Materion Brush Beryllium & Composites, a Materion Corporation business, Elmore, Ohio, announces that it has qualified and entered into a strategic manufacturing and marketing partnership with Aristo Cast Inc. (Almont, Michigan) for its proprietary AlBeCast aluminum-beryllium investment castings product line. Aristo Cast is a recognized global leader in complex castings from lightweight materials, especially magnesium alloy investment casting.
“We are in qualification with a number of aerospace, defense and semiconductor firms seeking to capitalize on this alloy system and casting technology breakthrough. As previously announced, we are in qualification with Lockheed as a supplier for the F-35 Lightning II’s Electro-Optical Targeting System.”
Leveraging its lightweight alloy investment casting experience, Aristo Cast provides Materion with a breakthrough shell technology that in qualification proved not only to improve casting quality, but also to reduce production costs of aluminum-beryllium investment castings. Shell technology refers to the process of producing the hollow ceramic shells into which molten metal is poured to make the castings.
“Aristo Cast technology represents a game-changing development for the production of AlBeCast,” said Lawrence Ryczek, Vice President and General Manager of Materion Brush Beryllium & Composites. “With the Aristo Cast shell technology, our expanded capability and world class casting team, we are confident AlBeCast will capture new applications that weren’t possible even two years ago.”
The Aristo Cast partnership coincides with Materion’s own new investment in casting technology, equipment and upgrades at its Elmore facility. The operation offers customers rapid prototyping and solidification modeling to provide investment cast parts with short lead times and competitive pricing. Aluminum-beryllium castings provide favorable cost/benefit advantages for technically demanding applications requiring a combination of ultra-light weight, stiffness, mechanical stability and thermal properties.
