If you work with castings, you have to make some choices to balance the costs of:
- Inspecting all incoming raw castings 100 pct or by sampling or not at all.
- Inspection by dye penetrant, magnetic particle, or air leak test.
- Accepting that some castings, and some entire lots of castings, will be flawed, saving the cost of upfront inspection but spending the cost of replacing castings that fail or otherwise become unsatisfactory at various stages of production or in customers' hands.
- Inducing the founder to inspect the castings before shipping them, e.g. by paying him to do so.
- Immersing the raw castings in Loctite (290?) penetrating sealant to close up the smaller cracks and areas of porosity.
Except for estimating or measuring the various costs and throughput of the options, it's not really an engineering problem, it's a business problem.
Mike Halloran
NOT speaking for
DeAngelo Marine Exhaust Inc.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA