Unique silicon bronze art castings and an aluminium motor housing for electric vehicles triumphed at the 2024 Casting Industry Awards, being announced as joint winners of the Component of the Year award.
Such is the diversity and calibre of metal casting solutions that the judges were compelled to award two first prizes on this occasion, highlighting the excellence in the British casting industry and the industry’s dogged determination to find solutions to a range of customer requests.
Maybrey Precision Castings Ltd was recognised for its 52 unique castings in silicon bronze that were used to create a series of statuesque heads that are now on display in the memorial sculpture park in Alabama (US).
The foundry carried out significant design work to divide the concept into castable sections, taking into account the dimpled finishing required and the numerous undercuts around the eyes, ears and noses – as specified by digital sculptor, Rayven Shaleigha D’Clark, in her pioneering commission by the Equal Justice Initiative ‘Black Renaissance’ project.
With both investment and sand casting unviable, printed sand moulds were employed with the team creating a double pour running system to ensure minimum turbulence and quiescent filling.
The other joint winner was Newby Foundries Ltd. The Wednesbury-based company created a liquid cooled stator housing in aluminium for the next generation of electric vehicle, developing a product that improves the cooling performance whilst reducing the number of parts from two to one. The optimised and novel design incorporated a helical water core to improve the cooling performance, with traditional coremaking techniques not feasible due to the new single cast part design. So, the core was 3D printed with careful control of the thermal cycle required to improve the core strength. The judges also felt that the 3D printing and sand casting techniques used could inform a new direction for the industry.
Highly Commended in the Component of the Year category was previous winner Sylatech Ltd for the company’s ambition in taking on metal additive manufacturing with some clear commercial possibilities based on such complex forms. Sylatech explored whether its lost wax, plaster-based block investment casting process could match metal printing for design complexity, surface finish, alloy choice and mechanical properties, using a braided heat exchanger part that had been designed for metal printing as the test case. The success of the project has led to new work and the results are helping to re-establish casting as the sustainable process of choice for the design and volume production of complex parts, requiring excellent surface finish.
COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Magna Cosma Casting UK picked up the Company of the Year award. The Telford-based automotive specialist has defied uncertainty in the sector to post one of the best years in its history, impressing judges with the way it has developed a high pressure diecasting digital twin whilst also leveraging design methodology and traditional manufacturing methods.
This approach has seen it boost the workforce by forty per cent and has been critical in helping it support the production of large structural body and chassis castings that reduce costs and increase value for UK and international customers.
Highly Commended in the Company of the Year category was automotive component supplier CastAlum, named as one of the fastest growing companies in Wales. Some 98 per cent of the metal used by CastAlum is now recycled aluminium and the company has continued to reduce its CO2 emissions through investments in energy efficient technologies and development of a bespoke factory management system, CastNet. This web-based application provides real time data to the team, dramatically improving communications and leading to reduced response times to any production issues.
INNOVATION
In the ‘innovation’ category, Goodwin Steel Castings Ltd came out on top for the implementation of a “remarkable” carbon neutrality plan that has resulted in several firsts for the foundry industry. Thanks to a host of shopfloor innovations, the company, which provides critical duty steel castings for the petrochemical, power generation, nuclear and defence sectors, has reduced its CO2 from 17 to 7 tonnes per tonne of product. Thus, the company has reduced its carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) liability by nearly sixty per cent.
Having obtained the ISO50001 accredited energy management system, Goodwin Steel Castings has also installed on-site solar generation which, with an output of 3.5MW, has generated 8.4 per cent of its total electricity usage over twelve months. The company is now aiming for carbon neutrality by 2035.
The Highly Commended Certificate for Innovation went to Eurac Poole, a member of the MAT Foundry Group, who identified greensand reclamation as a key priority as part of their ambition to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable. They conducted successful trials using Omega Sinto Foundry Machinery Ltd’s patented USR greensand back-to-coreshop reclamation system. The system now allows Eurac to take their waste greensand and remove the residual clay and volatiles, conditioning the sand and making it suitable for reuse within the coreshop. Eurac can replace up to seventy per cent of the sand used in their cores, reducing their need for new sand by approximately one thousand tons per year, and the associated sand dumping costs.
A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Organised by the Cast Metals Federation (CMF), the UK Cast Metals Industry Awards evening attracted 180 guests at the Drayton Manor Resort in Tamworth on 21st November 2025. The awards focused on the impressive castings being manufactured in metal by UK foundries and their huge achievements in innovation, growth, and component performance. The evening clearly showcased the successes of the sector, the major strides it is making in supporting a more sustainable manufacturing world and its increasingly global reach.
Pam Murrell, CEO of CMF at the time of the awards presentation, highlighted the lengths the industry is going to in terms of sustainability. “The UK cast metals sector continues to push boundaries, to innovate and to embrace technologies like 3D printing, simulation and digital twins – this is clearly evident with the depth of quality we saw across our twenty finalists and our eventual four winners,” she said. “We can be proud of what we make, and the way that we make our castings, largely using recycled metal. There is no doubt in my mind that our industry can be part of the government’s solution and Industrial Strategy to grow UK manufacturing, our supply chains and the wider economy.”
CMF would like to thank platinum sponsor LG Energy Group and all the additional sponsors of the awards and the awards evening.
Contact CMF for details of how to enter the 2025 Casting Industry Awards. www.castmetalsfederation.com