Foundry technicians begin preparing the sand and resin mould to replicate the

Tag : foundry & mould
Sheffield Forgemasters is to repeat engineering history by creatingtwo of the largest castings ever made in Europe. The engineeringdivision will cast components weighing a staggering 340 tonnes eachfor established client SMS Meer, which will be used in some of theworld's largest mechanical forging presses.

Forgemasters made engineering history in 2005 with the casting of aforging press traverse for SMS Meer, on behalf of Austrian companyBöhler Schmiedetechnik GmbH & Co, which weighed 340 tonnes andwas the largest steel casting made in Europe. The company then wenton to equal this feat in 2006 when it cast the foundation platenfor the Korea Iron & Steel Company open die forging press in SouthKorea, also weighing in at 340 tonnes, and on behalf of SMS Meer.

Forgemasters is now set to repeat both of these castings, with acombined value of almost GBP 10 million and destined for presses inChina and Germany to service the automotive and power generationindustries.

Casting of the vast pieces is set to start early in 2009 when foundry technicians will begin preparing the sand and resin mouldto replicate the Böhler press traverse, which will form partof a 20 meter high clutch operated screw press located at Wuxi inthe Jiangsu province of China, and will be used to manufacture aeroengine turbine blades.

The other huge casting will make up the foundation platen or tablefor a 10,000 tonne open die press for German forgings companyBuderus. Forgemasters will also supply additional forged and castcomponents to complete both orders.

Mr Mick Holloway senior sales manager for Engineering Limited saidthat "Both of these orders were taken on the strength ofForgemasters expertise in making large scale castings. We havetried and tested the technology to get these products right asproven with the Böhler and KISCO presses. To cast componentson this scale takes an enormous amount of preparation, much ofwhich has already been done in creating the patterns for bothoriginal castings. This reduces the lead-in time for the projects,but we still need to prepare more than 550 tonnes of molten steelfor each casting, which then has to be poured in a continuous,controlled stream."

Mr Mick added that "Although there are other foundries across theworld that can handle this size of casting process, there are fewwith our proven track record and even less with the capacity andassurances that Forgemasters can offer to complete such an order."