We at United Global Sourcing, Inc. would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  May 2011 bring a very successful year for all of our customers and freinds. 

As I mentioned to you last week, I wanted to review what a casting was and this is part of a series of manufacturing disciplines that we do at UGS.  

Casting is a manufacturing process by which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process. Casting materials are usually metals or various cold setting materials that cure after mixing two or more components together; examples are epoxy, concrete, plaster and clay. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods.

What is a sand casting? 

A sand casting or a sand molded casting is a cast part produced by forming a mold with the help of a model or pattern pressed into a sand mixture and then removed, after which molten liquid metal is poured into the cavity in the mold. The mold is then cooled until the metal has solidified. In the last stage, the casting is separated from the mold. There are six steps in this process:

1. Place a pattern in sand to create a mold.
2. Incorporate the pattern and sand in a gating system.
3. Remove the pattern.
4. Fill the mold cavity with molten metal.
5. Allow the metal to cool.
6. Break away the sand mold and remove the casting.

What is a die cast part? 

Die casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity, which is machined into two hardened tool steel dies. Most die castings are made from non-ferrous metals, specifically zinc, copper, aluminium, magnesium, lead, pewter and tin based alloys. Depending on the type of metal being cast, a hot- or cold-chamber machine is used.

The casting equipment and the metal dies represent large capital costs and this tends to limit the process to high volume production. Manufacture of parts using die casting is relatively simple, involving only four main steps, which keeps the incremental cost per item low. It is especially suited for a large quantity of small to medium sized castings, which is why die casting produces more castings than any other casting process. Die castings are characterized by a very good surface finish (by casting standards) and dimensional consistency.

Two variants are pore-free die casting, which is used to eliminate gas porosity defects; and direct injection die casting, which is used with zinc castings to reduce scrap and increase yield.

What is an investment cast? 

Investment casting is an industrial process based on and also called lost-wax casting, one of the oldest known metal-forming techniques. From 5,000 years ago, when beeswax formed the pattern, to today’s high-technology waxes, refractory materials and specialist alloys, the castings allow the production of components with accuracy, repeatability, versatility and integrity in a variety of metals and high-performance alloys. Lost foam casting is a modern form of investment casting that eliminates certain steps in the process.

The process is generally used for small castings, but has been used to produce complete aircraft door frames, steel castings of up to 300 kg and aluminium castings of up to 30 kg. It is generally more expensive per unit than die casting or sand casting, but has lower equipment costs. It can produce complicated shapes that would be difficult or impossible with die casting, yet like that process, it requires little surface finishing and only minor machining.

^{Of course all of these processes are available through United Global Sourcing, Inc. and we can quote you on your casting needs regardless of the process.  Please contact us for your casting needs.} 

Today, this beautiful large box filled with toys is being delivered to Toys For Tots.  Many thanks to those of you who donated both at UGS and those of you who donated from our building at 5607 New King Street.  A special thank you to both Michelle Pagano and Stephanie Ulicni for not only making up the box for taking on this very worthwhile project.

I hope that many of you out there are also participating in this very worthwhile endevor sponsored by the US Marine Corp.  Here is hoping that many children who are in need will not do without this Christmas season.  Thank you again for your willingness to give.

We will be exhibiting at a new show for us called the Design & Manufacturing South Show.  The dates are March 16 – 17, 2011.  The location is the Orange County Covention Center located in Orlando, FL.  Please see the link http://www.DM-South.com for more information.

This is a show focused on manufacturing and we will be at booth number 654 and would like to see you there.  For those of you with whom I have been in contact with I have sent out a link for free admission which is a $45 value.  Please make sure that you take advantage of this free registration. 

If you cannot attend the show, then keep in mind that we are here to help you, we will provide low costs, high quality using our overseas manufacturing sources.  Want an easy way to lower your overhead, contact us at UGS. 

Here is the UGS family decorating Christmas Stockings that will be given to a local school who will then fill them and donate them to some needy families in the metro Detroit area.

Everyone had a good time doing it and were able to do a total of 30 stockings. Again, it is the season for giving and let’s all do our part to help others out who are in need, if everyone will donate a little time, money or effort it will definitely make this holiday season special for a lot of people.  Great job to all of the UGS family who helped out.

Just wanted to share with you what UGS is doing this holiday season.  The meaning of Christmas is that not only do we receive gifts but it is more important that we give.  At UGS there are several things we are doing to share with those who are less fortunate than we are.

We are working with the Judson Center http://www.judsoncenter.org/jchope/ and have adopted 2 families and providing them with presents for Christmas.  We are also donating toys to Toys for Tots http://www.toysfortots.org/default.asp so don’t be a scrooge this year, pay it forward this Christmas season.

OK, at UGS we always want to provide you the customer or potential customer with information and want to inform you or help you with many different manufacturing disciplines.  I will be providing you with information on many different processes to help you and educate you for help with your component part needs.  Today if you go to this link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forging  you can learn all you need to know about Forging.  The origin, the many different processes, what would best suit your needs.

Please take a look at this link and I hope it helps you in whatever way possible.  Next time we will be looking at castings.  Also, consider us for your forging needs, we have no limits to size or material and all of the processes listed we have available through our very reliable network of manufacturers from overseas.  I look forward to hearing from you with your forging need.

Do you have cost concerns on manufacturing your product?  Maybe there are steps that can be taken to reduce costs on your product?  How do you know and how can you find out?

At United Global Sourcing, Inc. we not only quote our customers on manufacturing for them but we also can help them determine what is the best way to manufacture or we can help them lower costs by increasing productivity, or lowering waste, or maybe improving packaging, or providing a better way to ship the product.

All of our account/project managers are very well versed in manufacturing and lowering costs, when we quote, we will give you options that will better help you to make decisions and provide you with the product you want and yet if it helps save you money and lower your overhead, all the better! 

What are you waiting for, if you want us to quote and make something for you, contact us and let us show you what we can do!