Design For Manufacture

In most cases with custom designed products, 70 – 95% of total product cost is the result of design decisions. To enhance our mutual success and to underscore its commitment to its customers, O'Fallon Casting regularly engages in educating and partnering with it’s customers to help them create the best casting designs possible.

Our services include:

  • Concurrent Engineering Service
  • IC-101 (classroom session on Investment Casting DFM)
  • IC-201 (Hands on class of the IC process)
  • Aluminum Investment Casting Design Guide

Learn more about each service below:

Concurrent Engineering

“Investment Castings offer a cost efficient process by which to manufacture shapes. However, effective Casting design does require a specialized expertise and understanding for the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Investment Casting Process.”

To assist its customers to produce “effective” casting designs, O’Fallon Casting offers its Concurrent Engineering Service.

Investment Casting offers many advantages over alternative processes. To make the best use of those advantages, Concurrent Engineering is most effective if done early in the design process. Early consultation provides an opportunity for an Engineer to take full advantage of the Design Freedom available with Investment Casting.

Concurrent Engineering is a free service to Customers of O’Fallon Casting, to enhance your product design, and insure the best and most affordable product on the market.

The Advantages Of Concurrent Engineering:

  • Avoid “Designed – In” Cost
  • Assure Correct Design the First Time
  • Lower Cost of Quality
  • Higher Product Quality
  • Elimination of Fabrication and / or Assembly Time
  • Reliable Delivery
  • Improved Producibility
  • Improved Machining Yields
  • Faster to Market
  • Affordability

Early Design Considerations:

  • Combine multiple pieces into a single casting
  • Weight Reduction
  • Datum and Datum Point selection
  • Gating Surfaces
  • Drawing Notes

Investment Casting 101

O’Fallon Casting’s Investment Casting-101 class was founded to address our Customers’ need for the “Specialized Expertise” in the art of Investment Casting Design. IC-101 classes are held at customer locations and at no cost. IC-101 participants gain a perspective as to the cost-impact of design decisions. The class is low on promotion, high on content, and taught from a perspective of best industry practice. Each student is provided a class textbook to keep and use as a future reference.

The focus of IC-101 is to provide instruction to Engineers and Designers involved in the design of castings. Abbreviated sessions can be held for technical and administrative staff that also might benefit from a better general knowledge of the subject.

An IC-101 Class Encompasses Three Broad Topics That Are Tailored To Address Specific Customer Needs:

  • How an Investment Casting is Manufactured and the process Strengths & Weaknesses
  • Drawing Notes & Specifications and the cost impact of requirements
  • Design Rules-of-Thumb and their rationale

If Your Company Has An Interest In Scheduling An IC-101 Class:

Please contact your O’Fallon Casting Sales Engineer for more details.

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Investment Casting 201

O’Fallon Casting’s “Investment Casting – 201” is a three day class that is structured to provide an in-depth exposure to the Investment Casting process. IC-201 is held at O’Fallon Casting and combines “hands on” foundry experiences with three hours of class material. IC-201 is a natural follow-on to O’Fallon Casting’s IC-101 and is intended to increase the depth-of-knowledge of customer Designers, Engineers, Quality Engineers and Procurement personnel.

The limited class size of IC-201 allows each customer “student” to fully experience each of the foundry elements including:

  • Pattern Injection
  • Sprue Assembly
  • Gate Grinding
  • Welding
  • Straightening
  • Penetrant Inspection
  • Radiography Metrology (including Laser Scanning)
  • Laser Marking
  • Chemical Spectrography
  • Tensile & Hardness Testing

O’Fallon Casting will tailor each IC-201 experience to fit the specific needs of that class. To learn more about IC-201 contact your O’Fallon Casting Sales Engineer.

Classroom material presented includes:

  • Combine multiple pieces into a single casting
  • Weight Reduction
  • Datum and Datum Point selection
  • Gating Surfaces
  • Drawing Notes

Aluminum Investment Casting Design Guide

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. Good casting design translates into both direct savings from lower manufacturing cost and reduced part count and also from indirect savings from higher levels of quality, more reliable deliveries and lower administrative costs.

The Aluminum Investment Casting Design Guide helps you understand the investment casting process, it’s strengths and weaknesses, and how to apply design practices to produce a successful casting.

View the Design Guide
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