the plate and when the plate is removed the shape of the part remains and half of a mold is created. 

Let's start with Texas. Whether you’re in Houston, or Dallas, or West Texas, it’s impossible to get away from Viking pumps used in the petroleum industry. Certainly you’ll find Viking pumps for crude oil here, but also at the finished end of the process helping to manufacture a variety of lube oil blends from conventional motor oil to full synthetics, to special blends for colder environments, high mileage engines, marine, aviation, and dozens of other specialty applications. South Carolina’s textile industry is older than the US itself.

Since our founding in 1911, Viking Pump has built over 7,000,000 pumps and supplied them to customers all over the world. These pumps handle the broadest range of liquids in the industry. We’ve prepared a listing of 50 Viking pump applications, tying each to a state where this application can commonly be found. In our fifth episode, let’s explore Viking Pump applications in New Mexico, Massachusetts, Alaska, Kansas, and Oregon.