foundry
noun/ˈfaʊn.dɹi/
Etymology From French fonderie. By surface analysis, found (“to melt (metals)”) + -ry (“place; process”).
1
A facility that melts metals in special furnaces and pours the molten metal into molds to make products. Foundries are usually specified according to the type of metal dealt with: iron foundry, brass foundry, etc.
- So after learning a great deal about iron founding and much more about pike fishing, one regretfully took leave of a shop full of kindly characters and proceeded to a worse lot of odours in the brass foundry. […] So after a short spell in the brass foundry the wisest course was to follow with a similar period in the steel foundry, where much important work was done, including the manufacture of centres for wheels.1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 343:
2
The act, process, or art of casting metals; founding.
3
A plant that produces chips out of semiconductors in the microelectronics industry.
- Chang gained trust by allaying fears that TSMC would steal designs, as pure-play foundries have no use of them; TSMC stealing from chip designers would be like a printing press stealing plots from novelists.2023 March 21, Virginia Heffernan, “I Saw the Face of God in a Semiconductor Factory”, in WIRED:
- Synonyms
- fab
- Derived terms
- foundryman, foundrywoman, type foundry