In 1979, the company   focused their attention on the gravity diecasting of aluminium and this continued through to 1984. At this time they were able to see the disadvantages with gravity diecasting and decided to experiment with the centrifugal spinning of the mould, at speed, to produce sounder, more refined and higher dimensional accuracy of aluminium castings.

In the development of  techniques it was recognised that there were no vertical spindle casting machines manufactured that were capable of producing on a production basis a varying range of high quality aluminium castings. It  was decided to engineer such a machine and have semi automated a number of the processes to reduce labour needs and produce higher yield castings.

Because the molten metal is pressure led into the die cavity using centrifugal force, much thinner sections can be cast with fine grain structure and minimal porosity and high surface quality. The centrifugal die cast wheel hub caps shown at right, resulted in reduced section thickness of 2mm hence lower cast weights. The hub caps on the left have been finished painted without any machining while the caps on the right have been diamond tip machined and finish painted.

The stage now  reached is where a production Centrifugal Casting machine has been working now for 15 years. A second machine has now been built which is capable of producing aluminium castings up to 8kg in weight incorporating innovations learned over the past years. This machine is controlled by a developed Centra-Tech® Electronic Program that controls the casting phase.

Centracast - Westside Engineering Ltd is well recognised as a leader in the supply of high quality aluminium castings produced by the centrifugally spun and gravity diecasting processes.