The Castings Group of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) (www.amrc.co.uk) in Sheffield has unveiled Europe’s largest ceramic shell titanium casting ever created from a single pour.

The ‘near net shape’ test piece is the housing of a centrifugal pump designed for highly corrosive applications in the chemical or petrochemical sector; it was poured from a 680kg melt and had a 200kg finished-part weight.

Richard Cook, AMRC Castings’ general manager, said: “This test piece is a significant step forward. We are the UK’s only titanium melting facility, and this sends a clear signal that the country is ‘open for business’ for large-scale titanium casting.

The global capacity for titanium castings — particularly of this size — is small and has actually decreased in recent years, despite growing demand, so there is a clear need for this kind of capability.”

AMRC Castings is now working towards its goal of pouring over 1,000kg of titanium (for a ‘centri-spun’ casting with a 500kg finished-part weight) by May this year, testing the boundaries and limits of its Retech consumable-electrode castings furnace.

This has three interchangeable crucibles capable of melting titanium for castings weighing up to 500kg and 2,000mm in diameter x 2,500mm long. The group is now dealing with enquiries from a number of companies that want to exploit this technology.

Matt Cawood, principal metallurgist, said: “The AMRC is currently engaged in several projects to enable more-complex and higher-integrity castings with improved metallurgical quality and increased dimensional accuracy to be produced.

Having the ability to pour large-scale castings for R&D purposes in a facility with industry-scale equipment and technical expertise is attracting many of the world’s largest users of titanium castings to work with us.”