How to Perform a Casting Supplier Audit
Te AFS 1J Quality Systems Com-
Lost foam casting offers the free- dom to design complex core pas- sages, as illustrated here, not easily manufactured in other processes.
mittee presented a workshop on per- forming casting supplier audits, from the metalcaster’s point of view. Te panel, which included Teodore Schorn, Enkei America Inc., Kenley Hansen, Waupaca Foundry, Waupaca, Wis., Nick Fox, Galesburg Castings Inc., Galesburg, Ill., Tonya Burgess, Sivyer Steel Corp., and Dave Hughes, U.S. Pipe and Foundry, offered various facets of a casting supplier that should be reviewed. For instance, in the facility’s man-
agement system, the following should be reviewed: • Shop environment/ equipment shape
More than 120 castings were produced in four weeks. According to Petersen, bringing
a part from model to market quickly is not just a matter of overtime, but requires: • Sufficient design data • Appropriate practices and equip- ment capacity
• Employee and vendor cooperation
• Customer flexibility and communication
• Willingness to take risks.
Designing for Lost Foam Lost foam casting provides design
freedom that allows design engineers to create complex shapes with casting configuration flexibility, like zero draft and back draft features. Glover Kerlin, BRP-U.S. Inc., Spruce Pine, N.C., offered several considerations when designing for the lost foam process, including general advice on wall and passageway dimensions. A minimum wall thickness in lost
foam of 4.5 mm or greater is pre- ferred. Tinner wall section thick- nesses may be possible in localized areas but should be reviewed on an individual basis. Minimum passage size guidelines include: • External hole diameters down to 3.5 mm can be cast in
4.5-mm walls
• Minimum diameter of internal passages is 6 mm
• Passages greater than 250 mm in length may require additional sand access for sand fill and gas venting
• Horizontal passages less than 75 mm in length can be 6 mm in diameter
• Horizontal passages between 75 mm and 150 mm should be 10 mm in diameter
• Horizontal passages greater than 150 mm likely will require supplemental sand access for sand fill and gas venting.
• New job start up methods • Material/production flow • Testing techniques and associated capabilities
• Preventive maintenance program • Workforce • Value-added services. New job start up methods should
include a requirements review, plan- ning of product realization, routing, production work instruction devel- opment, testing requirements, and packaging plan. Material/production flow should include raw material seg- regation/identification, recipe manage- ment/charge makeup, FIFO systems, and extreme stock levels, as well as address bottlenecking.
Shop environment and equipment shape is one area of the metalcasting facility that reflects upon its management system.
May/Jun 2013 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | 45
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