Foundry Finds Success, Satisfaction Using Ceramic Media for Lost-Foam Casting

摘要

Irish Foundry & Manufacturing, in Seattle, was ready for a change. The company, according to its founder Charles Irish, decided it would "build for the future" by adopting the lost-foam casting process. The shift has allowed the Seattle company to produce "a variety of castings in varying degrees of complexity," Irish says. "Strategically, we have also added brass and bronze to our existing aluminum capabilities, which has opened untapped markets." At least one casting produced with this new capabilities has earned Irish industry-wide recognition. It wasn't all as simple as changing plans. "When we started in lost foam we were advised that the media of choice was silica sand," Irish recalls. Uniformity of grain size, availability and cost were the fundamental selling points. But, soon after starting to operate with silica sand, Irish Foundry began to recognize some less-than-satisfactory results.