The sizes most plants actually run
Talk to casthouse purchasing and process people about sow and ingot molds long enough, and the same size families keep coming up: LP1500 and LP2000.
Those two low-profile families represent on the order of ~95% of the market FerroTech Castings sees—the sow/ingot mold sizes buyers actually run day to day. Other sizes matter (including LP1850 and related profiles), but if you are writing an RFQ, stocking a spare, or comparing suppliers, LP1500 and LP2000 are where most commercial conversations start.
Geometry alone does not finish the RFQ. Two plants can share an LP1500 envelope and still need different metal classes because their cycles of pours are different.
FerroTech Castings LLC (FerroTech / FTC) coordinates manufacturing of sow molds and drain pans for the worldwide aluminum industry. We specify chemistry and related heat treatment to duty—not to a calendar slogan on a brochure.
“Life in days” hides the real load
Suppliers and plants often discuss mold life in calendar language: “lasted six months,” “about a year,” “failed after a few weeks.” Calendar life is easy to say in a meeting. It is a poor basis for choosing standard vs mid alloy.
Why? Because two molds that each “lasted 180 days” may have seen completely different work:
| Framing | What it counts | Risk if you stop here |
|---|---|---|
| Life in days | Calendar time on the floor | Ignores pours per day, idle days, and campaign intensity |
| Cycles of pours | Actual thermal/mechanical loads | Aligns alloy class to real duty and washout |
A mold at 3 casts per day for six months has absorbed a different cumulative load than a mold at 12–15 carousel cycles in the same calendar window—or a mold at 24–28 casts per day on continuous operation. “Six months” sounds comparable. The metallurgy required is not.
Cycles of pours (casts per mold per day or per week, plus cooling method) is the measurement that connects process reality to chemistry class. Life in days is a secondary outcome after you choose correctly—or a post-mortem when you did not.
How cycle framing changes standard vs mid alloy
FerroTech’s practical quoting model ties alloy band to casts per day and recommended cooling. Without inventing proprietary chem formulas or competitor brand numbers, the industrial logic is:
- Lower cycle rates (on the order of a few casts per day, often air cool) commonly map to a standard / low-alloy class when washout history is mild.
- Mid-range cycle rates (roughly mid-single-digit casts per day, often with water cool on top) commonly need mid alloy to resist washout and retain usable life in pours.
- Higher and continuous rates move into higher alloy bands with more aggressive cooling—still specified to function, not to a secret catalog code.
The exact band for your plant should come from process data: casts per day, cooling, and washout/duty history—not from assuming “LP1500 always takes standard.”
A readable example for purchasing + process
Imagine two RFQs, both for LP2000:
- Plant A — ~3 pours per mold per day, air cool, prior molds lasted many thousands of pours with manageable washout. Standard class may be appropriate.
- Plant B — ~7 pours per mold per day, water cool top, prior “standard” molds washed out early in high-contact zones. Mid alloy is the honest discussion—even though the sow drawing looks identical to Plant A’s.
If both plants buy on “life in days” anecdotes from a neighboring site, Plant B under-specs. If both buy on cycles of pours + washout history, the alloy class splits correctly before metal is poured into the mold casting.
That is the same failure pattern described in our earlier post, Do you know the RIGHT chemistry for your casting process?: plants that ordered standard when mid alloy was needed. The size was right. The life metric was wrong.
Duty patterns that are not interchangeable
Confirmed process language FerroTech uses on the site and in engineering conversations includes duty patterns such as:
- Casting molten aluminum 2–4 times per day
- 10–15 cycles on a carousel
- 3–7 casts per week
- 24–28 casts per day, 24/7 operation
These are not marketing tiers. They are different thermal and mechanical regimes. Heat transfer, strength, and ductility requirements change with them. Chemistry and related heat treatment should change with them too.
When you measure life in pours, you can compare molds fairly: pours to washout limit, pours to crack, pours to scrap. When you measure only in days, idle weekends and campaign shutdowns inflate “life” without rewarding the correct metal.
What to put on an LP1500 / LP2000 RFQ
For the sizes that dominate the market, a process-complete RFQ is short:
- Size family — LP1500 or LP2000 (or other, if true).
- Cycles — casts per mold per day (or per week), not “we run continuously” alone.
- Cooling — air, water top, water bottom, or as practiced.
- Alloy class intent — standard vs mid (and higher if duty warrants), or “advise from process.”
- Washout / duty history — what failed last time, and after roughly how many pours.
- Chemistry / microstructure — if you have prior lab data, include it; if not, say so.
- Drawing — sow/mold print and any fork/runner notes.
FerroTech helps customers turn that list into a clean mold-metal specification before quote and before ship. A full engineering drawing with customer specifications and the required heat treatment is delivered with the order. Quotes can include production through customer delivery with export, import, and shipment details on the commercial path you choose.
We do not lock buyers in by treating chemistry as an opaque proprietary black box. We also do not invent chem formulas we do not have. The goal is a portable, process-true spec that purchasing can buy and process can run.
Next steps
If your plant runs LP1500 or LP2000 and you are still quoting from calendar life stories:
- Check Inventory for ready-stock options when timing matters
- Use the Online DRAFT Quote to walk size, cycles, and alloy-class inputs before an official RFQ
Bring pours-per-day and washout notes. That is how standard vs mid alloy gets chosen correctly.
Related pages
- Home — FerroTech Castings overview
- Do you know the RIGHT chemistry for your casting process? — why sow molds need a metal spec, not just a drawing
- Deliverables — engineering drawing and order package
- Inventory — ready-to-ship molds
- Online DRAFT Quote — draft estimate from duty inputs