There’s been no shortage of media coverage of the earthquake that recently rocked Haiti. And as touching and heart wrenching as much of it is, it can become a little repetitive and go unnoticed.
But when the news involves metalcasting, our attentions are always aroused.
Apparently, the metalcasting process recently helped Alfred Univ., Alfred, N.Y., earn more than $5,000 for the Haitian relief effort. According to an article in the school’s newspaper, the Alfred Univ. Foundry Guild sold $10 sand molds to locals, allowed them to scratch designs into the molds and poured them off, producing original sculptures for all of the would-be philanthropists. The funds, augmented by a silent auction of artwork, were donated to a Haitian family with ties to the school and Doctors Without Borders.
It may seem incongruous, metalcasting for charity, but to us it makes perfect sense. The industry that has been rebuilding things for hundreds of years—taking what has been scrapped and reforming it into something useful—is now helping to rebuild a nation.
When we waxed melodically about the metal castings found in musical instruments in 2007, we hit the cymbals, drums, piano and hand bells. Now, castings are adding a decorative touch to the most ubiquitous of instruments—the guitar.
DBZ Guitars, Chicago, is using jewelry-style castings to adorn a new line of its handmade axes. You can see the intricate inlays and read more about the company’s guitars in an article on www.guitargearheads.com.
The article reports that the castings are produced in the hand casting process, which uses permanent molds to produce products with enhanced surface finishes. According to the article, the casting “is designed in high detail and finished in 24k gold and nickel.”
Gray cast iron is beautiful. Don’t agree with us? Take a look at an image by McMaster University research technologist Doug Culley. Culley used a Nikon Eclipse LV 100 microscope to show students the microstructure of gray cast iron and teach them how to identify the pearlite structure orientation and the color contrast for the different grains.
The resulting image was so unique and artistic, Culley submitted it to Nikon’s 2009 Small World Photomicrography Competition and earned image of distinction honors.
As you can see, the inscription below this sculpture, found in the Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., indicates you’re looking at a cast version of a hibernating ground squirrel.
In the museum, the casting is used for its ability to reach cold temperatures. The sculpture is tucked inside a nook that is refrigerated to mimic the sort of environment a ground squirrel is capable of withstanding while hibernating for the winter. Visitors to the museum are invited to reach into the nook and touch the casting to see just how cold the environment is.
What struck us as amusing was that the museum curators felt the need to announce in the inscription that the ground squirrel was cast. Apparently, this piece was so detailed and lifelike they had to ensure everyone that the exhibit was indeed not a live ground squirrel in order to get them to reach out and touch it. Now that’s precise casting.
Ah, metalcasting. Tis like a relaxing picnic on a warm fall day.
Now that’s probably not a statement you ever expected to read. But the Sculpture Trails, Solsberry, Ind., can make it a reality. Don’t believe us? Check out this video and tell us you don’t feel a sense of tranquility you never thought possible in association with the metalcasting industry.
To paraphrase its most recent press release, Sculpture Trails offers to bring its “traveling foundry” to whatever setting you desire. The company will “travel to your high school, art museum, general public workshop or festivals” and give all participants a small block of sand and the tools they need to scratch a design into the cured surface. Next, Sculpture Trails pours aluminum into the block, and voila, the “artist’s” design comes out as a metal casting.
This is more than just a cute idea. It also reminds us that the metalcasting process not only produces many of the engineered components we take for granted in our everyday lives, it can also be a fun craft, a clever way to create and even a relaxing day in the sun.
Carmaker Audi is instituting a material shift, and metal castings will be a clutch part of the conversion.
According to a recent article from U.K. media outlet Autocar, Audi is doing away with the steel monocoque chassis traditionally used on its cars and moving to aluminum construction for all models except its A3 and A1 lines.
