Industrial Castings

Needle Holder - For high speed industrial sewing machines. The -holder operates at 9,000 to 12,000 cycles per minute. At such speeds, fatigue failures similar to those found in aerospace parts, must be prevented. To guarantee freedom from shutdown and possible injury to the operator due to premature failure, 100% x-ray and magnaflux inspection and freedom from surface decarburization are mandatory requirements in this SAE 4140 alloy steel casting.

As performance goes up more new destructive tests are requested to insure reliability. This x-ray view illustrates the type of inspection required on an increasing number of industrial applications.

Close dimensional control is still a primary objective in producing this casting. The simple checking fixture illustrated provides an accurate control on key dimensional tolerances. Details of operation are as follows:

Cast hole thru boss at base of casting is placed on locating pin. This establishes first basic measuring line. Casting is swung against fixed pin, see #I. This establishes the second basic plane. Lock screw with handle, see #2, holds clamp block, see #3, in position against top of casting, keeps the casting firmly in position against the fixed pin. Bottom surface resting on fixture establishes third basic plane. Movable block, see #4, rides in slot against casting. Vertical slot cut thru movable block, see #5, checks location and size of boss at end of casting. Contoured ledge, see #6, checks location, parallelism and squareness of smaller horizontal bosses. The checking fixture duplicates locating points on drilling and milling fixture, and this insures accuracy of machining operations.

The Aerospace industry places structural reliability first in a casting and is willing to sacrifice machining time by allowing realistic dimensional tolerances to achieve it. In the commercial field, that is, castings for industry other than aerospace, the emphasis is on elimination of machining operations by casting to size as many dimensions as possible. As greater speeds and higher performance are built into modern equipment, complexity and reliability problems are being developed very similar to those encountered in aerospace designs. Good foundry practice based on aerospace quality control and the use of effective functional gages and fixtures provide the means for producing hictol industrial castings.

Mount Plate - For lamp manufacture - Cast complete, ready for use except for minor polishing, in wear-resistant cobalt base alloy. As-cast hardness RC 58. Casting tolerances: thickness 0.003, width 0.003, slotted hole 0.0025.

Burner Nozzle - Ability to cast 24 angular holes and keep the O.D. of each hole tangent to surface of large interior bore within a total of .002 is the unique feature of this "hictol" casting, made of heat-resistant Stainless Steel.

Catheter Y - Surgical application of this aluminum alloy casting requires pit-free surfaces. Finish operations on casting limited to reaming and polishing.

Stamp Die Blank - Used for holding marking dies in postal equipment. Outside dimension and irregular shaped recesses are cast to tolerances of .003. These brass castings are produced ready for use except for machining I.D

Cam - Function of this air hardening tool steel casting is to pick up and set lids for coffee-can closure machine. Cam is cast to size.

Cam Track - The helical slot was impossible to make by conventional methods. A "hictol" oil-hardening tool steel casting solved the problem. Slot is cast to tolerance of +/- .003.

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