Latest from Issues and Ideas

Taqtile
With the introduction of Manifest 4.0, managers of multi-location industrial workforces can control access to specific content by individual employees, entire teams, or even locations.
Sascha Winter | Dreamstime
Large language model concept illustration.
Humtown Products
Sand printing at Humtown Products.
Resand Ltd.
The modular Resand electric sand reclaimer can be installed in four to five months, to clean 1,000 kg of sand per hour.
ASK Chemicals
001024askfigure5
Intl. Federation of Robotics
The U.S. automotive sector accounted for one-third of new robot installations in 2023, although the actual number of new units installed fell -15% from the previous year.
Norican
Monitizer | Discover’s alarm functions enhance production control and support inexperienced users. If an issue needs attention, the system contacts different groups of people in different waves, sequentially, depending on how the problem develops, and whether the first alerted group reacts. “If a machine runs outside its ‘green’ operating zone, the supervisor gets alerted,” according to Grede St. Cloud foundry general manager Bart Hoemann.
Jill Lehmann | Dreamstime
Sands through and hourglass.
Jonathan Weiss
Warped view of a $100 bill, representing high interest rates.
Image
  1. Issues and Ideas

New Comparators for Defining Casting Surface Quality

June 14, 2010
The basis for ASTM A802/A802M – 95 (2006) Standard Practice for Steel Castings, Surface Acceptance Standards, Visual Examination

Castings Technology International (Cti) has developed “tactile comparators” that will help casting buyers specify and assess surface quality and surface texture more accurately and definitively. They provide a practical and functional alternative to photographic representation of casting surfaces in standards like MSS SP-55-2001.

Cti, in Rotherham, England, is a member-based, ISO 9001-accredited organization with over 90 multi-disciplinary personnel providing R&D, consultancy and technical services to casting producers and users around the world. Contact Cti’s CEO Mike Ashton for more details.

More than 1,000 of these sets of comparators are used around the world by multi-national companies and by small enterprises. The durable plastic comparator plates, actual replicas of relevant characteristics of surface finish, have proved to be a preferred way for metalcasters to reach agreement with buyers on the required surface quality of a finished product. They also provide the basis for acceptance of the castings after the order has been placed.

Cti’s comparators form the basis of ASTM A802/A802M – 95 (2006) Standard Practice for Steel Castings, Surface Acceptance Standards, Visual Examination. This standard comprises 31 comparators that define features such as surface roughness, surface inclusions, laps and cold shuts, surface finish after thermal and mechanical dressing, etc.

A larger set of 48 comparators applies to ISO 11971:2008 Steel and Iron Castings – Visual examination of surface quality; BS EN 1370:1997 Founding – Surface roughness inspection by visual tactile comparators; BS EN 12454:1998 Founding — Visual examination of surface discontinuities, Steel sand castings.

According to Cti, foundries that already have the ‘short’ ASTM A802 set can upgrade to the larger set by purchasing the 17 additional comparator plates.

A third set of 14 comparators, the basis of BS 7900:1998 Specification for examination of the surface texture of precision steel castings, is applicable for buying steel castings manufactured by precision casting techniques, such as resin-shell molding, lost wax, Shaw process, etc.