Castings and Forgings

An Overview of Capabilities

BCI Castings and Forgings

 BCI Engineering is:
• An international engineering company specializing in,

– Industrial sourcing (mostly from Asia)

– Project and Quality management
– Engineering Services
• Drafting, Design and Re-engineering
• Field installations

BCI Castings and Forgings

 For Castings and Forgings,

• BCI produces mostly in Asia.

• We have personnel in ten locations throughout Asia, managed
from our Hong Kong head office:
– Shenyang, China
– Dalian, China
– Shanghai, China
– Ningbo, China
– Taipei, Taiwan
– Pusan, South Korea
– Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
– Singapore
– Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
– Semerang, Indonesia

BCI Castings and Forgings

 BCI’s Pittsburgh Office:
• Deep expertise in procurement, production and project
management of castings and forgings made in the USA,
Canada and Mexico. Works closely with Asia offices.

• Typical North American Projects:

– Difficult alloys
– Highly toleranced parts
– Large parts where shipping costs are an issue

BCI Castings and Forgings

 BCI has 14 years of Asian
metal-working experience
• BCI Partner, Tim Brantingham, is a fluent Mandarin Chinese
speaker and has been working in Asia since 1994 managing
foundries, fabricators and machine shops for the natural gas,
electrical utility, railroad and construction industries.

• His family has been in the Chinese foundry business since 1978
(beginning in Taiwan); and in Asia since 1901.

• Tim has a:
– BA from William & Mary
– MA from Hong Kong University

BCI Castings and Forgings

 BCI has 16-years of mechanical
engineering experience
• BCI Partner, Matt Carroll, has 16 years of experience in the mining,
construction, railroad, and materials handling industries. He has held a
variety of engineering, manufacturing and project management
positions including a long term assignment in China to start a joint
venture engineering company. Matt has lived in Asia a total of 7 years
and is conversant in Mandarin Chinese. He is currently based in
Pittsburgh, PA.
• Before starting BCI Engineering, Matt was VP-Engineering at
Mosebach Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, PA.

• Matt has a:
– BS (Mech Eng), The University of Pittsburgh
– MBA, Katz Graduate School of Business (Pitt)

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Castings

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Types of Castings
A. Gravity Castings (Sand mold, permanent aluminum mold)
>The process by which molten metal is poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity
of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solid casting is then
ejected or broken out to complete the process. From very small to very large.

B. Die Castings
>The process of forcing molten metal under high pressure into mold cavities
(which are machined into dies). Small to medium in size; capable of high detail.

C. Investment Castings--(Lost Wax/Loss Foam)

>The process of forming wax (or foam) into a shape, covering the shape with sand
and then pouring molten metal into the cavity displacing the wax.
Allows for high detail and dimensional accuracy. Generally small and medium size.

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Most common materials

• Grey Iron Castings

• Malleable Iron Castings
• Ductile Iron Castings
• Steel & Stainless Steel Castings
• Copper Castings
• Bronze Castings
• Brass Castings
• Aluminum Castings

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Malleable, Grey
and Ductile Iron
• We use black and green sand molding, aluminum
molding, and lost-wax/lost foam methods
• Size from 0.1 kg to 8000 kg (3.5 oz to 9 tons)
• All ASTM grades available
• For higher quantity orders BCI can
directly cast ASTM grades; for lower
quantity orders, conversion to
Chinese GB or Japanese JIS standards

is often necessary.)

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Steel and
Stainless Steel
• We use black and green sand molding; aluminum
molding; die casting, lost-wax/lost-foam methods
• Sizes from 0.1 kg to 8000 kg (3.5 oz to 9 tons)
• All ASTM grades and alloys available
• (For higher quantity orders, BCI can
directly cast ASTM grades; for lower
quantity orders, conversion to
Chinese GB or Japanese JIS standards
is often necessary.)

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Bronze, Brass,
Copper
• We use sand molding; permanent molding; die
casting
• Sizes from 0.1 kg to 500 kg (3.5 oz to 1/2 ton)
• All ASTM grades and alloys available
• (For higher quantity orders, BCI can
directly cast ASTM grades; for lower
quantity orders, conversion to
Chinese GB or Japanese JIS standards
is often necessary.)

