Case Study
WCB Standard Rubber Casting
- Size: 42 lbs.
- *Notes: Lower cost casting reduces rework
TPM’s customer had typically used a sand cast part that is encased in a rubber coating for their drilling equipment assemblies. The surrounding components are high wear items so the assembly is interchanged at regular intervals. The rubber coating is often compromised, requiring a replacement part. The standard procedure is to remove the rubber via a high temperature chemical process that is messy and time consuming. The casting is then cleaned up and inspected for damage, and if there is no damage it can be recoated in rubber. If it is damaged it is scrapped.
The desired option was to come up with a lower cost casting option so that during the changeover process if the rubber was compromised a new rubber coated casting could be used and the old component discarded all at an equal or lower cost than the rework process.
TPM suggested a shell mold option from our partner foundry in Asia as the solution. The shell mold process resulted in better lower cost cast parts and tighter tolerances reducing machining costs. As an added bonus the shell mold part is a robust and more sound casting fitting the same rubber injection molds. In the end TPM’s customer is able to meet the goal of having the overall cost of a new rubber coated casting being less cost than the rework option and eliminating the messy rubber removal process. TPM’s ability to seamlessly provide creative casting options made the difference for this project.
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