Released on September 6, 2007

Ashland Casting Solutions, Dublin, Ohio, International Casting Corp. (ICC), New Baltimore, Mich., and SinterCast, Stockholm, Sweden, have signed an agreement to provide compacted graphite iron (CGI) product design, development and prototype production.

SinterCast, a process control specialist, ICC, a specialty-product and niche-volume cast iron and cast steel metalcasting facility, and Ashland, a business group of Ashland Performance Materials, will provide concept-to-production support for new CGI components, including optimization of core blowing, mold filling and solidification, component design for series production, prototyping and machining. Under the terms of the tripartite collaboration, ICC will install a SinterCast Mini-System 2000 for the independent production of CGI prototype castings under series production conditions. The melting and casting facilities at ICC enable the production of CGI components from 1 to 750 lbs.

According to Scott Hoertz, vice president, Ashland Performance Materials, and general manager, Ashland Casting Solutions, the agreement builds on a marketing and technical alliance established with SinterCast in 2005.

Steve Dawson, president and CEO of SinterCast, said the addition of ICC’s molding, melting and casting capabilities to Ashland’s design services will represent “an important step forward” for CGI.

“The continuous increase in CGI development and production planning provides an excellent opportunity for ICC to apply its ferrous metallurgy product development and niche-volume production skills to the CGI arena,” said Doug Smith, ICC president.