Design & Alloy Flexibility of Investment Casting As a side note, because the part was


originally manufactured, needs change and sometimes a redesign is in order. Per- haps there is a need for added strength, or reduced weight, or to produce the part for lower cost.


Although not conversions from other


processes, several components shown in this article illustrate how the flexibility of investment casting process can be used to solve a customer problem.


Consolidated Casting Corporation Redesign Saves Customer $300,000+ per Year


One component, currently manufac-


tured by Consolidated Casting Corpora- tion (Figure 1), was been previously de- signed by the customer with help from the former caster. The original two-piece investment cast manifold and cover as- sembly was welded together by an out- side subcontractor and machined and pressure-tested by a third party, which resulted in a multitude of quality and de- livery issues. The customer challenged Consoli-


dated Casting Corporation to produce the entire assembly in house, establish a sin- gle source of responsibility to eliminate problems, and achieve a higher quality product. A cooperative effort between Con-


solidated and the customer resulted in a new more efficient, higher quality design which reduced the weight and cost of the assembly; improved stability, weldabil- ity and quality; reduced lead times, and ultimately saved the customer more than $300,000 per year. This is classic example of what in-


vestment casters can achieve using cre- ative design engineering which takes advantage of the flexibility investment casting has to offer.


972-225-7305 20


not feasible to cast using preformed cor- ing techniques, a two-piece weldment was necessary. Consolidated recommended using a less expensive stamping for the cover of the component, thus creatively incorporating the ad- vantages of invest- ment casting where they were needed and using another metalworking pro- cess where these advantages were not necessary. More and more


investment casters, like Consolidated, are offering value- added support which


More than State-of-the-Art Investment Castings... We Offer VALUE


Complete In-House Capabilities


• CNC, CAD-CAM and Conventional Machining


• Pro-Active Design Engineering Assistance • Tooling • Lab and Testing Facilities • CNC Welding • Product Assembly • Painting • Warehousing and Distribution • Value Analysis


• Commodity Management Programs • VMI Vendor Managed Inventory Programs


Ferrous, Nickel & Cobalt Base Investment Castings (1/4 oz. to 150 lbs. per piece)


sales@consolicast.com www.consolicast.com January 2011


Provide Simple Solutions to Customer Problems No matter how a component was


provides a single source of responsibility and which made such a great difference in this application.


Figure 1--Redesign taking advantage of investment casting flexibility saved the customer in excess of $300,000 per year. INSET– c omp l e t e d assembly be- fore and after redesign.


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