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MEETINGS

The Ductile Iron Production Seminar will be held on February 22-23, 2005 at the Holiday Inn Rolling Meadows Illinois.  Click here for more details and to register for this meeting.

The Ductile Iron Society 2005 June Meeting will be held in South Bend, Indiana on June 15-17, 2005.  Click here for more details and to register for this meeting.

BUSINESS

Precision Metalsmiths, Inc. Receives Patent

Cleveland, Ohio and Markesan, Wisconsin June 2004 - Precision Metalsmiths, Inc. – PMI, with corporate headquarters in Cleveland, OH announces it has been awarded a new patent for investment casting.

A totally new, solid mold investment specifically developed for investment casting platinum jewelry, but also suitable for other applications, and for other high melting alloys such as cobalt chromium, nickel chromium and steels including stainless.

Precision Metalsmiths, Inc., (supplying materials through its subsidiary Wattsworks), announces the availability of a unique new solid mold investment material for casting platinum jewelry and for other uses.

This totally new investment material provides significant advantages over all of the existing platinum investments, whether of the older magnesium phosphate type, or the dental investments which have been adapted to jewelry casting or of the phosphoric acid types which up to now have been preferred for the most demanding work.

Compared to magnesium phosphate jewelry investments of the older type or the more recent dental adaptations, the new investment provides superior finishes, while still providing the capability to be invested and cast the same day.

Compared to the phosphoric acid investments, it provides the great advantage of being used with water. No acid or other liquid are required. The need for the expensive Hazmat packaging is eliminated, as is the need to stock and dilute phosphoric acid on the shop floor. Time is saved and a source of potential errors and accidents is eliminated. Although the investment contains silica, as the other platinum investments do, it contains no other hazardous substance.

The new investment provides added flexibility in processing. Molds can be invested and cast the same day, or they can be invested, fired overnight and cast the next day, or invested and held overnight, then fired and cast the next day. This provides great flexibility in scheduling or adjusting to unforeseen events.

After casting, the investment can be mostly removed by quenching the hot mold in water as is done with gold investments. Alternatively, it can be removed by manual knockout or water blasting.

These advantages over the phosphoric acid investments are achieved with no loss in quality. In fact, in many cases the results are actually improved.

The new investment is covered by US Patent 6,746,528, recently issued to Robert A. Horton and Claude H. Watts, and assigned to PMI.

Visit http://www.wattsworks.com for more information on investment casting materials including, premium solid mold investments, superior investment casting waxes and other investment casting materials for the industrial and jewelry investment casting trades.

Visit http://www.precisionmetalsmiths.com for more information on PMI.

Precision Metalsmiths, Inc. was founded in 1945 by Robert R. Miller.  PMI’s pioneering work in investment casting set the standard for its innovative approach to research and development.  More than 200 U.S. and foreign patents have been issued to PMI on casting methods, materials, and processing equipment.

PMI is recognized throughout the world as a leader in the investment casting¹ process and in related technologies.  PMI has both ferrous and non-ferrous capabilities at their facilities in Cleveland, Ohio and Markesan, Wisconsin with licensees worldwide.  Proprietary methods allow PMI to create near net shape metal parts with lower cost and consistently better quality than traditional investment casting.  PMI takes pride in their reputation for producing quality castings.  At PMI every casting becomes a testimonial to their commitment to quality.

PMI uses proprietary methods to create consistent, high quality investment castings. PMI’s unique systems are tailored to small sizes (fractions of an ounce to 10 pounds) and small to medium quantity (<100 to 100,000+) production runs. Extra fine surface finishes and extreme detail holding abilities sets PMI apart from ordinary investment castings.

¹An Investment casting is a near net shape made by the “lost wax” process that features cast-in-detail, tight tolerances, and excellent surface finish.  The term investment refers to the ceramic materials that are used to build a solid investment mold or hollow ceramic shell into which molten metal is poured to make the casting.  Every casting requires a pattern which is wax welded onto a cylindrical shape.  The patterns are dipped into a ceramic slurry and coated with a stucco of fine sand or surrounded with solid investment.  The wax pattern is melted out and the void filled with molten metal.   The metal castings are finished according to customer’s specifications.

Corporate Headquarters
Precision Metalsmiths, Inc.
1081 East 200th Street
Cleveland, OH  44117
(216) 481-8900

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Precision Metalsmiths, Inc. acquires Eden333 Rapid Prototype Machine from Stratasys, Inc.

Cleveland, Ohio and Markesan, Wisconsin November 2004 - Precision Metalsmiths, Inc. – PMI, with corporate headquarters in Cleveland, OH announces two new services related to rapid prototype metal parts and low volume quick tooling.

