Castings, and the patterns that outlive them
Grey and ductile iron from 2 to 900 kilograms, poured to your drawing, with the pattern held here and versioned so a re-run fifteen years later is a telephone call rather than a project.
What the works actually does
Five things, and the last two are the reason customers stay rather than the reason they arrive.
Grey and ductile iron, 2 to 900 kg
One cupola and two induction furnaces. Anything above 900 kg we will name two foundries for rather than take on a job the crane cannot lift safely.
Machining, in the same building
Rough and finish machining on the castings we pour, so a dimensional query has one owner rather than two.
Poured-heat certificate
Chemistry against the heat your part came from, with the despatch note. Not a typical analysis and not last month’s.
Pattern storage, indefinite
Held here, insured, versioned and free. A pattern in your own store is a pattern nobody can say the revision of.
Nine hundred patterns, and we know whose each is
Every pattern that has run here is held, tagged with its owner and its revision, and photographed on the shelf it sits on. Ownership does not transfer — a pattern you paid for is yours whether or not you have ordered from us this decade, and we will crate it and send it if you ask.
How a casting runs
Four steps, and the first one is where most jobs change shape.
Castability review
Section changes, draft and feeding, against your drawing. Roughly a third of first drawings come back with a change proposed, and the change is usually cheaper than the yield loss it avoids.
Pattern
New, or pulled from the store if we already hold one. A pattern already here is the difference between four weeks and four days, which is worth asking about before you commission a new one.
Pour and shake out
Heat chemistry recorded against the lot before it goes in the ladle. That record is what the certificate is written from — it is not compiled afterwards.
Fettle, machine and despatch
Dimensional check against the drawing on the first piece off each pattern, every run. Not only the first run — patterns wear.
The works, counted
Four things a pouring log and a shelf register can settle.
Send a drawing
Material, weight and annual quantity with it. If we already hold a pattern for something like it we will say so, which occasionally makes the job a quarter of the price.
