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Lead


Think lead doesn’t have a place in manufacturing? Think again. Modern metalcasters are making the products safely and soundly for several applications.


Shea Gibbs, Senior Editor


country (25 out of 1,644 surveyed plants), only titanium is scarcer among the major types of cast alloys. The health concerns regarding over-


L


exposure to the metal are well-known (even by those that may not realize all metals have permissible exposure lim- its), and lead has been removed from certain assemblies and alloys, such as those in potable water applications. But lead does have its place. Ac-


cording to Tom Ray, president of Vul- can Global Manufacturing Solutions, Milwaukee, a lead products maker with in-house metalcasting capability, only lead can fulfi ll certain needs. “Our products have evolved from


relatively simple lead parts not char- acterized by high precision to compo- nents and assemblies that are now geo- metrically toleranced and measured by a micrometer or CMM,” he said. “Over time, [we expanded] into the medical, nuclear, aerospace, homeland security, explosives and general industrial mar- kets. The [products] for these segments have tight tolerances and the customers require fi nished parts.”


When You’ll Need It According to Vulcan’s Engineer-


Lead castings often are used in ship bal- last keels, extending down from the hull.


34 METAL CASTING DESIGN AND PURCHASING JULY/AUGUST 2011


ead isn’t exactly the most popular material in metalcast- ing. Poured by somewhere between 1 and 2% of the metalcasting facilities in the


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