Design

Together with our customers

…we follow our version of Simultaneous Engineering. We – or, more specifically, our colleagues from production – can explain numerous details of a material’s “castability” and the possibilities it offers in terms of production, and they can offer solid advice on production choices; with our years of experience, we are also no strangers to the possibilities (and limits) of machining. In the end, however, only our customers know the individual applications the parts are destined for. Or would you have thought to consider that the Moscow underground rails occasionally contract so far due to seasonal temperature change that the train carriages almost have to “hop” from rail to rail, rather than simply rolling along? And that the brake housings have to have thicker, stronger walls for just that reason? So thick, in fact, that parts made from normal SG cast iron would be so large that they wouldn’t fit under the carriages anymore? This was news to us – but, by using ADI, we were able to offer a sensible, reasonably-priced part suitable for our casting processes; any part made of high-quality steel would have been significantly more expensive.

Cast Iron Instead of Aluminium

scoff the sceptics, in view of current trends (in both marketing and practice). It’s true that “lightweight” construction/material is both very much in fashion at the moment, and that it’s appearing in constructions every time we turn around – at least as much because it sounds good and has a certain cachet, as because the properties are advantageous. Often, the reasoning behind its use appears questionable – why would you use expensive aluminium, which, by the bye, is extremely energetically intensive to produce, when a half-as-costly (if admittedly “old-fashioned) casting would do the job? The casting may well be the better choice if – if? when – it’s properly designed.

Dedication to Design

At Brechmann-Guss, we have our own production design department, which advises customers during the design and development process, simulates the casting process to examine the feasibility of production for various components, makes suggestions regarding later machining processes if necessary (clamping, stresses, etc.) if applicable, checks critical tolerance levels, if possible with corresponding computer-modelling techniques (such as setting narrower tolerances in only one half of the model), places openings in the pattern for later fettling, and… and… and…