Gray and Ductile Iron Cast Plate and Bar Stock

Replacing steel weldments or bar stock with gray or ductile iron can reduce machining times by as much as 50%. OK Foundry custom casts gray and ductile iron plate stock for machine shops and OEM's in hard to find shapes and sizes.

Add bosses, shoulders, and cut outs to your cast iron plate stock for additional savings in machining time.

OK Foundry can help you decide if a continuous cast or sand cast product is the best solution for your application. For applications where sand casting is appropriate, dramatic reductions in machining time can be made by casting non machined features to near net shapes.

Sand castings can further reduce machining time for gray and ductile iron applications.

As Cast Features Eliminate Machining

The near net shapes possible with sand casting completely eliminates machining for non critical surfaces. The examples pictured to the right, show food die plates with hinge and closing features cast into the ends of the plates. While the body of the plate is extensively machined, only a few surfaces and some holes are needed in the as cast hinges and locking tabs. These food dies aslo include as cast part numbers and location of manufacture.

Contact OK Foundry to see how you can eliminate machining with castings.

Sand Cast for Larger Sizes

Continous cast plate from Dura-Bar is limited to 24" long by 18" wide. When you need larger gray or ductile iron plate stock, sand casting is the answer.

Likewise, tube stock is limited to 20" in diameter. OK Foundry can cast large rounds or rings of modest thickness in gray and ductile iron.

It's hard to imagine a bar stock profile that cannot be accomodated with continuous cast product, but some shapes may only be available in sand castings.

While all sand castings require a foundry pattern, the simple geometry of most stock shapes and OK Foundry's in house pattern making, keep pattern costs to a minimum.

Contact OK Foundry to quote larger sizes.

Foundry Direct for More Savings

While the continuous cast foundries of Dura-Bar have tremendous economies of scale, the distribution of continous cast product into manageable quantities close to buyers adds several layers of markup and overheads. For modest volumes of castings, it can actually be cheaper to have plate or bar stock custom cast. The breakeven point for investing in a foundry pattern happens quickly with simple geometries of plate or bar stock, and distributor markups are avoided altogether.

OK Foundry can help you find the best alternative for cast iron plate and bar stock needs.