We can help you, design engineers!
July 2, 2010
- “Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.
In a recent survey of design engineers , Product Design and Development magazine found that four major challenges exist in the new product development process:
1. Project management
2. Controlling costs
3. Improving time to market
4. Component selection
Building Molds, Building Relationships
May 19, 2010
Graphicast recently sold a mold to National Optronics, Charlottesville VA. Since 2005, National Optronics has developed 8 tools producing value added cast and machined parts with Graphicast.
National Optronics, a manufacture of eye glass lens grinding equipment ,looks to Graphicast to make value added components for their equipment. Graphicast often reviews part and assembly prints for their equipment with them to determine if we can achieve cost savings by combining multiple parts into a single casting. Other savings are found when it is more economical to machine a casting than to machine a component from bar stock.
More than your average win-win situation, this has become a rare and appreciated relationship. A few years of review, understanding and design collaboration has lead to strong and fluid communications between the organizations. Today, projects are developed start to finish with relative ease, savings are realized, and at the end of a project, well, speaking for Graphicast, we are happy to have completed another job for National Optronics.
Graphicast Process Featured in Latest Designfax Issue
May 11, 2010
The Graphicast LTA casting process is highlighted in the feature article in Designfax Issue 18. Designfax offers tips and guidelines for design engineers, a key audience for our process information.
Interzinc Goes to Texas
April 22, 2010
Thanks to Doug Rourke of the International Zinc Association for his feedback from Texas:
Interzinc, the zinc casting market development organization (www.interzinc.org), made a swing through Texas with seminars in Dallas, Austin and Houston. The seminars received enthusiastic response from attendees who learned how zinc castings can produce lower cost and better performing parts due to the excellent mechanical properties of zinc alloys and the efficient casting processes
Doug Rourke – International Zinc Association
Graphicast Featured in Casting Tutorial in the April Issue of Product Design and Development
April 17, 2010
- “Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.
Product Design and Development features Graphicast in its tutorial, “Casting 101″, in the April issue of the magazine. Several casting suppliers offer their guidance on what to think about when considering casting as a manufacturing process. This is not the first time Product Design and Development has recognized our graphite permanent mold process. Over the past five years, the magazine has featured us five other times, highlighting the many attributes of the process that designers should consider when looking for lower cost, higher performance manufacturing methods.
Design2Part Show Dallas
March 11, 2010
Traffic has been good both days, with an unusual number of attendees from local machine shops yesterday. Their customers are pressing for lower part cost, and one solution is a near net shape casting that requires minimal secondary machining. Lower cost solutions seem to be driving most attendees this year, although I have been encouraged to to see a number of design engineers show up with projects they are working on that will potentially involve castings.
Graphicast LTA Casting Process Described in Detail on New Video
March 4, 2010
We’ve just posted a new video to the Graphicast You Tube channel. You can now see the Graphicast LTA casting process unfold in slow motion, with each step explained in a thrilling narration. Just like in the Olympics, breaking the action down into slow motion with analysis along the way helps you better understand what’s happening during the process and, hopefully, gives you a better appreciation of the finer points of the process.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Graphicast, But Were Afraid to Ask
February 11, 2010
With no apologies to Woody Allen for the title, we do get a lot of questions about how our process works. And not just our casting process, but the whole process, from beginning to end. How do we design and make the molds, how do we program the CNC machines, how does the CMM work, etc. We’ve tried to answer these questions with a virtual Graphicast plant tour, highlighting the process we follow in developing a new part for you. All of this is in a 4 1/2 minute video on the Graphicast channel on You Tube. You can see all your favorite Graphicast characters (and they are characters), including a cameo role by your blogger as a CNC machinist. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the video should be worth millions. I hope you find it helpful to your understanding of Graphicast, and how we work with you to make your parts.
American managed.
Graphicast Inc. •
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