LIBERTY Ostrava creates giant ingot mould for Italy

The LIBERTY Ostrava foundry, one of the world’s largest producers of castings, is celebrating the delivery of a massive 110 tonne mould to a customer in Northern Italy.

The mould, which is around 3 meters high and 4 meters in diameter, is one of around five of similar size the foundry would expect to deliver each year and will be used to make ingots for further processing into products for the heavy engineering, ship building and nuclear sectors.

The mould is not only hugely complex to produce, as it requires coordination of numerous teams, especially in the blast furnace to maintain the optimum casting temperature, but also in delivery. The moulds are usually transported by trucks but due to a strategic road bridge repair in Austria we had to arrange for it to be carried by rail. Transfer of such an abnormal load by railway required not only the impeccable positioning of the mould on the rail car but also lots of paperwork to get the relevant permits for it to travel from the Czech Republic, through Austria and onward to Italy.