In 2024 we introduced our latest design the Walton Scroll™ railing system which is suitable for small to medium sized Victorian and Edwardian properties. Please enquire for installed images and further details.
During and post pandemic we encountered the closure of so very many fine foundries throughout the country and with them the loss of huge numbers of professional and highly skilled staff. Combined with enormous energy and production cost increases it has been a very challenging time for many as well as us. However we have been fortunate to consolidate and partner with new foundries to ensure continued manufacture of our unique railing and gate design systems.
Our products continue to be British manufactured in SG iron, to ensure the greatest quality assurance and lasting strength, which does not alter in any way the characteristics of the designs. Grey iron on the other hand, often found with many imported architectural castings, can often be impact brittle with no tensile strength and pose several safety challenges with potential structural failure. Grey iron is also greatly and expensively more difficult to reliably remodel and repair.
With SG iron this is almost eliminated through improving tensility and durability thus allowing bespoke alteration and welding of castings to fit with situation variables. Using architectural cast iron has distinct advantages and cost effectivness over the longer term in forming more distinctive continuity balance for repetitious and longer runs. By comparison, modern 'so called' wrought iron is often irregular, has unsightly welds, where cast iron does not. High moulded relief, intricate profile and fine decorative detail is the distinctive benefit of cast iron design, and is a class apart from modern fabricated steel designs.
Our railing and gate systems can be supplied either as individual bare metal castings unfinished, or primed/finished and drilled with fixing kits supplied. Each of the components are supplied in manageable sizes for easier handling. Our standard finish coating is a specialised powder coating specific to cast iron. Free advice and guidance can be given to assist you with your choice, architectural appropriateness and environmental setting.
Please contact us with details and any image you have for your proposed project. Please also see our products page for dimensional guidance for the railing, gate and post components. Alternatively you can complete and send the form on the contact page, with length of ironwork run required, wall height and whether you require gates. Scroll up for design service details.
Steel fabrication versus Casting
22nd March 2018
Steel fabrications and castings are often considered for the same project as they share very similar properties. Generally, castings provide better tolerances and superior mechanical properties.
Castings allow designers to be visually creative and explore exciting forms. It enables shape and form where fabrications cannot. Cast parts are specifically designed and engineered to suit, and only put material where it is wanted. In contrast, the form of a fabrications is typically driven by the availability of material, and the ability to join the parts. It cannot be as creative in form as a casting. Add this to the generally better strength characteristics, and castings come out lighter weight and cheaper.
The nature of the casting process means that the cast steel does not exhibit directionality. These parts can be stressed in any direction. Fabricated parts use steel that has directionality, i.e. it is strong in one direction and not in another.
Contrary to common belief, Cast steel parts are ductile and tough, not brittle and hard, lending themselves to designs where longer life and improved performance are an advantage.
Fabrications are very relevant for small volume production, using readily available material to create the part. No tooling cost allows for low set up costs and short timescales to production. Castings require an investment upfront for the creation of a mould or tool. Sand casting tools are significantly cheaper than injection die cast tools, but all casting requires a tooling budget and timescale.
Fabrications allow you to make alterations to the design 'on the fly' evolving the iteratively. This can be positive if your start up budget is low.
However, fabrication design needs to be very well considered. Joining parts together can lead to inaccuracy and additional/expensive fettling to correct the compound dimensional or alignment problems. For accuracy, castings will give you more precise tolerances than fabrication.
In addition, combining multiple elements together generates stress points, requiring additional strength to be designed back in. Fabrication design needs to be sensitive to the limitations: welds can be hard to repair and are often are the cause of failure, whereas the strongest element in fabrications is the strength of a metal parts. Creating successful fabrications requires correctly recognized and allowed for in the final design.
Can you fabricate cast parts? Yes - again contrary to popular belief, cast parts are often better to weld than wrought, as the lack of directionality provides a ductile, not too hard, weld surface. You can also design the cast parts to move the 'weaker' weld line to an area of the part that is not exposed to high stress, therefore optimising the best of both processes. Assemblies can be fabricated using cast parts, reducing assembly time and complexity.
Fabrication may be cheaper and quicker setting up, but if your project is successful, fabrication will be more expensive and a lengthier procedure in the long run than a casting solution.