CASTING TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Casting technology department at Central Metallurgical R & D Institute (CMRDI) was established in the eighties of the last century. The mission of the division is to upgrade technical and theoretical capabilities of the researchers in the field of casting technology in order to transfer this innovative technology to various Egyptian industries. Also, the other mission is to upgrade technical capabilities of the foundry men in the industry through applying training courses. These training courses include ferrous and non-ferrous casting alloys to cover all sectors in Egypt and middle-east as well. Casting technology department founded with an experimental foundry (as a pilot plant) with kind contribution of the Dutch Government through TNO organization as a beginning, followed later by distinguished support from the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation (JICA) . The capacity of that foundry reaches about 2000 t/year, putting it at the top of similar units all over the world. The experimental foundry was established to meet the increasing demands for research and development in metal casting, which remarkably developed in that period, with the establishment of several new foundries in both public and private sectors to cover the needs of the Egyptians industry from spare parts castings; where casting industries have been always considered as the main corner stone for any real industrial development.

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The spare parts required for different sectors, as in all developing countries, represent a real problem due to:

The required components cover a very wide range of products, with rather limited number of parts for each component. The establishment of new production lines is, therefore economically unfeasible.

A good part of equipment operating in the Egyptian industry is rather old; the availability of the needed spare parts at the original supplier is, very often, questionable.

Monopoly of supply of those parts by the original manufacturer, with rather exaggerated prices.

The limited attempts to locally manufacture some of those components are still lacking the scientific approach for selecting and developing the proper material for different operating conditions.

It is crucial to secure the spare parts, with the suitable quality in the proper time to avoid stoppage of the production lines with its consequences on the economical indicators of the production process.

CMRDI, hence, adopted the idea of establishing an experimental foundry with reasonable capacity, where the results of R & D programs at CMRDI could be implemented into saleable high-quality castings that may at least partially contribute to solve the national problem of securing the spare parts needed for different sectors of the Egyptian economy. The foundry was so designed to guarantee a good degree of production flexibility to meet the urgent and unexpected needs of spare parts, yet with quality competitive to the imports.

Over around 35 years, the experimental foundry has been operating on four main axes:

To conduct industrial R & D and Technology transfer programs contracted with different national and international organizations.

Training of foundry engineers and technicians on both national as well regional scales.

Production of the first sample before starting long series production in commercial foundries.

Cover the demands of different Egyptian industrial and service organizations in both civil and military sectors of high-quality spare parts.

Several factors have contributed to the success of that pioneering initiative on both national and international scales.

The accumulated experience at CMRDI in development and selecting new materials for different applications.

Possibility of limited production, some casting spare parts may be required to put a production line in operation.

Distinguished characterization, testing and inspection facilities at CMRDI laboratories.The experimental foundry played a crucial role in execution of several projects in the framework of the national plan of ASRT and STDF aiming at localization of spare parts production in several sectors such as agricultural equipment, chemical industries, flour milling, power generation, paper industry, metallurgical plants and other sectors of strategic importance.