A Bread and Butter Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
T
he Castings of the Year are spectac- ular. They are de- sign and manu- facturing achieve-
ments that set the standard for future applications (see feature article on p. 22). The stator housing re-
quires complex core assem- blies and a unique casting process to meet the tight specifications demanded by the customer. The sup- port bracket demonstrates the opportunities and cost- effectiveness that can be achieved with metalcasting compared to fabricating. While these two castings
are stars of manufacturing, another feature article in this issue, “Besler Industries Puts Pricey Part to Pasture” on p. 32, presents a differ- ent side of metalcasting. This side is a little less sexy than our Castings of the Year. The component in the article will never be clas- sifi ed as cutting-edge, but ultimately it represents the bread and butter where metalcast- ing makes the most difference day to day. This component most likely parallels many of the components in your shop that could be candidates for casting. The article examines a design conversion from a steel weldment to a ductile iron casting that saved the agricultural equipment manufacturer Besler Industries, Cambridge, Neb., at least $7 per part. The redesign was on a clamp component that was too costly, dimensionally inconsistent and required too much time to produce. While redesigning the fab to a casting was an obvious solution, the designer tasked with the redesign had no prior experi- ence with metal castings. This has become a common oc-
currence in metalcasters’ daily lives. Fewer and fewer customers—you, our readers—have signifi cant knowl- edge of how to design a casting. While at fi rst glance this presents a serious obstacle for metalcasters,
MAY/JUNE 2011
the education a metalcaster can provide a customer can be the best opportunity to showcase the capabilities of the process. “Since I had never designed
for casting, I would send them a picture,” said Dwayne Ham- mond, the casting novice at Besler. “They would draw on that picture…spelling it out pretty easily.” Metalcasters know their manufacturing process isn’t an easy one to understand. For starters, from a terminol- ogy perspective there are copes, drags, parting lines, gates, risers, sprues, green sand, nobake, permanent molds, lost foam and on and on. That is why metalcasters reach out to their custom- ers to help with design for manufacturability. “The way we wanted to
This conversion from a steel weldment (bottom) to a ductile iron casting required the buyer, Besler Industries, to educate itself, but ultimately the metalcaster helped deliver a 60% cost savings.
make the part would have been better for [us] but not work for [Besler] at all,” said Jim Pint, sales manager, Smith Foundry, who supplied the cast component. “We had to
regroup and come up with an alternative coring design.” The door is open for you as designers and buyers to reach
out to metalcasters to ensure you are taking advantage of all that metalcasting has to offer. The knowledge is there for the learning.
EDITORIAL
Alfred Spada, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
If you have any comments about this editorial or any other item that appears in Metal Casting Design & Purchasing, email me at
aspada@afsinc.org.
METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING 7
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