Grey Iron & Ductile Castings

Andes Cast Metals

From our global supplier base, we provide engineered “as cast” and finished castings and assemblies to our customers in automotive, off-road, rail, and other industries with just-in-time deliveries or warehoused in the states.

Gray iron is one of the oldest cast ferrous products. Despite competition from newer materials gray iron is still used for those applications where its properties have proved it to be the most suitable material available. Next to wrought steel, gray iron is the most widely used metallic material for engineering purposes. Production of gray iron castings is about two and one-half times the volume of all other types of castings combined. There are several reasons for its popularity and widespread use. It has many desirable characteristics not possessed by any other metal and yet is among the cheapest of ferrous materials available to the engineer.

Gray iron is one of the most easily cast of all metals in the foundry. It has the lowest pouring temperature of the ferrous metals, which is reflected in its high fluidity and its ability to be cast into intricate shapes. As a result of a peculiarity during the final stages of solidification, it has very low and, in some cases, no liquid to solid shrinkage so that sound castings are readily obtainable. For the majority of applications, gray iron is used in its as-cast condition, thus simplifying production. Gray iron has excellent machining qualities producing easily disposed of chips and yielding a surface with excellent wear characteristics. The resistance of gray iron to scoring and galling with proper matrix and graphite structure is universally recognized. Gray iron castings can be produced by virtually any well-known foundry process.

Andes Cast Metals Foundry has operated in Sabaneta, Colombia since its founding in 2001. ( https://rossint.com/la-estrella/) The foundry is dedicated to the production of gray and nodular iron in small and medium-sized batches of pieces from ½ lb. up to 30 lbs.

The plant was designed and built with the latest technology to ensure the highest standards of quality, industrial safety, and environmental conservation.

The flexible design of the plant also allows us to serve medium and small volume markets in different industry sectors.

The service offerings include assisting with the design of new products from the prototype stage to final production.

They have been certified compliant with ISO standards since 2003 – in 2018, they were re-certified to the ISO 9001:2015 standard.

Industry-leading automotive, agricultural, and other equipment manufacturers depend on their quality iron castings to meet their stringent requirements.

Grades of Iron Castings

Melt Capacity

  • 6 MT per hour melt capacity
  • Four 3 MT Inductotherm Coreless induction furnaces
  • Automatic Shaker conveyors to weigh and charge furnaces

Metal Treatment and Pouring

  • Tundish ladle treatment for MgFeSi treatment of ductile iron
  • Monorail system for molten metal transport
  • 500 lb. pouring ladles – manual lip pour
  • 100% microscopic verification of each ductile iron treatment

Casting Range

  • ½ lb. to 30 lbs.

Molding System

  • Two Sinto high-pressure horizontal green sand molding machines
  • 20×24 inch – 7 over 7
  • 20×26 inch – 10 over 10
  • Run rate ~ 80 molds/hour each machine

Sand System

  • Simpson 100 BP Muller
  • Hartley controller
  • 50 tons/hour mixing capacity
  • 100 MT green sand storage silo
  • 60 MT new sand storage Silo

Shakeout

  • Didion Rotary Shakeout
  • Carrier Shaking table for gate removal

Cleaning Room

  • 2 – 18 ft Wheelabrator tumble blast machines
  • 6 – 30-inch Pedestal grinding stations

Core Making

  • Cold set core-making process
  • Gaylord Core machines
  • 2 – Automatic machine ~ 1 min cycle time – 12” x 16”
  • 1 – Semi-auto machine ~ 1.5 min cycle time – 8” x 8”
  • 1 – Manual Machine ~ 3 min cycle time – Size
  • Core wash capability as required

100 % visual inspection of castings

  • Dimensional Gage inspection – as required by the customer
  • Castings packed in wooden crates with desiccant & VCI bags

Laboratory

  • Metallurgist on Staff
  • Full metallographic analysis capability
  • Complete Green sand testing capability
  • Spectrometer – ARL 595 (22 elements analyzed)
  • Thermal Arrest capability – Electro-Nite
  • Brinell hardness testing
  • Tensile testing – Contracted locally

Quality / Environmental

  • ISO 9000:2015 certification
  • Fully compliant with all state & local environmental permits