Creative casting design with a sound understanding of the casting process and its limitations allowed engineers at ThyssenKrupp Waupaca, Waupaca, Wis., and John Deere to work together to consolidate multiple castings and weldments into one auxiliary drive casting for a tractor engine. The casting is a common part across multiple tractor options.

The design reduced part numbers, eliminated inflated inventory levels and successfully met limited space and weight restrictions. The supplier produced the part via vertically-parted green sand molding, which is a cost effective molding process with tight dimensional accuracy and reproducibility and good as-cast surface finish. It’s a flaskless molding process, meaning molds are created without a metal or wood frame, which improves cycle times.

--by Jiten Shah, president of Product Development & Analysis (PDA) LLC, Naperville, Ill., and a 25-year casting design and
manufacturing veteran.