The Casting Technology team were called in to use its productivity boosting technologies to help accelerate the manufacture of more than 80,000 stainless steel castings supporting one of Europe’s largest architectural projects: the construction of the huge glass façade of Heathrow’s dazzling Terminal 5.

Dimensional accuracy, component integrity and cosmetic appeal of the highest standards had to be maintained on each and every part, with absolutely no variance allowed in demanding delivery schedule for the world’s busiest airport.

“Partnering with Casting Technology undeniably helped us to win and execute the £1.8 million order,” says Ian Siddall of Remus Partners, who were buying Redditch based BSA Precision Castings when it was pitching for the project with prime Heathrow contractor, Schmidlin, a global company in the design, manufacture and installation of high quality curtain wall systems headquartered in Switzerland.

“By any yardstick, this was an awesome task, and involved considerable risk which BSA sought to mitigate by involving Castings Technology in a partnership that provided Schmidlin with the comfort they sought,” says Castings Technology’s Managing Director, Richard Cook.

Ian Cameron, Operations Director of Schmidlin (UK) said: “There were some unplanned challenges along the way but these were overcome thanks to the technical innovation, the flexible capacity and the ‘can-do’ attitude of Castings Technology. Had their skills not been available, we would not have been able to source the cast components for the Terminal 5 Project from a UK supplier. We would certainly welcome an opportunity to work with Castings Technology in the future.”

Richard added: “We created an immediate impact by supplying, free of charge, samples of each component during the bidding process. Produced by our customised rapid prototyping technology, the quality of the components and BSA’s initiative in exploiting Castings Technology’s capabilities, achieved the differentiation necessary to secure this large, prestigious order against competition from some of the leading casting manufacturers in Europe and casting producers in low labour cost countries.”