When converting to a casting, you are starting with a clean slate. You don’t necessarily want to recreate the weldment.”—Duane Rice
casting. After a six-month collabora- tive effort that included a number of design iterations and simulations, the metalcaster delivered sound castings via its green sand molding line that led to significant benefits for the customer. Te casting conversion reduced costs by more than 30%, saving the cus- tomer a projected $41,000 in the first full year of production. Additionally, the fan supplier
has increased shop capacity because the castings are delivered ready for assembly, allowing sawing, machining and welding resources to be used for other assemblies. Since the success- ful collaboration on this first mining hub, Pier and its customer have begun exploring conversion possibilities in other size ventilation units, and the two expect to increase collaboration in the future.
Casting Crash Course
Although the fan manufacturer’s engineers knew the complex weldment was a good candidate to be converted to a casting, Pier Foundry faced a chal- lenge in educating them about design considerations unique to metal castings. “Tey are not buying a stock item
off a shelf,” said said Duane Rice, sales specialist, Pier Foundry. “Tere is a well-defined process from design through production and delivery. We need to understand their design intent and what’s critical to them, so we can provide the best product at the lowest price. When converting to a casting, you are starting with a clean slate. You don’t necessarily want to recreate the weldment.” To ease collaboration between the
two design teams, Pier Foundry started off with a “Casting 101” course for the customer’s mechanical engineer. “Te company was relatively new to
castings,” said John Dulaney, sales and engineering manager, Pier Foundry. “Tey virtually had no experience with what it takes to make a good casting: fillets, feed paths, draft—all of those considerations. Once they got through a bit of initial instruction, their designer provided the first version of what they would need to meet fit, form and function.” Tough relatively new to metal cast-
40 | MODERN CASTING February 2015
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