1. General presentation

1.1 History

The Griffin Wheel Company in the USA, a subsidiary of Amsted Industrie International, developed this process for casting steel railcar wheels around 1950. The yield and quality improvements resulting from this process enabled Griffin to become the largest manufacturer of railcar wheels in the USA.

These results, combined with the ability to control the casting operation down to the smallest detail, prompted Amsted to extend the process to billets, blooms and then slabs in carbon and stainless steels (slab machines from 1968).