Teamwork delivers perfection in centrifugal casting

The foundry manager, Christian Laudenberg, who has been working at Kuhn Special Steel since 2001, caught the photography bug early on in life. Continue reading

His picture for the “February” page of the company’s 2017 wall calendar was taken in the foundry. Aptly entitled Steelworks at Dawn, it shows how the streams of glowing molten metal in the foundry match the warming rays of the early morning sun.

L01_Originalfoto-Februar

It captures the crucial moment in the production of a bi-metal casting when the second ladle is deployed. Shift manager Enrico Heiden appears in the foreground, issuing instructions regarding the speed and timing of the casting process. Harald Schwab operates the ladle’s hand wheel, causing its contents to tip into the sprue.

Bi-metal casting requires absolute precision and finely-tuned teamwork. The preparations are complex, and each step in the process is influenced by a countless number of varying possibilities. Some operations involve up to six foundry casters, each of whom has a set of tasks to perform that requires the sophisticated choreography of a ballet. This calls for decades of experience, and team members who can rely on each other absolutely in their efforts to produce unique items that meet the most demanding customer requirements. We have optimised the corresponding workflows over many years, in our efforts to hone Kuhn Special Steel’s deserved reputation as a perfectionist in the production of bi-metal castings.

The casting machine shown here has been specially designed to handle smaller-sized castings (with outer diameters of > 60 mm / internal diameters of > 22 mm) that weigh 25 kg or more. It is one of the eight horizontal and four vertical casting machines currently in operation at Kuhn Special Steel. An additional casting machine of innovative design is currently being built. This equipment allows Kuhn Special Steel to produce items with an outer diameter of up to 2,300 mm and a weight of up to five metric tons. All these machines are the fruit of permanent, ongoing development work carried out in-house by our own design department and fitting shop, as they use the very latest technology to react to and tackle the new challenges that the market creates.

L01_Gemälde-FebruarThe Kuhn calendar initiative, a creative project carried out jointly with the painter Cindy Kuhn-Chuang and employees of Kuhn Special Steel, aims to capture photographic impressions of our working environment.

A snapshot of the photographer

Christian Laudenberg_1

Name:
Christian Laudenberg

Since when have you been working for the company?
since 2001

What do you do there?
foundry manager

How and when did you take up photography as a hobby?
I’ve always liked photography, and as more and more opportunities to take pictures of my kids presented themselves, I got myself an SLR camera and started to take it up more seriously.

What kind of camera do you use?
Canon 650 D / Canon 5D Mark III

What are your favourite subjects?
Scenes involving the family, and also nature.

Photos: lessingtiede

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