We have been involved in heritage contracts throughout the world for over 150 years but a recent contract is undoubtedly one of the most impressive. Working on one of the UK’s most famous buildings Ballantine Castings was awarded the contract for the replacement of over 11.5 tonnes of 3 metre long, cast iron gutters.
We’ve made thousands of gutters over the years but none quite as large as these. All ironwork had to be withing a +/- 1 mm tolerance on every dimension cast in Grade 250 iron. Each cast iron gutter weighs c. 560 kilograms with a 16 mm wall section. We made all of the patterns in house in our traditional pattern shop. Pattern production was carried out within 1 week of receiving the order – we pride ourselves on quick turnarounds and high quality castings. By making everything in house we’re able to prioritise jobs to suit our customers’ requirements.
Each casting was manufactured in our specially designed heavy moulding area where we make castings from 1-3 tonnes in a range of materials from cast iron and aluminium and through to austempered ductile iron. This moulding bay manufactures a range of castings; day to day works are mainly large pump, valve and compressor castings but we also manufacture large architectural castings for contracts like Westminster Bridge and Albert Bridge. Our moulders are all time served and experts on complex castings such as these. We ran the castings uphill on a soft incline in order to ensure that the molten metal ran for the whole length of the 3 metre cast iron gutter and to ensure a clear surface finish.
All metals were checked with both destructive and non-destructive testing and chemical analysis is carried out on all metallurgy by our in house laboratory. Our customer received a Certificate of Conformity with the order showing the exact metallurgy of every casting to ensure the highest standards of quality are always adhered to. We offer this service to all customers across all sectors of casting supply.
All of the 23 cast iron gutters were cast, inspected, blasted fettled and ready for dispatch within 3 weeks of receiving the order. We love large, heritage contracts and pride ourselves on being experts in our field – however this contract was somewhat unique and one that we will be proud of for years to come. It’s not every day you make a half tonne cast iron gutter!
We welcome all enquiries across the architectural, engineering and construction sectors so please get in touch for any ironwork or aluminium enquiries. to see our range of standard architectural castings please visit our online catalogue.
Making the mould for the cast iron gutter
Mould making
Over 500kg of GR250 Molten iron for one cast iron gutter
