204.663.9142 MENU SIZE DOESN’T MATTER: HOW WE MOVE BEYOND THE NORM THE INDUSTRY NORM VS. OUR NORM Custom Castings pushes the envelope of what we can do beyond the permanent mold industry norm. When you’re looking into manufacturing larger than normal parts, your industry norm option is sand casting. While sand casting works, it comes with increased per-piece cost with a low production rate. We’ve been manufacturing large parts using permanent mold since our inception and have only gotten better at doing so. We have the ability to produce permanent mold castings typically larger than what most permanent mold foundries are doing. We’ve pushed boundaries and found new ways to manufacture larger castings year after year. Through learning and tweaking our process, we’ve been able to accommodate our customers’ needs while offering the benefits of permanent mold casting. CASTING WITH THE PERMANENT MOLD PROCESS The misconception with permanent mold casting is its limitations in producing large castings, but we’ve found it’s due to tools and processes permanent mold foundries are typically casting with. While the majority of permanent mold castings are ~1-50 lbs, we do have the ability and experience to exceed those weight limitations and produce 200 lb castings using the permanent mold casting process. In our experience, people choose sand casting by default just based off their misconceptions of permanent mold. As we stated, sand casting is fine, but it lowers your production rate and part quality. Casting with permanent mold gives you the benefits that sand casting can’t touch. When our only limitation is equipment, we’ll customize or invest (as we’ve done in the past) in our equipment to meet client needs. ADAPTING TO THE NEW NORM While altering current equipment or investing in new equipment certainly helps us produce larger castings, there’s more to it. Since scaling up our operations and casting sizes, we’ve had to rethink and customize our current processes to: Remove large castings from the mold Prepare large castings for secondary processes Move a high volume of molten metal safely and quickly enough to prevent oxidation As always, we’ve taken these challenges in stride for the improvement of casting quality and customer service. We think about the benefits permanent mold offers in comparison to sand castings and we know taking the extra step is worth it to us and our customers. CLIENT SUCCESS STORY: Before producing with permanent mold, one of our clients used a sand foundry to cast a 48” long part weighing 180 lbs. The foundry couldn’t keep up to demand nor could they consistently provide a quality part. Once the client finally received their parts, the part would break in the field and cause significant downtime and expense. We knew this client needed high-quality, consistent casting production and we were confident permanent mold would deliver. Since transitioning to permanent mold casting, we’ve been able to produce 10x the amount of castings than the sand foundry could with sand casting while maintaining high quality parts our client expects. PERMANENT MOLD DELIVERS WHAT YOU NEED When you’re in the market for large castings, you’re not stuck with sand castings – you have options: permanent mold, to be exact. Permanent mold is your answer if you need tighter tolerances, faster production rates, and high quality parts. ARTICLES YOUR INTRODUCTION TO HEAT TREATMENT QUICK CHANGE AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AT CUSTOM CASTINGS BELOW THE SURFACE: HEAT TREATMENT AT CUSTOM CASTINGS MATERIAL SELECTION: SWITCHING UP THE STATUS QUO SPEED AND COMPETITION: HOW WE KEEP UP WITH RECREATIONAL VEHICLE TRENDS SIZE DOESN’T MATTER: HOW WE MOVE BEYOND THE NORM PUSHING CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ONE STEP FURTHER KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON FROM DIE CASTING CONTACT US TODAY AT 204.663.9142 OR REQUEST A QUOTE [CONSIDER IT DONE] WHAT WE DO ABOUT US DESIGN ENGINEERING PERMANENT MOLD CASTING CNC MACHINING SURFACE COATING ALUMINUM PULLEYS WHY CHOOSE US SINGLE-SOURCE EQUIPMENT LIST ISO CERTIFICATE SAFE WORK CERTIFICATION CASE STUDIES BLOG NEWS ARTICLES VIDEOS REQUEST AN ARTICLE CONTACT US INQUIRIES CAREERS STAFF High-quality Teflon™, powder coating, and specialty surface finishes to aluminum, zinc, iron, and steel. Specializing in production of aluminum castings through sand casting and permanent mold processes.