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CGI cylinder block crosses the finishing line in first place

Issued at 2011-02-09



A V8 cylinder block made for General Motors’ first purpose built NASCAR racing engine has won the UK’s Casting of the Year Award 2010. The result was announced during a sell-out UK cast metals industry awards dinner which highlighted an industry recovering well from the recession and producing innovative world-class castings.

Cast in compacted graphite iron by Grainger & Worrall, the thin walled complex strong casting won for a combination of: technical achievement, including +/- 0.75 bore concentricity and ability to withstand thermal loading on the core which is 2.4mm between cylinder bores; and the role the component has played in GW’s success dominating the sector as the majority suppler of its cylinder blocks for the NASCAR grid.

“Winning the UK Casting of the Year Award is an affirmation of the hard work that has gone into this component,” said Keith Denholm of Grainger & Worrall. “At every stage of its development it has challenged the team, from material to casting, measurement to performance, tooling to consistency, the requirements of the project were met and resolved. It is a component of which we are justly proud and to receive this award is recognition from the UK foundry industry of what we have achieved.”

Close behind Grainger & Worrall’s remarkable engine casting in the awards were the other three finalists, Newby Foundry’s new stylish tap casting, a the casting of a Hamish Mackie sculpture of a Tuna from Lost Wax Developments and a new lockable manhole cover from St Gobain PAM UK.

The success of automotive aluminium diecasting specialist CastAlum following a management buy-out in 2009 earned it the top Company Achievement Award 2010.

When its American parent Contech filed for Chapter 11, liquidation of the Welshpool plant was a strong possibility. However, following a buyout by four of its senior management, the whole workforce has pulled together to create a growing and developing business.

Although the company experienced three months of short time working and other setbacks during the recession, following a clearly communicated statement of intent and a planned programme of investment, CastAlum has now returned to full time working and is heading to exceeding its 50% growth target.

Before the end of 2009 the company had invested in a new £3 million diecasting cell, a new CNC machine in a newly created machine shop facility, with a further seven CNC machines installed during 2010 along with new quality and inspection equipment, bringing the total invested since the MBO to around £10 million.

“We knew we had a great team here so, when the opportunity came up to take it back into local ownership, we ‘grasped the nettle’, provided the investment the business needed to succeed and got the whole workforce motivated and pushing forward,” said Peter Radcliffe managing director. “During the short time working we invested heavily in training, keeping people occupied and developing their skills as well as sending out a message of a new and more successful future.”

CastAlum has increased its workforce from 88 to 148 and, as a consequence of an integrated training programme, has also won a national training award and more recently the Training and Development category at the Powys Business Awards.

Also shortlisted in this category was Bonds Foundry Group for its move into overseas markets where the group now sells to over 16 countries, and over the last four years has seen a five-fold increase in overseas sales, a doubling in turnover, and was recently placed 12th in the Sunday Times International Fast Track 100 in export growth.

Blade Tooling won the Supplier of the Year Award 2010 for its expansion into a one-stop supply of wax and ceramic core production.

Despite the recession the specialist investment casting tooling company responded to customer requests for a one-stop solution by investing heavily in equipment, personnel and services so customers’ tooling could be fully tested without leaving Blade’s plant as well as supplying finished waxes. This has resulted in significantly reduced lead times for the approval of tooling and component production.

“We have not only invested around £2 million in equipment, but also set out to employ experts within the industry to run these fundamentally new areas of production,” said Neil France director. “We have now demonstrated our ability to manufacture large tooling packages on multiple components for customers in the UK and abroad, including testing of the tools in-house. We can also supply fully cored waxes for the customer to produce castings from our own production facility including full ceramic core production. We believe this is a unique service bringing considerable time and cost benefits for our customers.”

Also shortlisted in this category was the Institute of Cast Metals Engineers for its work developing high level training to a degree level for the industry.

Around 160 top UK foundry industry representatives attended the dinner near Birmingham in the UK to celebrate the best of British casting.

“The strong attendance was a testament to our industry’s survival of the recession,” said John Parker, chief executive of the Cast Metals Federation which organises the event. “And the range of castings in our largest ever shortlist for the Casting of the Year Award was remarkable, from an iron racing car engine block to a complex and decorative tap, a beautiful steel sculpture to a new design of manhole cover, showing the range of expertise in the UK.”

Attendees have been very positive in their praise of the event, and plans for the 2011 Dinner are already underway with Thursday 24th November as the prospective date.


Source: Foundry Trade Journal



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