Prestigious national industry award
Prestigious national industry award
Leading engineers Sheffield Forgemasters has won a prestigious national industry award and received a standing ovation in the process.
Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd (SFIL) was declared winner of the Cast Component of the Year Award 2006 at the Cast Metals Industry Dinner organised by the Cast Metals Federation, for the manufacture of Europe's largest ever steel casting at 325 tons.
The phenomenal casting forms the carcass of the Bohler Press, which will make the superstructural components for the world's largest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380.
The casting was made for the vast Bohler Press in Germany and Forgemasters'DVD of the casting process was played to 200 of the UK's leading foundrymen and their guests at the awards who, recognising the outstanding achievement of their colleagues at Sheffield Forgemasters, honoured it with a standing ovation.
The Cast Metals Federation Awards are the industry's Oscars and show the“Best of British Casting” showcasing the innovations and achievements of the UK foundry industry.
Graham Honeyman, Chief Executive at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “The award means a great deal to our dedicated team who were responsible for putting the casting process together to achieve success on a project of this scale.”
“We are one of a select few foundries in the world capable of producing something on the scale of the Bohler Press.”
“Every part of the process is on an expanded scale, even the time. It takes approximately three-weeks for the molten metal to solidify in a cast of that size.”
Figure 1 The massive 325 ton casting which forms the carcass of a massive Bohler press which manufactures superstructural components for the Airbus 380
The company, which has been based in Sheffield for more than 200 years,specialises in producing some of the largest engineered products in the world,with the facility to produce single castings of up to 350 tons from one pour of molten metal, and forgings of up to 200 tons (Figure 1).