Check out the article in Autocarhere, or if you don’t have time to pore through it, here are the metal casting highlights:
“The essence of the structure is large aluminium castings for key areas including the front and rear chassis legs, the front suspension mounts, the base of the A-pillar and the front section of the transmission tunnel…At 1.4m long, the new A8’s rear chassis leg is said to be the largest diecasting in the world. The A8’s door structures are now also cast in one piece…These castings (which are also a crucial element of the safety structure) can apparently be used to underpin all Audi models based around longitudinal engines…The rest of Audi’s new body structure (including the sills, roof structure and floor sections) is made of inexpensive aluminium extrusions that can be easily cut and bent to size.”
Auto aftermarket specialist Edelbrock is a unique company with unique ownership. We profiled the business in our November/December 2008 issue after it added a permanent mold metalcasting facility to its green sand plant to expand capacity. Take a minute to peruse the profile here.
In the hopes that you’ll read the full profile, we won’t go into it extensively in this space, but suffice it to say that Edelbrock’s ownership believes in-house metalcasting is essential to its future success.
Now, the company has launched another venture to expand the scope of its metalcasting section. But this time, it hasn’t added molding lines or melting capacity. Instead, it has upped its online ante with a new “Edelbrock Aluminum Foundries” website.
And the company didn’t just throw some html up into cyberspace and hope it stuck. According to MetalCastingDesign.com’s online advertising salesperson and metalcasting website guru Jim Beckwith, Edelbrock took its time and did it right.
“Edelbrock’s end result is one of the most impressive metalcasting websites I can remember seeing,” Beckwith said. “It’s worth a look.”
So head over there and check out standard fare like the company’s processes and capacities, as well as cool multimedia on “Edelbrock TV.” It’s a great example of what the metalcasting industry has to offer, both online and in brick and mortar.
We let you know some time ago that Metal Casting Design & Purchasing and its sister publication MODERN CASTING were instrumental in creating a few new groups on the social networking site LinkedIn, and we would be remiss if we didn’t tell you about the hot button issue currently being debated there.
Do you have some special insight or strong opinion on the quality of the Chinese metalcasting industry? At least half a dozen people have weighed in so far, and you could be next. If you have a LinkedIn account, just click here to join the Foundry and Diecaster Network, and find the topic thread under the “Jobs” tab.
If you don’t have an account yet, go to www.linkedin.com and join up. Once you have an account, feel free to get involved. Or, simply pull up a chair and watch the discussion as it develops. It’s just one more way to stay linked in to the metalcasting community.
If you read this blog and were sitting on your sofa watching the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams on July 28, you may have taken notice when the following images came on your screen: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#32186844.
That’s right, a metalcasting facility was highlighted on the news program as an example of a company succeeding during a downturn that has claimed the title on so many other businesses.
That’s right, there was metalcaster Doug Parsons, president of Excel Foundry and Machine, Pekin, Ill., explaining how blessed his company has been to keep its employees and continue doing business as usual in what’s been described as the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.
That’s right, the metalcasting industry was featured just before primetime on one of the major networks, and it was shown doing something right. So congratulations to Excel Foundry and Machine for showing the world the excellence we already know is in the metalcasting industry.
We find and are directed toward a lot of interesting metalcasting-related links. But unfortunately, we don’t have the time to do something with all of them. So here, for your enjoyment, are a few interesting links that have fallen through the cracks over the past couple of months:
Think your little brother should do some art casting? If he lives in Shafer, Minn., he can head out and give it a shot: Hot Metal Pour
This link won’t have your siblings pouring art sculpture, but it will take you on a tour of a metalcasting facility and sculpture garden: Shidoni Foundry
This museum dedicated to metalcasting opened in Australia last month: Museum Pays Tribute
Ever wonder from where the Vatican gets its bells? It’s a metalcasting facility in Agnone, Italy, but it’s fallen on hard times: Vatican Bell Foundry
Speaking of bell casters, the Queen of England visited one several months ago: Queen’s Visit
Even in hard times, this automotive diecaster has found a positive spin: Kentuckiana Company
Hear metalcasting is declining in high school? Tell that to Tates Creek High School: Tates Creek Students
