Foundries
Read Industrial has three foundries for metal casting. We have furnaces that can melt stainless steel, aluminium, brass, cast iron and specialty alloys. Because of our foundries, we have the capability to make many types of parts. Such as, irrigation components, impellers and casings for pumps, as well as glands and fittings for rotary and herringbone milking systems.
Besides making our own parts, we also use our foundry for batch production of small to medium sized parts that other businesses need. For example, we supply high performance components for the marine and aeronautical industries. High-end castings for the health sector, meat, dairy, food and agricultural industries. As well as and not limited to one off castings for sculptured artworks, vintage cars, motorbike parts & traction engines.
You name it, we'll melt it
We have three types of foundries: sand casting, die casting, and lost wax – investment casting.
Our sand casting foundry uses CNC made metal and polystyrene molds to create the patterns we need. For low cost parts made in ferrous metals, such as steel and stainless steel, we tend to use sand casting. Or, for parts made in non-ferrous metals, such as aluminium, we use die-casting. We can also cast specialty alloys and copper. Both sand and die casting produce good overall surface finish.
We have two aluminium resistance furnaces, each of 300 kg capacity (900 °C). For cast iron, brass and stainless steel, we have an 80 kg induction furnace (1,500 °C +).
However, if the design calls for greater surface finish detail, or has complex geometries, we use investment casting using the lost wax method. Our investment casting foundry has two 150 kg capacity induction furnaces. Find out more about investment casting >>>
