Casting Production
With an emphasis on service and flexibility, Vanguard Foundry Ltd offers two distinctly different moulding systems to its customers, a high-pressure green sand moulding line and a chemically bonded boxless moulding system. The green sand system, based on the Heinrich Wagner Sinto (HWS) moulding machine, is ideally suited to the smaller product with repeating or high-volume demand.
The chemically bonded system with its variable mould size can cater for much larger castings and also suits the low volume items which repeat rarely if ever. Both systems give good dimensional stability and repeatability.
Greensand Moulding
Special cast irons covers a multitude of materials but high silicon-molybdenum and austempered ductile irons are two in regular production at Vanguard Foundry Ltd. High silicon-molybdenum irons were developed to meet the increasing demand for high-strength ductile irons capable of operating at high temperatures. This material ideally suited applications such as manifolds and
turbocharger housings where strength, oxidation resistance, structural stability and resistance to thermal cycling are key to performance.
Austempered ductile iron was developed to provide a cost-effective material with high-strength but more importantly excellent wear resistance. The combination of strength and resistance to abrasion whilst retaining some ductility make it an ideal material for agriculture, construction, mining, gears and many other diverse applications.
Boxless Moulding
Originally, the airset moulding system at Vanguard was created to provide a development facility for our customers to minimise initial investments but the system has been expanded and developed and is now a product unit in its own right.
Patterns which may be wood, resin or metal are mounted in compact frames and supplied to the mixer head from a carousel transfer unit. The carousel then moves the pattern and sand around to the stripping station during which time the chemical reaction occurs giving a rigid mould, without the need for external support.
The mould is given a coating to prevent sand burn on the finished casting before being closed and transferred to the casting line for pouring. The maximum mould size on this section is 1200mm x 1000mm x 500mm/500mm and a maximum casting weight of 200kg.