Casting a Vision
“Today’s gas turbines are more powerful,
last longer and burn fuel much more efficiently.
Strong support from Howmet R&D helped
achieve these advances.”
Aero Engines—You want improved
performance in the hot sections of your
jet engines, and stronger, lighter-weight
structural parts for cold sections.
Howmet is now working with all major
engine manufacturers at the design
stage to develop advanced components
for the next generation of jet engines.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
How you benefit
from Howmet’s
leading-edge technology
Slash development time
from years to months by
accessing a suite of
enabling technologies,
Airframes—Military and commercial
customers have demanded significant
improvements in cost and lead time
for fracture critical titanium and highproperty aluminum castings for airframe
structures and electronic packaging.
Howmet leads a casting sector consortium to update design allowables and
expand the role of castings to hundreds
of potential applications.
Industrial Gas Turbines—Manufacturers of large and small industrial gas
turbine power generation systems want
to maximize the potential of their latest
designs. Howmet’s internal supply chain
is responding with innovations and
improvements that continuously offer
OEMs ways to raise system efficiency.
such as CAE, CAD, SLA
stereolithography and
Computer-Aided Pattern
Making.
1
Your most complex designs
can be cast affordably with
a wide range of features
such as sculpted surfaces,
intricate cored passageways, net shapes, datum
pads and more.
Prime Contracting
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HIPing
Machining
Coating
Kitting
Program management
JIT delivery
Quality assurance
Consolidate scores of
detail parts into a single,
near-net-shape casting,
while cutting lead time,
weight, raw material
requirements and a host
of non-value-added
administrative tasks.
TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP
Stay ahead
of competition
with Howmet
You benefit from our responsive
“One Howmet” philosophy in
three ways.
Save time and money
during new product
development. For example,
quickly optimize the hightemperature performance
of your advanced cooling
designs using our extensive
concurrent engineering
resources.
2
Consolidate multiple details
into single, large, complex,
near-net-shape castings for
• First, the ease of doing business
you demand is made possible
through a single, integrated
company that offers the full range
of casting products and services.
• Second, the consistency of service
you demand is supported by standardized, companywide policies,
practices and systems—no matter
which Howmet operations you work
with around the globe.
• Third, the process-repeatability
improvements you demand are
achieved by our companywide
network for sharing advances in
casting techniques.
aero-engine and airframe
structures. The use of
castings in flight- and nonflight-critical applications
opens the door to major
affordability improvements.
Benefit from reliable delivery
of ready-to-assemble
parts by capitalizing on
Growing by Serving You
Howmet at a glance—
Howmet’s finished products
capabilities. For these
blades, in high-temperature
industrial gas turbines,
Howmet applies multiple
interior and exterior
protective coatings.
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World’s largest investment caster
12,000 employees worldwide
29 plants in 5 countries
Industry’s largest R&D capability
100% vertical integration—the key
to serving you best
“You will solve more problems,
more quickly, working with Howmet,
than with any other casting supplier in the world.”
PRODUCTION SUPPORT
Your production
process is supported
in-house at Howmet
You can depend on quality
from Howmet, because we
continuously fine-tune
every step of the process.
We make most casting
materials and equipment inhouse, including tooling,
Original equipment manufacturers like
you are turning more frequently to the
casting process to take advantage of
high quality, lower costs and shorter
delivery cycles. To support your needs,
Howmet has invested in new and
expanded facilities, employee training
and a variety of shop floor initiatives to
drive continuous improvements.
vacuum furnaces, specialty
materials, alloy, wax
injection equipment,
ceramic core and more.
4
When your production
requirements surge,
Howmet responds. We have
wax pattern and assembly
In response to the increasing volume of
customer orders, Howmet has organized system-wide teams of “process
owners.” These process owners focus
on everything from improving the yield
of the single-crystal casting process to
tightening the effectiveness of our heat
treatment processes.
The supplier responsiveness you rely
on to gain and hold market share is
standing by at Howmet.
capabilities at each casting
plant. And we maintain a
separate facility dedicated
exclusively to providing
wax pattern manufacturing
and assembly.
Customer Response
Strategies
Make to use
• What customer wants
• When customer wants
• In quantity customer wants
Eliminate waste
• Time
• Non-value-added activities
• Scrap and rework
Everyone solves problems
• Immediately
• At the source
• As a team
“You can shorten your manufacturing lead time,
while raising quality and delivery performance, thanks to
Howmet’s continuous improvements.”
“Take out costs by outsourcing manufacturing
and finishing operations to a company that specializes
in delivering ready-to-assemble components reliably and
in high volumes.”
COST CONTAINMENT
Take advantage of
innovations from
Howmet
The growing acceptance of titanium
castings in airframe structures is being
driven by the overwhelming economic
advantages of casting conversion.
Over the last decade, our improvement
efforts have focused on the connections
between every aspect of the casting
process. Resulting advances have
raised yields and driven out activities
that do not add value. Today Howmet
offers customers more affordability than
ever before.
Solving your most challenging
problems faster and better than any
other company has made Howmet
the world’s largest casting company
of superalloy components for gas
turbine engines. Howmet is also the
world’s largest aluminum investment
casting company. A new plant and a
re-dedication to quality is positioning
Howmet to serve the growing demand
for high-property aluminum castings.
Trim costs across the
entire process—from new
product development to
delivery—by converting
many detail parts into a
single casting.
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Take advantage of casting
process improvements,
which include scaling up
the size of complex cored
castings, to design
more powerful, more
affordable and longer
lasting products.
Advances You Can
Bank On
2001
2000
2000
1999
1987
1985
1977
1972
1961
1952
Gravity Metal Mold
VPSD®
Thermal Barrier Coatings
Fracture-Critical
Airframe Structures
Shell/Core
Ceramic Compatibility
Microcast-X®
Directional Solidification
Hot Isostatic Pressing
Integral Castings
Mono-Shell®
The casting process of the
aluminum structural part
shown here is becoming
more robust every day,
resulting in repeatable and
more affordable production.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
How you benefit from
continuous improvements
throughout Howmet
Aggressive quality approach
Material and process technologies
continuously improve to help your
engineers achieve the full potential of
their designs.
Raw materials with
maximum cleanliness
and optimum chemistry
translate into durable
life cycles for your
components.
Quality assurance practices at Howmet
keep pace with improvements, driving
refinements to our quality assurance
techniques. For example, Howmet is
working with its regulator to shift the
entire organization from a documentbased to a product-based quality
process.
This approach to quality is one more
response to your demand for better,
more affordable components, delivered
quickly and reliably.
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Avoid the high cost of
machining and assembling
multi-piece fabrications
by converting complex
assemblies into singlepiece castings.
Performance and Value
For You
Howmet Castings is part
of Alcoa, which:
Reliable, nondestructive
testing techniques have
accelerated production,
while bringing down
the unit cost of critical
components
• Assures strong support for
Howmet initiatives
• Strengthens our supply chains
• Broadens market offering
• Enables a shared improvement
approach
“Close attention to the interconnectedness of every
production element, at every stage of the process, makes
sure that all the inputs work together to achieve the
output you require.”
© Howmet Corporation, 2001
Howmet Castings
9 Old Kings Highway South
Darien, CT 06820