Aarrowcast to make the part, it was clear what the part needed to accom- plish, but not how it would. One of the stickiest criteria to meet was main- taining the capacity for the necessary volume of oil. “Because they wanted to reduce
The oil pan combined a steel stamped oil pan, frame casting and fabricated brackets.
in production. But Olson said that without close communication with fi rst the John Deere design engineer and, later, the John Deere Casting Center of Excellence (CCOE), ultimately, the converted casting might not have been delivered. T rough active participation in the design and development process, Aarrowcast was able to produce quality cast oil pans that reduced weight by 77 lbs. to meet stricter emission require- ments while providing the necessary strength and oil capacity to accommodate a higher horsepower engine. Because of those eff orts, Aarrowcast, Sha-
wano, Wis., has earned the 2014 AFS/ Metal Casting Design & Purchasing Casting of the Year award for its John Deere 9-liter engine oil pan. John Deere wanted to cut weight in
two of its large tractor engines to meet higher emissions requirements coming in Europe, and converting a stamped steel oil pan and frame casting to a single ductile iron casting was one way to shave off some pounds. At the same time, it was raising the engine output (by about 60 horsepower in the 9-liter engine), which imparted additional forces on the oil pan that not only holds oil but also connects the front of the tractor to its rear under the engine. When John Deere connected with
weight, we ran into a lot of space restrictions,” Olson said. “We worked to stretch the available capacity up into the corners and moved bosses to provide more space.” Aarrowcast used temporary tooling to test out a fi nal design iteration, but successfully pouring samples on the temporary tool material proved dif- fi cult. A quality test casting was fi nally poured after 10 failed attempts. Testing at John Deere revealed the wall thick- nesses in the design weren’t suffi cient for the application. More changes to the design were needed. “T ere was a lot to learn in this
casting process,” said Jack Smith, Aar- rowcast vice president of operations. “It is not your everyday casting, and the methods we have applied to the part were new for us.” After adjusting the design for
thicker walls, Aarrowcast produced successful test samples using a semi- permanent tool. T e key to pouring good castings was adjusting gating practices for low velocity fl ow of molten metal at the gates. Aarrowcast uses
MEDIA RESOURCE Using the Actable App, scan this page to watch a video pointing out the features of Aarrowcast’s casting. For instructions on how to use the app, go to page 3. To watch online, go to
www.metalcastingtv.com.
This oil pan for a 9-liter engine weighs 842 lbs.
May 2014 MODERN CASTING | 23
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