Watching a new guy at the Canton foundry pour a simple bracket changed how I look at gates

I was over at the Canton plant last month, helping them with a big order of steel pump housings. This young guy, maybe his third week, was pouring a small bracket mold. He had the gates set up in a straight line off the main runner, nothing fancy. The part came out clean, no shrinkage, and it passed the first x-ray. It made me think we overcomplicate things sometimes, adding curves and extra gates 'for safety' that just make more work and scrap. I've been running my own gates in a simpler, straighter layout for about three weeks now and my scrap rate on similar jobs is down by almost 8%. Has anyone else found that going back to basics on gating actually improved their castings?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_ramirez675d ago

Yeah, that's it exactly. We get so caught up in the fancy theory and the CAD software we forget what actually works on the floor. Straight and simple just lets the metal do its thing. My old foreman used to say a confused stream makes a bad casting, and he was right.

sage_perry5d ago

My buddy at the other shop had the same thing happen. He was making these motor mounts and the prints called for this crazy curved gate system. He tried it the simple way, just a straight shot off the runner, on a hunch. The quality control guy almost didn't believe the first one. Said it was the cleanest fill he'd seen on that part in years. They changed the standard work because of it.