Dakota Foundry Capabilities
Iron Casting Capabilities Built for Difficult Work.
From a 3D model or existing pattern to a finished gray or ductile iron casting, Dakota Foundry combines experienced people, flexible molding, modern tooling resources and practical problem-solving to move challenging projects forward.
Project Fit
Is Your Casting a Fit?
Dakota Foundry is especially well suited for complex, heavy and difficult-to-source casting programs. We take on the work others won't evaluate.
- Gray and ductile iron castings
- Prototypes and new-product development
- Low- to medium-volume production
- Complex and heavily cored components
- ~200–2,000 lbs production sweet spot
- Gray iron castings up to 5,000 lbs
- Ductile iron castings up to 3,500 lbs
- Foundry rescue, reshoring and supplier transfers
- Programs other foundries are unwilling to evaluate
Our Guarantee
"We deliver on our commitments. We've got your back when you are in a crunch. If there is a problem, we will fix it."
Casting Materials
Gray Iron & Ductile Iron Castings
Gray Iron Castings
Classes 30, 35, 40 & 45 · Up to 5,000 lbs
- Classes 30, 35, 40 and 45
- Castings up to 5,000 pounds
- Excellent vibration damping
- High compressive strength
- Good thermal conductivity
- Strong machinability
Use cases include machinery bases, housings, industrial components and parts where rigidity and vibration absorption are important.
Ductile Iron Castings
60-40-18 · 65-45-12 · 80-55-06 · Up to 3,500 lbs
- 60-40-18
- 65-45-12
- 80-55-06
- Castings up to 3,500 pounds
- Greater tensile strength and toughness
- Improved impact resistance
- More ductility than gray iron
Use cases include components exposed to shock, loading, stress or demanding service conditions.
Not sure which iron grade fits your application? Send us your specifications and our team will help evaluate the requirements.
Molding
Flexible Molding for Complex Work
No-Bake Rollover Molding
Our No-Bake process supports accurate, complex molds and flexible production quantities. It is particularly well suited for our approximate 200–2,000-pound production sweet spot, complicated geometry and smaller production batches.
Floor Molding
Floor molding expands our ability to produce larger and heavier castings, including gray iron castings up to 5,000 pounds and ductile iron castings up to 3,500 pounds.
Green Sand Molding
Green sand is available for select applications where production rate, part design, size and economics make it the right process. Our team evaluates each project to determine the best molding approach.
Core Production
Dakota Foundry supports complex core assemblies and internal casting geometry through conventional core production and 3D-printed sand cores where applicable. Complex coring is a strength, not a limitation.
3D Sand Printing
From 3D Model to Iron Casting — Without Traditional Tooling Delays.
Dakota Foundry uses 3D-printed sand molds and cores to produce prototype and first-article castings without hard tooling. Customers provide a 3D CAD model, which is used to print the sand mold or core directly. This reduces tooling costs and accelerates lead times for prototypes, replacement parts and new-product development.
Start a 3D Sand Printing Project
Patterns & Tooling
Good Castings Start With Good Tooling.
The pattern is the foundation of the casting. Poor tooling can create dimensional problems, excess finishing, scrap and repeat quality issues. Dakota Foundry and the Anderson Foundries network help customers begin with tooling designed for repeatable casting success.
- Casting and tooling design assistance
- Pattern and core-box development
- Pattern repair, maintenance and retooling
- CNC-machined tooling through Spartan Pattern
- 3D sand printing
- MAGMA casting simulation
- Review of customer-supplied tooling
- Organized on-site pattern storage
Quality
Melt. Mold. Finish. Verify.
Melt
- Gray and ductile iron production
- Controlled chemistry
- Metallurgical verification
Mold & Pour
- Mold and core preparation
- Sand testing
- Controlled pouring processes
Finish
- Shakeout
- Cleaning
- Grinding
- Shot blasting where applicable
- Additional finishing coordination
Verify
- Metallurgy testing
- Mold-sand testing
- In-process inspection
- Visual and dimensional inspection
- Customer-required certifications
- Corrective-action support
Extended Services
Extended Manufacturing Services Through Our Network
Some value-added services may be performed through Anderson Foundries, Anderson Industries or qualified outside partners. Dakota Foundry coordinates these services as part of a broader manufacturing solution—they are not all performed in-house.
Machining
- CNC turning
- CNC milling and machining
Fabrication
- Robotic welding
- Welding
- Press-brake forming
- Large-scale rolling
- Tube bending
- Sheet and plate bending
Cutting
- Laser cutting
- Plasma cutting
- Oxy-fuel cutting
- Tube and fiber-laser cutting
- Waterjet cutting
Finishing & Coating
- Powder coating
- Liquid coating
- Zinc plating
- Heat treating and annealing
- Media blasting
Quality, Engineering & Verification
Confidence Before Production.
Difficult castings require more than molten iron. Dakota Foundry combines practical casting engineering, experienced metallurgical control, sample verification and customer approval to establish a dependable production process before full production begins.
Engineering Before the Pour
- Casting design and manufacturability assistance
- Pattern and core-box development
- MAGMA casting simulation through Spartan Pattern
- Conventional and 3D-printed sand molds and cores
- Tooling verification before sample production
Controlled Iron
- Gray iron Classes 30, 35, 40 and 45
- Ductile iron grades 60-40-18, 65-45-12 and 80-55-06
- In-process metallurgical and material verification
- Heat-specific documentation when required by the customer
Sample, Inspect and Approve
- Initial sample casting before production
- Visual and dimensional inspection
- Casting cleaning, grinding and final verification
- Written customer approval required before production release
Documentation and Support
- Customer-required certifications and quality documentation
- Responsive corrective-action support
- Tooling-transfer and foundry-rescue evaluation
- Practical communication from print review through shipment
Proven on Difficult Castings
The Work Others Wouldn't Take On.
1,600-lb Ductile Iron Steam-Engine Wheel
Challenge
Recreate a large ductile iron wheel for a restored 1911 Advance steam traction engine.
Approach
The team used MAGMA casting simulation and approximately 20 interlocking sections of 3D-printed sand mold to develop the complex casting.
Result
A 1,600-pound ductile iron casting recognized by the American Foundry Society for prototype casting excellence.
2,000-lb Gray Iron Wire-Stripper Block
Challenge
Recreate a difficult replacement component from 1951 drawings after other suppliers were unwilling to pursue it.
Approach
Dakota Foundry produced the Class 35 gray iron component using a nine-section 3D-printed sand mold.
Result
A 2,000-pound replacement casting that demonstrated Dakota Foundry's ability to solve complex legacy-equipment challenges.
Industries Served
Serving Demanding Industries Across North America
Added Convenience
Pattern Storage
Dakota Foundry can store approved customer patterns and tooling on-site, keeping them close to production and ready when the next order is released. Organized storage and inventory tracking help our team retrieve your tooling efficiently, reduce unnecessary shipping and move approved projects back into production.
- On-site storage near our molding operations
- Organized tooling identification and inventory tracking
- Faster retrieval when production is scheduled
- Reduced round-trip shipping and coordination
- Tooling ready for inspection, maintenance or the next production run
Pattern storage is subject to Dakota Foundry's current storage policy, available capacity and applicable fees. Inactive tooling may be subject to long-term storage charges. Contact our team for current details.
Request a Quote
Have a Casting Others Won't Take On?
Send us your print, model or project requirements. Our team will evaluate the material, tooling, molding process, quantity and best path forward.
Contact Us Directly
Dakota Foundry is a division of Anderson Foundries. We produce gray and ductile iron castings for customers across North America.