The initial quick-attach mount model was designed with four bolt holes.
“To make this part as a weldment,
it would have taken about 13 individ- ual parts welded together,” Reade said. “And you wouldn’t get what you really wanted. T e weldment would give you functionality and that is it.” As a visible piece on the assembled
fertilizing equipment, the cast mount improved the appearance of the as- sembly and gave it a cleaner look, according to Spaeny. Kansas Castings used the fi rst pat-
tern to produce four of the castings on its nobake line. “We didn’t make any process adjust- ments other than to be sure we didn’t abuse the tooling,” Hibbs said. “We used a direct pour sleeve for the fi rst pour to reduce rigging time and cost.” Spaeny and company were pleased
with the results but saw more im- provements could be made.
Design Changes on the Fly As an assembly a farmer would
physically remove and reattach, Great Plains wanted to keep the quick-at- tach mount light. T e whole assembly
The fi rst casting design replaced the top bolt holes with a hook.
was already nearing 70 lbs. “We wanted to take some weight
off of this thing,” Spaeny said. “You pay for extra weight, no doubt, and it was heavy enough as it was.” To reduce weight and improve
castability, Great Plains replaced two bosses and some gusseting with one long cylinder down the outer side of the part. T e designers also added a loop so farmers could use a hoist to pick up the component. “I had the concept, and [T orsell]
took it and made it a casting,” Reade said. T orsell determined two slab cores
would be needed to produce the long cylinder due to the location of the parting line. “With three cores, we went through
some eff ort to make it work like we wanted it to,” Spaeny said. “We still had some doubts.” Great Plains, which produces most of its own metalcasting patterns and coreboxes, checked in with Kansas Castings for input on the cast- ability of the part, since the new features required some additional coring. Hibbs and Ron Pomeroy, Kansas Castings
24 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | Jul/Aug 2012
The fi nal casting design replaced bosses and gusseting with a long cylindrical tube.
owner, said the fi nal design would not cause any problems at the casting facility. After all the design changes, Great
Plains printed its second pattern, this time for test castings to be produced on Kansas Castings’ green sand line. “Great Plains does a great job of sending us drawings for our input so that once the tooling is in our door, we can run the thing straight away,” Hibbs said. “For the coreboxes, we had enough in- formation communicated back and forth so that when they were delivered, we did not have to add any venting. T ey made good cores without a problem.” With the second set of patterns,
Kansas Castings produced 40 total cast ductile iron mounts, enough to showcase the fi nal assembled equip- ment during Great Plains’ dealers’ meetings in July. Before the showcase, the 9.7-lb. castings also passed testing for functionality and durability. “Initial testing looked at whether
[the part] hooked the way we wanted it to and if we had any clearance is- sues,” Reade said. “T en we performed repetitive impact testing. T e whole
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