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Rafamet Foundry completed several exceptionally large and heavy castings for RAFAMET Company on behalf of a Turkish customer – Gülermak Çelik Konstrüksiyon – for the KCI 600/1000 N machine tool. The heaviest and largest of these are the beam, table and bed – casting the beam was the biggest challenge. Like other castings of this type, it was made in a moulding pit. These are concrete caissons filled with moulding sand and located underground. It should be noted that the Rafamet foundry uses 7 pits for the production of heavy castings. The longest of them, in which the beam has just been produced, is 20 metres long, 4 metres wide and 2 metres deep – explained Adam Witecki, President of the Management Board of Rafamet Foundry.

The beam mould consisted of 55 elements that had to be assembled like blocks in order to perfectly reproduce the shape of the casting.

What’s interesting is that they are not arranged horizontally. The difference in height (known as mould deflection) between the centre and the sides is up to 20 mm – adds the president of Rafamet Foundry.

To prepare the metal, 38,000 kg of scrap and 5,000 kg of foundry pig iron were melted at a temperature of 1,520°C. Special additives such as ferrosilicon, ferromanganese, carburiser and tin were also added to give the metal the required properties. – The mould was poured with liquid metal at a temperature of 1,340°C, which was prepared for 3 hours. The actual pouring of the mould took 120 seconds, during which 43,000 kg of cast iron was poured into the mould from ladles suspended from two cranes – informed the President.

It is worth mentioning that this is the longest casting produced in the foundry. Its length was 14,200 mm. The weight of the product is 37,700 kg – indeed, the mass of the casting is impressive. But we have already completed larger projects. Our heaviest casting so far weighed over 40 tonnes – admitted Adam Witecki, adding that such large castings are not produced very often. However, there is a considerable demand for castings weighing between 10,000 and 30,000 kg, which the foundry produces in quantities of 1-2 pieces per week, mainly for customers from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Spain.