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Aluminum
• We use sand molding, aluminum molding, and die
casting methods
• Sizes from 0.1 kg to 1000 kg (3.5 oz to 1 ton)
• All ASTM grades and alloys available
• (For higher quantity orders, BCI can
directly cast ASTM grades; for lower
quantity orders, conversion to
Chinese GB or Japanese JIS standards
is often necessary.)

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Heat-Treating

• Normalizing
– Reduces internal stresses and improves crystalline structure by application of
heat, maintaining temperature for appropriate duration, then slow cooling.

• Water and oil quenching

– Rapid cooling from elevated temperature to increase hardness and strength.
Often followed by tempering to restore some ductility (toughness).

• Tempering
– Reduces hardness and increases toughness by application of heat, maintaining
for appropriate duration, then controlled cooling.

• Surface Hardening
– Increases surface hardness of wear parts by engineered application of heat by
flame (flame hardening) or induction coils (induction hardening).

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Testing
We can provide material certification for all castings:
– Chemical analysis
– Mechanical tests, including
>Tensile strength/elongation
>Hardness testing

We also provide Non Destructive Testing upon request:

--Dye penetration
--MPI
--UT
--X-ray

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Forgings

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Types of Forgings
A. Impression Die Forgings
> Pounds or presses metal between two dies that contain a precut profile of the
desired part. From 0.1 to 27,000 kgs (a few ounces to 60,000 lbs).

B. Open Die Forgings

>Pounds between flat dies with no precut profiles in the dies. Movement of the
work piece is the key to this method. Shapes up to 91,000 kgs (200,000 lbs.)
and 24 meters (80 feet)

C. Seamless Rolled Ring Forgings

>Typically performed by punching a hole in a thick, round piece of metal (creating a

donut shape), and then rolling and squeezing. Up to 9 meters (30 ft) diameter.

D. Cold Forgings
>Typically for smaller parts
> Including bending, cold drawing, cold heading, coining, extrusion, punching, etc
BCI Castings and Forgings
 Forged Materials
used by BCI
• Carbon, Alloy and Stainless Steel
– Most ASTM grades and alloys available
– (For higher quantity orders, BCI can directly cast ASTM grades; for lower quantity
orders, conversion to Chinese GB or Japanese JIS standards is often necessary.)

• Aluminum
– Most ASTM grades and alloys available
– (For higher quantity orders, BCI can directly cast ASTM grades; for lower quantity
orders, conversion to Chinese GB or Japanese JIS standards is often necessary.)

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Turning and
Finished Machining
• Can rough machine shafts up to 24 meters (80 ft)
– Can finish machine up to 14 meters (45 ft)

• Can rough machine donuts up to 9 meters (30 ft)

– Can finish machine up to 3.7 meters (12 ft) in diameter

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Surface Heat-Treating
• Flame hardening
– A process whereby a forging is exposed to an open flame and then quenched
(cooled in oil, water or air)

• Induction hardening
– The localized surface heating of a forging by an electrically-heated

induction coil

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Testing
We provide material certification for all forgings in:
– Chemical analysis
– Mechanical tests, including
>Tensile strength/elongation
>Hardness testing

We also provide Non Destructive Testing upon request:

--Dye penetration
--MPI
--UT
--X-ray

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Confidentiality

• We aggressively protect your

intellectual property
– We have NDAs will all partner foundries
– We separate parts when possible to
conceal designs

BCI Castings and Forgings

 Getting Started
• BCI signs NDA agreement
• Customer provides drawings and specs
– Including quantity/delivery requirements
• BCI quotes
• If acceptable, customer places order with BCI
• BCI opens tooling
• BCI provides sample casting/forging for
testing
• If approved, BCI proceeds to production
BCI Castings and Forgings
 Please contact us
Hong Kong:
• Tim Brantingham, Director of Sourcing
– Phone: (852) 9278-5204
– Fax: (852) 2802-0861
– E-Mail: tim@bci-engineering.com

USA:
• Jerry Carroll, Director of Sales
– Phone: (724)-689-8532
– Fax: (724)-240-1500
– E-mail: jerry@bci-engineering.com

BCI Castings and Forgings