Industrial Ferguson Foundry Corp knows how important quality non-ferrous castings are to our customers. We can customize quality control processes to fit your company's requirements. Our quality control procedures accomplished every day in our foundry operation are listed below. We can handle foundry jobs using your drawings to provide prototype, pattern and core boxes as required. We will engineer and make permanent wood or aluminum patterns and core boxes to meet your production needs. We have good local pattern shops that can fulfill those needs. Machining and plating is also sub-contracted. Industrial Ferguson Foundry Corp is up-to-date on all environmental and OSHA issues. METAL CONTROL All raw material used in Industrial Ferguson Foundry Corp's operation is certified ingot. Each load of ingot is backed by a certified certificate of analysis from the ingot supplier. This certificate can be supplied upon your request. All material, by alloy, is kept separate in the manufacturing process, this, no contamination between alloys. Test bars are available, upon request, which will supply the customer with physical and chemical properties of the various alloys. MELT CONTROL Metal temperature is very critical in the melting and pouring of metal. Immersion temperature pyrometers, wall mounted, are used to determine metal temperature during the melting cycle and to also determine proper pouring temperature prior to pouring. These pyrometers are periodically calibrated by the manufacturer to insure accuracy at all times. A letter of accuracy is on file in our office. PURE COPPER Melting pure copper demands specific control of the melting of the metal to achieve good castings with proper conductivity. We guarantee 85% I.A.C.S. minimum conductivity. Each heat is checked with a conductivity meter. SAND CONTROL MOLDING SAND Molding sand is stringently maintained through screening, testing and calculated additions. We use AFS 180 grain fineness olivine sand in our molding operation. Western and southern bentonite are used as binders, with the addition of stabilizer to insure against buckles tears, etc. Water is introduced along with the sand, binders and stabilizer in a muller with percentage of water at 2.5 - 3%. This is all controlled via a sand lab where moisture, green strength, and permeability are checked routinely 2 times a day, morning and afternoon. SHELL CORE SAND Shell sand is purchased as pre-coated resin is determined by the strength required of the core, generally in the range of 1 1/2%, 2%, 2 1/2%, 3%, 3 1/2%, and 4%. CO2 CORE SAND CO2 sand consists of AFS 90 grain fineness, mixed by a muller, with CO2 binder a sodium silicate solution. Proper amounts of binder are necessary to allow core to be handled and will collapse properly when used in the casting operation. We also use Alpha set, no bake cores. CASTING QUALITY - OUT GOING INSPECTION 1. VISUAL INSPECTION All castings are inspected from the molding operation through the grinding and cleaning operation. After all of the above operations are complete at the time of packaging, each casting is visually inspected.