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cores with its automatic coremaking machine, which helped increase core- making and molding speed. “Because we were able to confi gure


the cores the way we wanted, we can mold two of the castings in the same time as one casting with the old mold design,” Hildebrand said. For Caterpillar, the reduced time


The torque converter housing acts as a coupling between the engine and transmission in fracking and mining equipment.


sand and how to do so. Many of the bosses on the weldment design were blended together to make the cores simpler and reduce the chances of the defect. “You don’t want small fi ngers [of


material] in the casting if you don’t need them for the function of the part,” Hudson said. T rough 10 design iterations, Cat-


erpillar and Monarch moved tubing and passageways, combined bosses and simplifi ed shapes to improve coring and molding.


“Once [Hudson] made some of


the changes, we realized if we took it further, we could eliminate some loose inserts or drop a core,” Downing said. T e open communication estab- lished with Hudson’s visit at the start of the project gave Monarch the freedom to suggest design changes to improve castability. “Typically as a foundry, you get a


drawing from the customer, and you don’t really know what’s important or what’s critical. You quote to print,” said Mark Hildebrand, director of market- ing at Monarch. “Knowing the applica- tion, we were able to question some design aspects because it could cause casting issues. And knowing the cast- ing issues, Darryl was able to tell us if a feature wasn’t necessarily important.” Hudson said the conversion was the most experience he has had in changing a design to better fi t the casting process. “A lot of pieces I’ve worked on are


smaller and simpler,” Hudson said. “But since the Monarch job, I have already applied what I’ve learned with this part to other projects.”


The 610-lb. gray iron casting (top) was con- verted from a 36-piece steel weldment.


May 2012 MODERN CASTING | 23


Increasing Time to Market Monarch Industries applied past


lessons of its own on the torque converter housing. T e metalcaster had produced a similar casting before and, based on that experience, opted to rotate the new part’s orientation 90 degrees and move the parting line. “T is way, we were able to utilize


smaller coreboxes that we preassem- bled before dropping the entire core- pack into the mold,” Hildebrand said. T e smaller corebox design allowed Monarch to produce the nobake


from molding to delivery was a fur- ther improvement on already short- ened lead times. Hudson typically schedules casting orders a month or two out (the weldment took up to 12 weeks) but likes the ability to receive parts sooner when in a bind. “We don’t typically require this tight of a turnaround, but we know Monarch could pour the casting one week and send it to the machining supplier the next week,” he said.


ONLINE RESOURCE


Browse through a gallery of all of 2012’s Casting of the Year candidates at www.metalcastingdesign.com/coy2012.


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