AKS Plant Creates Russia's Largest Casting Flask

ChugunSpetsStroy from Lipetsk, a company specialising in the production of cast iron fittings for water utilities and now mastering large-diameter pipelines, approached AKS Plant with a request to modernise a previously supplied line.

In 2022, AKS Plant had already equipped this enterprise with a casting line featuring two flasks: a cubic one measuring 1.5 × 1.5 × 1.5 metres, and a rectangular one at 1.6 × 2 × 2 metres. These enabled the customer to successfully produce fittings for pipelines up to 0.8 metres in diameter.

However, times change, and so do demands. In 2025, aiming to expand its product range and increase production volumes, ChugunSpetsStroy faced the need to master pipelines with diameters of 1 metre and 1.2 metres. The solution was to add a third, truly gigantic flask to the existing line — measuring 2.5 × 1.7 × 2.4 metres.

This order presented a real challenge for AKS Plant. At that time, no flasks of such dimensions existed in Russia, making the project truly innovative.

The primary task was to minimise the flask's weight while maintaining its rigidity, ensuring sufficient vibration amplitude during sand filling to compact the sand throughout the entire moulding process. Delicate vibration prevents model deformation during moulding. When using lost foam casting (LFC) technology with thin-walled products, even the slightest deviation in the sand filling process can lead to irreversible consequences.

It is worth noting the high expertise of the customer's engineers, who successfully addressed the technological challenge of filling thin-walled models with moulding sand.

Commissioning works carried out at AKS Plant confirmed the project's success. Video footage from on-site trials at the production facility clearly demonstrates the excellent results.

As a result, AKS Plant gained valuable new experience and completed a project to produce Russia's largest casting flask, while ChugunSpetsStroy expanded its product assortment, gaining an exclusive competitive advantage — becoming the only manufacturer in Russia of fittings in such large sizes.