Give every iron casting a heat number, a pattern and a test bar.

Foundry work begins with a charge sheet and ends with a casting stamped with a heat number. In between come a pattern, a core, a mould, a ladle of molten iron and a sand shakeout. A flaw such as shrinkage, a sand hole or low nodularity often shows up long after pouring. The record of the heat is the only way back to the cause.

Iron foundry software puts the heat, the charge, the pattern and the test results on one casting record. It links moulding, melting, fettling and quality. Each heat record mirrors your own furnace practice, moulding line and fettling shop, and prints in the certificate layout your customers ask for.

An order for pump bodies, brake drums, manhole frames or machine bases arrives with a drawing, a grade and a quantity. The planner picks the pattern from the rack, checks that cores can be made in time and works out how many moulds fit into the day’s heats. In the melting bay the crew weighs a charge of pig iron, steel scrap and returns, and a spectro sample decides if the carbon and silicon are right. For ductile iron, magnesium treatment and inoculation follow.

Moulds are made on the line, cores are set, and the ladle pours at the checked temperature. After cooling the casting is shaken out, the gates are cut, and the casting goes to fettling and shot blasting. A test bar from each heat goes to the lab for tensile and hardness. Rejects are sorted by cause. Good castings are heat treated or machined, then packed.