Ceramic foam filters seemed like overkill for our small shop

I argued they were a luxury we couldn't afford on tight margins. Watching one catch a massive slag inclusion that would have scrapped a casting changed my mind completely. How do you justify the cost versus the scrap reduction in your operations?

3 comments

3 Comments

mason_martin2h ago

Exactly, Nancy nailed it with the risk calculation. I ran the numbers after that one filter saved a casting that would've cost us three days of labor and materials. You're not paying for the filter itself, you're buying insurance against a total loss. The math becomes obvious when you track how much one major defect actually costs in wasted metal, machine time, and missed deadlines. It stopped being a luxury item for us once we treated it as a necessary process control. What's your typical scrap rate on the castings you're running?

roberts.stella4h ago

Seriously? How often does that actually happen to justify the expense?

nancy8172h ago

But scrap costs from one major defect can eclipse the filter's price many times over. It's a simple risk calculation where preventing a total loss justifies the upfront expense. The payoff isn't in daily miracles, it's in avoiding catastrophic failures.