each of the following areas: • Sales and Account Management • Engineering Services • Sand System Control • Melting and Pouring Control • Cleaning • Heat Treat Control • Quality Management • Value Added Services


Designing Success— ADI Lawnmower Axle


Ductile Iron Society


A customer of Farrar Corp., Norwich, Kan., wanted a cast lawnmower axle that would reduce noise, offer a three-year warranty (at an average of 1,000 hours/year), fit within the same space and use the same mounting as its prede- cessor, improve quality and per- formance, and be produced in a material that was as good or better than the original. The original part, a multi-piece


80-55-06 steel axle with induction- hardened teeth, required expensive heat treat tooling and allowed exces- sive wear at the bearing locations. Because the manufacturer was not performing the heat treatment in house, the lead time also was el- evated. The solution was to produce a grade 4 ADI axle, with the assembled cluster converted to a single piece. The part was able to hold 0.01-in. tolerances between the axle and gear, eliminated axle wear, reduced costs and shortened lead times.


Identifying a Candidate for Conversion to Casting


Robert Mueller Jr., P&H Mining Equipment


The first step to finding candi-


dates for conversion to casting is to look for complex fabrications, heat treated fabrications, exces- sive machining, unreliable parts and expensive parts. Complex fabrications will have multiple components, bent plates and long lead times. Parts that require exces- sive machining can be produced in the casting process to near net shape with raised bosses and profiled surfaces.


46 Metal Casting Design anD PurChasing May/June 2010


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