INDUSTRY NEWS
Portage Casting Helps Simulate Cosmic Forces Portage Casting & Mold Inc.,
Portage, Wis., has completed pro- duction of two aluminum castings for the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madi- son that will form the framework of a simulated “dynamo,” the force within celestial bodies that creates a magnetic field. The two castings, each weighing 5,100 lbs. after machining, were combined to create a nearly 10-ft. sphere that holds high-temperature plasma in a vacuum. The apparatus is designed to replicate phenomena like the Earth’s core and allow scientists at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison to study a dynamo up close. According to Dan Griep, Portage
Casting’s director of tooling, the cope and drag mold weights for the castings exceeded 70,000 lbs., and the pour weights were 10,700 lbs. Because of the size of the castings, the metalcasting facility created the more than 12-ft. molds in one of its shakeout areas and used cranes to roll them over. “A lot of geometry was built [using] core sections,” Griep said. “The cope mold was an assembly of four flasks. That had to be done because [the casting] had to be par- titioned off in different sections.” Te dynamo experiments, being
conducted by the physics department at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, have been funded in part by a $2.4 million grant from the National Sci- ence Association. According to Griep, the experiments performed with the apparatus last a tenth of a second and use all the energy that can be generated in the laboratory.
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Portage Casting & Mold Inc., Portage, Wis., poured this spherical casting (top) to help researchers simulate the gravitational pull of celestial bodies. Above, workers handle the drag of the mold.
C.A. Lawton Co. Takes First Steps in Capacity Expansion Te C.A. Lawton Co., De Pere,
Wis., recently completed the first phase in a planned expansion of its sand delivery system. Te large cast iron component provider added silos and other key
10 | MODERN CASTING September 2011
components to the system as the first steps in a capacity increase during the company’s recent Fourth of July shut- down. According to a company press release, the expansion is intended to further C.A. Lawton’s reach in alterna-
tive energy markets, such as wind. “It was important for us to take this first step and address the capacity of our sand system,” said Kelly Coles, the company’s director of opera-
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