One of Coventry’s heritage manufacturers, Sarginsons, which employs 75 people at its Torrington Avenue foundry, is rated as one of the UK’s top die-casting companies in the UK and is using its new component to maximise light-weighting of vehicle car bodies – contributing to greater fuel efficiency as a result.
Anthony Evans, managing director at Sarginsons, says the ability to produce the 2.5 mm component is an important advance for the automotive industry. “There’s no doubt that light-weighting vehicles is the future.
“We’ve established a strong reputation for our expertise in the field of automotive light-weighting and we’re delighted that our extensive research, new technology and sheer commitment has meant we have been able to produce this 2.5 mm component.
“The vast majority of foundries are usually asked to work off thicknesses between 4-6 mm, possibly 3 mm in rare cases, so for us to successfully get to 2.5 mm is a fantastic achievement and a real game-changer for the automotive industry.
“Most sand-casting engineers would have turned down the opportunity to develop a component to this thickness, questioning whether it could even be done. A few years ago, we would probably have said the same, so we’re really pleased that through years of research and innovation we have been able to reach this milestone.”
Sarginsons is now in the process of developing a similar component that will replicate the thickness and become a production piece.
Concludes Evans: “Thin sand-cast prototypes and hollow section castings are becoming more and more important with each year that passes in UK automotive, and I'm proud to say that Sarginsons has the technical skills and know-how to be able to offer both.”
