Technical Articles

In-Process Weld Rework

In-process weld rework of castings, sometimes also referred to as “cosmetic weld repair”, is a routine and commonplace foundry activity that is used to mend such casting discontinuities. A casting that has been welded and blended will be dimensionally, physically, chemically and metallurgically compliant to drawing requirements.

The O’Fallon Casting University

Castings present a cost effective solution for the manufacture of complex shapes that reduce part count and improve the affordability, manufacturability and reliability of an engineered product. However, successful casting design does require a specialized expertise.

Edge & Corner Radii

Edges & Corners are external features such as you would see on any cube such as a child’s Alphabet Block. Structurally Edges & Corners have little impact on the strength of a casting. However, Edges and Corners are still an important consideration of casting design.

By definition a Fillet Radii is a rounding of an interior corner and are employed on castings to increase their load bearing strength and to improve both manufacturability and quality. For those reasons a fillet radius should be a standard allowance on every casting design.

Investment Casting is a cost effective method for the production of precise, near-net-shape and complex metal parts. Although Investment Casting is relatively ancient in origin it is today a highly sophisticated manufacturing process.

Castings offer a unique capability to combine multiple features into a unitized structure that reduces the total part count of an assembly and improves the overall affordability of an engineered product.

Customers of O’Fallon Casting are entitled to a free Concurrent Engineering Service to assist in their design of affordable cast products. Concurrent Engineering is remarkably easy to accomplish and is time well spent. O’Fallon Casting hopes that, as a result of Concurrent Engineering, its customers will design better castings and so be more inclined to engineer other parts as foundry products.

The Investment Casting process provides two primary cost benefits to its customers. First is its Near-Net-Shape capability that stems from the dimensional precision of the process and because no draft angle is required. Secondly the Investment Casting process provides an ability to combine multiple pieces into a One-Piece structure with few design constraints and without a major impact to cost.

ToughMet is a strong, stiff, corrosion resistant, and galling resistant bronze alloy. It possesses the additional attributes of being very low friction and resistant to wear.

elative to other foundry processes Investment Casting is a very precise method to produce a Near-Net shape cast product. This capability stems both from the repeatability of the process and that a draft angle need not be added to cast surfaces. As with all manufacturing processes there will exist some part-to-part variation that needs to be accommodated by a dimensional tolerance.

Technical Articles

In-Process Weld Rework

The O’Fallon Casting University

Edge & Corner Radii

Why Castings need a Fillet Radii

How an Investment Casting is Manufactured

The Five Part Solution

Concurrent Engineering

The Characteristics of an Aluminum Investment Casting

Introducing IC100 ToughMet®

Standard Investment Casting Linear Tolerances

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