A Bridgnorth company has won the Component of the Year Award in the UK Cast Metals Industry Awards 2008 for its work on a shopping centre that required more than 2,800 one-metre-square castings with 300 different variants.
Grainger & Worrall won the award for the intricate nature of the building design that required the castings to be flat or formed with single or compound curved profiles. Each weighing around 27kg, the panels were cast in aluminium to remarkable geometric tolerances to ensure a perfect aesthetic finish to the building. “Casting these panels, each only 10mm thick, was made possible by the unique tooling methodology we created to enable the fine changes in geometry and to ensure no finishing was required on the front or sides of the panel,” said James Grainger, director of Grainger & Worrall, a company with a background in producing cast components for the automotive and motorsport industries.
“This project has opened the eyes of architects as to the possibility of using castings for their aesthetic qualities on the face of buildings and to the potential the process can offer them for new and exciting building finishes. The technical achievement to produce these components at an affordable price is quite remarkable,” said John Parker, chief executive of the Cast Metals Federation. “By bringing together innovative thought and technical expertise Grainger & Worrall has brought the architect’s ideas to life and create a visually stunning building that previously could not have been achieved. It is this type of innovation and commitment that is enabling the UKfoundry industry to compete globally at the very highest level, and will ensure a cast metals industry in the UK for many years to come.”
