Steel foundry Matt Cast Supplies has started producing high-chrome ironware parts for the crushing and milling industry.

Matt Cast Supplies director Allan Bruggeman says that although this is a new market for the company, its experts are well versed in the material specifications and the associated heat treatment required, which is done using its in-house heat treatment furnaces.

The company reports that the foundry is capable of producing up to 60 t of castings a shift. It is able to produce castings ranging from 1 kg to 800 kg.

Bruggeman says that the company has expanded its customer base from pump parts to include wear and grinding parts as well as gears, bush liners and a vast range of engineering components.

“We have seen a trend in the past 18 months for an increased demand in high-chrome iron castings and have, therefore, explored this market extensively,” he says.

Besides the company’s South African customers, it has also expanded its customer base to Australia and Europe.

The company has installed heat-treatment furnaces and a new 3000s Birlec spectro- meter as an addition to its manufacturing capabilities.

“We pride ourselves on the fact that we have a unique computerised tracking system, where all castings are tracked and every melt is recorded, giving us full traceability of all castings produced,” says Bruggeman.

“We have developed the reputation of being a specialised foundry giving the industry quality castings in reasonable lead times,” he adds.

Matt Cast Supplies casts to various British standards, American Society for Testing and Materials standards and the Deutsches Institut für Normung specifications and has an in-house metal- lurgist to certify its products and issue certificates.

Meanwhile, this month, Matt Cast Supplies is celebrating its tenth anniver-sary and Bruggeman says that the company has expanded its range of materials used for manufacturing to include chrome iron, cast iron, cast steel, specific gravity iron, stainless steel, special alloys and various grades of nonferrous alloys.

Matt Cast Supplies started its operations in September 1999 in a rented factory on the premises of APE Pumps with a total of four employees producing 4 t/m.

Because of the rapid growth of both companies, it outgrew the space and the company bought larger premises in Germiston South, where it relocated in April 2003.