Implementation of Metal Casting Best Practices - EERE - U.S. ...

educe machining time, increase casting yield, and reduce the weight of the castings produced.
Some iron foundries have reported promising results by conducting their own tests and have
implemented the process of holding iron castings for a period before they ship them. Their
customers have reported an improvement in machinability; the success at these foundries
warrants another look at this alternative by the Iron Foundry-2 staff.
3. Conclusion
Iron Foundry-2 was aware of the free tools and services offered by ITP. The facility has actively
worked with the CMC and ITP and has sought out the results from the R&D efforts to improve
its bottom line. The facility has been proactive in engaging their utility to improve their energy
efficiency and lower their energy bills. The facility does not perform any modeling on site, and
relies on its parent company’s development laboratory to model all of the castings.
There were a few areas of improvement that the assessment team noted, the most critical being
training their engineering staff on how to develop a business case or cost analysis for a given
energy efficiency project. In addition, the facility staff was skeptical regarding the UMR results
on aging of iron; the facility could potentially benefit from examining those research results and
running its own trials.
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