at 22%. Contract purchases at 14% is the payments we make to people who do value-added service on castings, such as austem- pering or painting,” said Bye. “It would not be a safe assumption that this will be similar in other companies, because it can vary widely. Comparing apples to apples rarely works in the met- alcasting industry. Te real trick is to find the foundry that has a structure that works best for the job you’re trying to place.”


Design Cost Drivers While an ideal casting


the foundry to improve pro- ductivity,” said David Weiss, vice president of engineering/ R&D for Eck Industries Inc., Manitowoc, Wis. Eck is an aluminum specialist running a variety of casting pro- cesses as well as value-added services. “Our average order sizes are somewhere between 100 and 500 pieces,” he said. “We do structural aluminum castings—if the part fails, it’s a load-bearing casting, so someone could be hurt.” One interesting example


Figure 1. One ferrous metalcaster’s costs can vary greatly from another, depending on factors such as capacity, employees, equipment, supplies and available capital.


would have specifications such as zero porosity, perfect proportions and a flaw- less finish, compromises are made when costs outweigh application requirements. Casting designers and suppliers work to-


gether to ensure those requirements are met in the most cost-effective manner. ““I would argue that what is in the file


or on the blueprint has a bigger impact on cost than anything that can be done in


Weiss offered was the effect welding has on strength: “A half-weld is a typical sort of defect that has better


fatigue results than something that is not welded.” Welding adds cost to the job, but in some cases, it is not considered a problem but an improvement. “We have a customer that asks us to weld strips onto


Mar/Apr 2014 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | 21


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