The Role of Castings in Part Consolidation

Parts consolidation is receiving renewed interest from airframe producers as a means of reducing design and manufacturing costs, weight, and maintenance. Furthermore, assemblies designed as monoliths enable use of determinant assembly methods for construction. Design for Manufacturing and Fewer-and-Simpler Parts are two initiatives which focus on the relationship between part count and total cost. How do castings compare with competing technologies in delivering a solution to part count reduction? Numerous applications are investigated and contrasted against other manufacturing processes. What do these case histories tell us about where to look for future successes?