In-House rapid prototype service direct from your cad file or print. See your design in metal within days. Highest resolution, dimensional accuracy and repeatability propels PMI prototypes to a higher standard. PMI’s proprietary methods allow us to use our newly acquired Eden333 rapid prototype machine to directly produce patterns for investment casting. Layer thickness of .0006 produce the highest resolutions available while still holding the investment casting standard of .005 inches per inch tolerance with exceptional surface finishes unrivaled by any other rapid prototype machine. Smoother finishes and tighter tolerances than SLA or Castformä patterns with zero warpage and no support structure defects. Metal prototypes available in any of 200 alloys, from stainless steels to aluminum to copper alloys.

In-House rapid tooling. Based on the above technology PMI can build short run, bridge or prototype tooling directly from prototype model material. PMI proprietary methods let us inject investment casting wax directly into a plastic tool built using the Eden333 rapid prototype machine. Your short run order completed from cad file to investment cast metal parts in weeks, not months. Best of all, PMI will create this tooling at minimal cost to you.

For a quote or details on how we can help you with your metal parts needs, fax us your print (FAX 216-481-8903), email your cad file pmisales@precisionmetalsmiths.com or call us today at 216-481-8900.

How we do it. Starting with your print or cad file a 3D computer image is rendered of your part. PMI adds appropriate gating and sends the file to the Eden333 to be produced. The part is built, layer-by-layer, fully encapsulated inside a gel support structure, so there are no issues with overhangs, support generation or removal as with some other RP systems. The UV resin parts are removed from the machine fully cured to eliminate any warpage or shrinkage issues. Requiring only removal of the gel support material with a waterblast unit the parts are ready to be investment cast immediately. PMI’s heavy investment in R&D over the last 60 years helped PMI develop the proprietary methods needed to directly use UV cured resin prototype models for direct investment casting. Rapid tooling works much the same way. Injection die blocks of your part cavities are rendered on the computer as a 3D image. The images are built on the Eden333, usually overnight, to produce a wax injection tooling made of rigid UV resin plastic. The die halves are cleaned up and used to make investment casting wax patterns via wax injection. Investment casting in general means to create a wax pattern in the image of the intended part, surround the wax pattern with solid investment or a ceramic slurry shell, melt out the wax pattern leaving behind a hollow ceramic shell, and pouring molten metal into the ceramic shell. The ceramic shell is removed and the resulting metal parts are finished according to customer requirements. PMI uses proprietary methods to create consistent, high quality investment castings. Our unique systems are tailored to small sizes (fractions of an ounce to 10 pounds) and small to medium quantity (<100 to 100,000+) production runs. Extra fine surface finishes and extreme detail holding abilities sets PMI apart from ordinary investment castings.

More information about Precision Metalsmiths, Inc. can be found at www.precisionmetalsmiths.com

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DUBLIN, Ohio (USA) – Ashland Casting Solutions, a business group within Ashland Specialty Chemical, a division of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH), announces the opening of its Design Services Center at the company’s headquarters in Dublin, Ohio. The center is a “one-stop shop” for the metal casting industry providing support from engineered drawings through casting and testing in Ashland’s design-to-manufacture process.

An example of the total innovative solutions package available from Ashland, the Design Services Center is staffed with engineers dedicated to meeting the needs of the complex and diverse metal casting industry. The Center offers the latest technologies and technical support to help Ashland’s customers optimize casting designs and processes to increase productivity and profitability.

Using Arena-flow1 software, Ashland can produce animated simulations of sand core blowing and gassing processes. With EXACTCALC® methoding software, Ashland determines the mold gating and risering required to optimize mold filling. And, with Novaflow & Solid2 software, Ashland can validate the casting design and predict and eliminate defects.

“Our Design Services Center team works to provide the total solution from concept to completion,” said Mike Swartzlander, vice president, Ashland Specialty Chemical, and general manager, Ashland Casting Solutions. “Working with customers from engineered drawings through casting and testing, we have the unique ability to make their processes more productive and profitable while improving quality.”

To contact the Design Services Center call 1.800.848.7485.

Ashland announces innovative Design Services Center -2

About Ashland

Ashland Casting Solutions, a business group of Ashland Specialty Chemical, is a leader in supplying products, processes and technologies to the global metal casting marketplace. The group has operations (including licensees and joint ventures) in 21 countries.

Ashland Specialty Chemical, a division of Ashland Inc., is a leading, worldwide supplier of specialty chemicals serving industries including adhesives, automotive, composites, metal casting, merchant marine, paint, paper, plastics, watercraft and water treatment. Visit www.ashspec.com to learn more about these operations.

Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) is a Fortune 500 transportation construction, chemicals and petroleum company providing products, services and customer solutions throughout the world. To learn more about Ashland, visit www.ashland.com.

® Trademark, Ashland Inc.
1 Trademark of Arena, LLC
2 Trademark of NovaCast

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