History
1978
June 3, 1978

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) implemented an initiative to create a national strategic resource to provide diesel engines to the South African market – Atlantis Diesel Engines (ADE).
1979
June 3, 1979
Incorporation of Finesco (Pty) Ltd – the development company tasked with the development of the ADE facility. Construction of ADE in Atlantis begins.
1980
June 3, 1980

ADE Complex comprising of two engine factories completed.
1981
June 4, 1981
Completion of the ADE machining and assembly facility with the first roll-off of “Engine Number 1”, (Picture available) Official opening of ADE Construction of Atlantis Foundry by Ferroform Durban Transport Management Board orders 150 MAN buses powered by ADE 407 engines
1982
June 4, 1982
First castings produced by the Foundry First release of ADE powered ERF model 66 truck
1984
June 4, 1984
Introduction of first Computer Aided Design drafting system Construction of Employee Housing scheme in Robinvale, Atlantis
1985
June 4, 1985
Foundry purchased from Ferroform Group and incorporated into ADE
1986
June 4, 1986
Foundry produces 45,000 castings
1987
June 4, 1987
ADE Sport Complex is opened in Atlantis
1989
June 4, 1989
6-tonne pressure pour furnace installed
1991
June 4, 1991

Construction of employee housing scheme in Westfleur, Atlantis ADE Men’s Choir wins first prize in the annual National Choir Competition held in Cape Town Launch of Bell Equipment’s articulated dump truck powered by the ADE 442 V-block engine
1992
June 4, 1992
Power House Engineering (Pty) Ltd formed as a distributer of ADE products
1994
June 4, 1994
Conversion of petrol-driven mini-bus taxis to diesel-driven engines by Power House Engineering using ADE engines ADE achieves ISO 9001certification ADE purchases ADE Reman from Probuilt NEI Africa to rebuild and recondition ADE engines already in the market
1995
June 4, 1995
ADE assembles tractors for Massey Ferguson The MAN 26.502 truck is named the most powerful truck in South Africa and is powered by an ADE engine
1996
June 4, 1996
Golden Arrow Buses replaces the engines in its 700-strong fleet with ADE 447 engines ADE is appointed as distributor in Southern Africa by Perkins UK
1997
June 4, 1997
100,000th 300 series engine is produced at ADE
1998
June 4, 1998
ADE wins contract to supply 140,000 engine blocks for Mercedes Benz passenger vehicles ADE 447 series engines are selected to power Nissan Diesel Coca Cola Delivery Trucks ADE completes delivery of 10,000 diesel engines to partner company in Cuba
1999
June 4, 1999

The foundry is acquired by DaimlerChrysler and becomes Atlantis Foundries The Foundry has an annual sales tonnage of just over 17,000 tonnes with a workforce of about 550 people
2002
June 4, 2002
DaimlerChrysler purchases the Business Park and the machining facilities
2003
June 4, 2003
3rd 10 tonne induction furnace installed to increase melting capacity
2004
June 4, 2004
Installation of first modern era core shooting machine
2006
June 4, 2006
Commencement of the Atlantis Foundries Expansion Project (AFEX) – a new fettling area, new coreshop and 2nd moulding line
2007
June 4, 2007
Start of production of new multi-stage shot blast machine
2010
June 4, 2010

Construction of the new scrap steel handling facility in Melting
2011
June 4, 2011
Addition of a 4th 10-tonne induction furnace to further increase melting capacity
2012
June 4, 2012
Record year of production to date – 60,000 tonnes cast Incorporation of robotics within the production process with the commissioning of the first two robots ‘Nizaam’, installed in the Reichmann Shotblast machine, and ‘Eben’ for automatization of core dipping
2013
June 4, 2013
Roll-out of plant-wide visual safety program Start of the Mouldline 1 upgrade and next-generation product implementation programs
2014
June 4, 2014
Addition of ‘Scarra’ to the AF robot team, a vent drilling robot on the mouldline
2015
June 4, 2015
Fire stops production for 8 days after technical failure. Nobody was injured as a result of the incident ‘Eben II’ is flown in to replace the original ‘Eben’ Installation of robot ‘Demitri’ on the Mouldline as an additional safety measure to avoid pouring of scrap moulds.
2015
June 28, 2015
Atlantis Foundries sold by Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz South Africa), to Neue Halberg-Guss GmbH
2015
June 29, 2015
79,000 tonnes cast beating the previous record set in 2012 by 19,000 tonnes.
2016
June 4, 2016
Paint for core assemblies is changed from alcohol-based to water-based, improving health and safety of our Employees and the environment
2017
June 4, 2017
Installation of Core Drilling robot ‘Cheslin’, Offloading robot ‘Caster’, and training robot ‘Robbie’ Introduction of the use of Artificial Intelligence in production to help predict and identify scrap and sub-surface defects
2018
June 4, 2018
Implementation of automatic inspection, further utilising Artificial Intelligence to improve the quality process Installation of robot ‘Steven’ to automatically mill front and rear faces of castings, reducing the fettling workload. Robot ‘Siya’ installed to automatically load and unload castings for spotting
2019
May 1, 2019
1 Millionth H-DEP Block sold ♦ Record molds produced 180k ♦ Record tons poured 100k ♦ Record quality at a customer – 2 months with zero scrap ♦ 4 melting furnaces available simultaneously for the 1st time with the completion of the “Harmonics” project ♦ New molding line control room introduced in preparation for the switch from S5 to S7 controls ♦ 5th ABP melting furnace body for quick exchange introduced ♦ Certified for ISO14000 and ISO18000
2019
April 28, 2020
Foundry of the Year award ♦ Sustainability award
2020
April 28, 2020

Newly renovated offices.