Back To Basics
High Quality Castings
We have spent hours on a variety of Blogs discussing construction, Diesel engines and products being shipped all over the world. Although Ameriflo has the most diverse and complete hydraulic coverage available in the fire protection industry, we neglect to cover the basics when it comes to standard casing & bowl castings. It is very well known that Ameriflo standardizes on ductile iron casing material throughout the fire protection product line. The casting process for ductile iron is slightly more complicated than cast iron but the advantages are worth the effort. Nearly every other manufacturer in the fire protection industry pours their casing castings out of class 30 cast iron. This class of cast iron has a tensile strength of 30,000 PSI and is the standard for the pump industry globally.
Ductile iron has an additional step of using what is called an inoculation crucible. This second crucible has magnesium placed in it and the original heat is poured into this crucible for inoculation. This process essentially changes the base material into ductile iron. The grade of ductile iron that Ameriflo uses as a standard material in all casings and bowls is class 65 which has a tensile strength of 65,000 PSI, more than double that of standard class 30 cast iron. As the tensile strength is increased, so is the case working pressure. This simple change in base material from cast iron to ductile iron allows Ameriflo to have case working pressures that are nearly doubled of what our competition uses as a standard material.
Ductile iron is used by the competition in applications where the case working pressures needed exceeds class 30 cast iron. Other manufacturers will offer this as an option with an extended lead-time. These lead-times vary, can exceed 20 additional weeks and is a killer to a prospective order, especially when the customer needs the pump yesterday.
