foundry

plural foundries · alternative dated foundery

1. countableuncountableA 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.

   1 more example

   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. countableuncountableThe act, process, or art of casting metals; founding.
3. countableuncountableA 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