Torpedo Housing - The oil industry uses this 17-4PH stainless steel casting to make soundings thousands of feet deep. Sometimes the equipment gets "hung-up" deep down in the well casing. The casting must be able to withstand a direct pull of 5000 lbs. which may be used to retrieve it. In order to load and assemble test equipment within the housing, it must be made in two perfectly matching parts. An analysis of the function of the part showed that casting each half separately wouldn't be satisfactory. Warpage and variation in cast dimensions would make it impossible to match two pieces within working tolerances.

The dilemma was solved as follows:

To guarantee that the two halves would match, it was decided to make the part in one piece and split it as recommended by EpCo. This meant (1) a method for splitting had to be devised and (2 ) casting had to be straight, concentric and within tolerance. Failure to match the separated halves would result in complete scrappage. An ingenius fixture for sawing, designed and built by EpCo, overcame obstacle #1 and extraordinary foundry controls took care of item #2.

Figure I shows housing as a one piece casting. Figure 2 shows it after splitting, ready for assembly. Gages are Lised to check size and concentricity. Housing is produced and packaged by EpCo, ready for inventory when received by the customer.

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