Machines

The clamping force of the casting machine sets the limit on how big a part can be, because it has to hold the die shut against the pressure of the melt. The work envelope of the CNC machines sets the limit on what can be machined afterwards. These two figures often decide whether a part fits.

The plant has die casting in aluminium and zinc, gravity die casting, CNC turning, CNC milling, boring, heat treatment and blasting. It all stands in the same building at Torvstikkeren 20 in Råde, a purpose-built plant we moved into after a three-year process that began in 2020.

What we have not published is how many machines there are, which makes and models, and what clamping force they have. Until that is published, you can ask us about what matters for your part.

The plant runs a closed loop for all process water, recovers waste heat from the melting furnaces to warm the building, and has its own rooftop solar installation.

How to read the figures when they arrive. Clamping force in tonnes is compared with the projected area of your part in the parting plane, not with its weight — that is the area the injection pressure acts against. The work envelope of a mill is compared with the outer dimensions of the part plus the fixture; a part that just fits the envelope rarely fits once it sits in a jig. The number of axes decides how many set-ups the part needs, and every set-up is both a cost and a link in a tolerance chain.

It is also worth knowing what is not on this list, because it matters just as much in a qualification: we do not do sand casting, we do not build tooling ourselves, and we do not anodise or paint in house. Tools are procured through our preferred toolmakers, and anodising and powder coating are done by a subcontractor and coordinated by us. The rest of the chain, meaning melting, casting, degating, heat treatment, machining and blasting, happens at the same address.