CASTING CONVERSION SIMPLIFIES VENTILATION HUB
Pier Foundry converted a complex 34-piece weldment to a single ductile iron casting that saved its mining customer time and money.
NICHOLAS LEIDER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR I
n early 2013, a manufacturer of industrial min- ing fans in the Western U.S. explored the possibility of converting a hub in a ventilation fan from a weldment to a casting. Originally a 34-piece steel fabri- cation, the component faced a demanding environment in a mining operation where it rotates as fast as 3,600 RPM. T e customer’s engineers identi-
fi ed the component as a potential conversion because each fabrication required 11 hours of in-house labor for machining and weld- ing. T e customer, however, was relatively unfamiliar with the variety and demands of casting processes. It uses a few cast compo- nents, primarily the aluminum blades that attach to the hub. But those designs have remained relatively unchanged for de- cades, limiting the customer’s current engineering team’s experience with castings.
The ductile iron casting (in white) was assembled with 10 cast aluminum blades before installation in the ventilation system.
36 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | Jul/Aug 2014
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