Introduction to Steve Hicken, Technical Engineer

Published - 26th May 2020

Haworth Castings is pleased to introduce its new Technical Engineer, Steve Hicken.

Steve Hicken – Technical Engineer

With 4 years’ experience in the casting industry, having previously worked at Cronite Castings in Crewkerne and Eurac in Poole as Production Engineer, Steve brings with him his keen technical skills and his focus and drive to deliver engineering excellence throughout the business.

Steve’s wealth of knowledge and technical ability will be critical to continuing to build and develop customer solutions. Together with the recent appointment of Managing Director, Lachlan Buirds, Steve’s arrival will help us build on Haworth Castings enviable reputation for quality and service across its casting, machining and finishing operations.

Building on technical capabilities

Already making a positive impact to production efficiency at Haworth Castings, Steve has been guiding key technological developments designed to reduce new product development time, make processes more efficient and deliver innovative solutions to customers. The technologies Steve is developing include scanning software, rapid prototyping and casting simulation.

Casting simulation

Leveraging the latest developments in casting simulation software is particularly important to Steve who strongly believes in the criticality of the initial design stages in ensuring high quality sand and gravity die castings. Simulation software generates an animation of the simulated casting model from which we can evaluate pouring rate, velocity of molten metal, hot points and thermal gradient. This enables the virtual testing of design calculations which, in turn, streamlines processes, reduces the risk of defects and lowers costs. It also has the environmental benefit of reducing the amount of material waste.

Steve’s expertise will further enhance the business’ existing strengths in casting analysis, simulation and design for manufacture (DfM), enabling Haworth Castings to gain even greater control of its processes and to deliver additional value to its customers.

A very warm welcome to the team, Steve!

Haworth Castings

Haworth Castings specialises in manufacturing fully-tested, machined and finished aluminium sand and gravity die castings, with locations in Romsey and Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is part of Expromet Technologies Group, a privately owned foundry group that also owns Investacast, a leading investment casting business based in Ilfracombe, Devon.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01794 512685 or email sales@haworthcastings.co.uk.