Foundry is a classical type of manufacturing technology with a long tradition and traditionally high standards in the Czech industrial environment. The major advantages of foundry technology include the fact that it allows for the manufacturing of both massive thick-walled casts and thin-walled casts, products with complex shapes with sophisticated systems of inside cavities and specific properties, following both from the cast alloy type and from the crystalline structure, physical and chemical properties of the alloys. Casting can be used for the production of alloys which cannot be economically processed by other technologies. For these reasons, the role of a foundry in engineering practice is irreplaceable. Further development of the foundry is mainly oriented towards: the rapidly growing requirements for the properties of the cast alloys, accuracy and quality of casts, an increase in productivity and, last but not least, the necessity to reduce the energy and material demands of the manufacturing process.

We offer the following:

• Design and optimisation of foundry technology for the manufacture of iron and nonferrous metal alloy casts
• Vacuum metallurgy and the development and manufacture of samples and casts of alloy steel and nickel alloys cast in self-hardening moulds
• Vacuum metallurgy and the development and manufacture of special casts of nickel, cobalt and titanium and TiAl alloys by precise casting in fusible model technology
• The study of the crystallisation of graphitic casts, the development of technology and manufacture of casts of graphitic and carbide alloy casts
• The study of the crystallisation of aluminium, the development of technology and manufacture of aluminium alloy casts in sand and metal moulds
• Development of environmental protein-based organic moulding mixtures
• Measurement of the technological properties of moulding and core mixtures, measurement of binder and sharpening material properties
• Design and implementation of experiments for testing the properties of materials used in foundry practice (testing of filters, discards, moulding mixtures, runner systems) in laboratories and semi-operational conditions
• Measurement of thermal fields in casts and moulds during the course of manufacturing casts of iron, aluminium, nickel and cobalt based alloys
• Analysis of the chemical composition of iron, aluminium and copper based alloys by spectral analysis and combustion methods
• Analysis of aluminium alloy structures, research, vaccination and modifications, defect analysis, specification of gasification levels, thermal analysis of aluminium alloys
• Modelling of foundry processes by means of numerical simulations
• Production of metallographic samples and their evaluation for iron, nickel, aluminium and copper based metals and alloys
• Analysis of metal flow and solidification, optimisation of runner systems and discards, prediction of the occurrence of foundry defects, calculations of thermal stress and cast deformations
• Analysis of iron and nonferrous metal and alloy cast defects, their prediction and repair
• Preparation and organisation of professional foundry training courses

Equipment:

• Sanding laboratory equipped with +Georg Fischer+ series instrumentation
• Laboratory annealing furnace with a volume of 2 dm³ and a temperature range up to 1600°C
• Complete metallographic laboratory, metallographic microscope and stereo microscope
• Apparatus for the thermal analysis of aluminium alloys and specification of the gasification level
• Vacuum induction CONSARC furnace with a capacity of 80kg for Fe, Ni and Co alloy smelting in air, vacuum or a protective atmosphere with air casting
• Vacuum induction IS2/I Heraeus furnace for smelting and casting Ni and Co alloys in a vacuum or protective atmosphere
• Smelting laboratory for research on nonferrous metals and alloys
• Heavy laboratory equipped with induction smelting furnaces with a capacity of 250 and 500 kg for smelting and the manufacture of casts and test samples of Fe, Ni and Cu based alloys
• Complex equipment for the manufacture of phenol resin based self-hardening moulds (ALPHASET) and the manual manufacture of bentonite moulds
• Q4 TASMAN table spark optical emission spectrometer for the analysis of chemical composition of Fe, Al and Cu metals and alloys
• G4 ICARUS combustion analyser for C and S level analyses
• LECO combustion analyser for N and O level analysis
• OXYTERM and FEROTRRON devices for the measurement of oxygen activity in liquid metals and alloys
• Furnaces for the thermal processing of metals and alloys up to 1100 °C
• PROCAST and QUICKCAST simulation SW
• AdamView and DaqView SW for the measurement of temperatures up to 2300 °C with the help of ADAM and OMR inverters