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Diffuser Plays Role in Protecting New Orleans Against Floods


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hould New Orleans be hit again with a massive flood, 57-ton castings will play a role in keeping the destruc- tive waters at bay. St. Marys


Foundry, St. Marys, Ohio, is producing 11 diffuser castings for what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is calling the world’s largest drainage pump station. The station is designed to handle the amount of water associated with a 100-year-flood (the highest level of floodwaters a city can expect to see on average once every 100 years). “This project has been good for us


on a number of levels,” said St. Marys Foundry President and CEO Angela Dine Molaskey. “It definitely increases the intensity of your teamwork when you are part of something that could save lives and an entire city.” Each diffuser casting is produced in


60-40-18 ductile iron and measures 12 ft. in diameter and 9 ft. tall—the largest ductile iron castings St. Marys Foundry has produced. “We make diffusers for other cus-


tomers but nothing this large,” said Terry Lenhart, vice president of opera- tions. “We made some modifications to the facility to handle the load, like increasing our crane capacity.” The castings must pass hydro testing


for leaks—the parts will be handling a pumping rate of 150,000 gallons of floodwater per second. To promote the flow of water, the interior walls of the part also must achieve a C40 surface standard, which Lenhart describes as a little rougher than the texture of a worn emery board. “In order to achieve that surface finish,


we designed the tooling and coreboxes in such a way to help ensure a smooth finish on the flow surfaces,” Lenhart said. Each 57,000-lb. casting features sev-


en vanes, which are 4 in. thick, tapering to 1 in. The complex casting requires 24 cores per part. The cores take four days to produce, and the mold takes four days to assemble. Both cores and molds are produced in nobake sand. “The diffuser is not the easiest cast-


ing to make because of the curvature of the vanes,” Lenhart said. “Section size variations create issues with solidifica- tion. We ran a solidification model in Solidcast on this casting to prove out the tooling design.” Cast in a 20 x 20 x 15-ft. pit, each


diffuser requires 74,000 lbs. of poured ductile iron. The casting is removed from the mold after 10 days of cooling. St. Marys Foundry plans to cast the


final diffuser early this fall. Five as- semblies with the diffuser casting are already at the job site in Louisiana wait- ing for installation. The Army Corps of Engineers reported it plans to complete the entire $500 million pumping station by July 2011.


METAL


Visit www.stmfoundry.com for more information.


A few of the diffuser castings already have been installed into pump assemblies.


50 Metal Casting Design & PurChasing


Each casting features seven fins with sections that taper from 4 in. to 1 in. The casting required 24 cores.


sePteMber/OCtOber 2010


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