NEWCAST Award 2007

Best Substitution of an Alternative Manufacturing Process The innovative power of clever designed castings shall in no way be underestimated, as it directly results in a superior performance of the final product. It is the objective of the NEWCAST Award to stress this relevance of cast products. The price was awarded for the first time during this year’s NEWCAST fair in June in Duesseldorf. The jury judged castings that clearly show the advantage of cast solutions compared to solutions produced by other manufacturing processes. CLAAS GUSS received the award in the category “best substitution of an alternative manufacturing process”. The winning part – a motor socket for a hydraulic motor in a harvesting machine – had originally been produced by welding. Ten individual parts had to be cut, pre-machined and welded in a complex process. Furthermore a subsequent final machining step was necessary. In contrast the one-piece cast solution, developed by CLAAS GUSS, is a very economic solution that can even be produce without the use of cores. Only a one-step final machining is necessary to prepare the part for assembly. Beside the economic advantage the cast part is characterised by significantly superior life time when compared to the welded construction. Durability is based on a very even stress level that results from taking over characteristic design features from topology optimisation. The manufacturing process of casting allows the realisation of these characteristic features. Free form geometry as well as varying wall thickness lead to a design that is adapted to the operating loads in an ideal way.