A new investment that significantly increases AMRC Castings’ ability to produce large scale castings with a superior surface finish could help to radically reduce the cost to the UK of storing nuclear waste. The organisation, part of the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), recently installed a bespoke CMS Poseidon 5 axis CNC machine to produce large scale dimensionally accurate replica patterns from polystyrene.
The machine was acquired with backing from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, and the Aerospace Technology Institute as part of an initiative to give Britain the capability to produce aerospace castings weighing up to 500 kg in titanium, 300kg in super-alloys and just under 3000kg in steel.
Further equipment has to be installed before that capability is complete, but the new CNC machine is already proving its worth, producing replica patterns which are being used to make prototype frames to fit on the top of high quality, stainless steel, nuclear waste storage vessels.
Currently, the 1.6 metre square frames are fabricated from 30 separate pieces of duplex stainless steel sheet and bar – a costly and complex process, involving welding and detailed inspection of each joint. By using its Replicast® and MEGAshell® technologies, AMRC Castings has been able to create a single ceramic mould into which the stainless steel is cast to produce a highly dimensionally accurate, one piece frame with the superior surface finish required by Sellafield.
