Success Story

Siempelkamp Giesserei:
When industry meets art!

Such imposing images make an impression: Large workpieces weighing several hundred tons take shape in the Siempelkamp Giesserei. The casting ladles from which the iron, which has a temperature of over 1,300°C, flows into the mold appear to be enormous. The finished castings are well-known in a wide variety of industries. Who would have thought that works of art are also created here?

Art meets casting technology
Picture of the month!

Grinding tables, engine blocks, and machine carriers: the king-size formats from Siempelkamp Giesserei are well-known in the industry worldwide However, the "heavy metal" projects with which the Krefeld casting specialists enrich the world of art are also remarkable. It is not uncommon for business enterprises to support the fine arts. However, Siempelkamp Giesserei, the world's leading manufacturer of complex casting geometries, goes one step further: It actively supports artists with its expertise in the implementation of many creative ideas.

Two worlds come together constructively when art and casting technology meet: On the one hand, the artist, who finds the material cast iron appealing mostly because of its surface structure; on the other hand, the foundry experts, for whom the precise analysis of the liquid iron and the mechanical characteristic values are important so that the later component can withstand the high stresses. These opposites attract – and the media are also getting into this exciting topic.

Thus, the "Photo of the Month" in the 01_2021 issue of the trade magazine "Giesserei" shows a cast cloth that was inaugurated in Essen Kettwig‘s Sculpture Park – a reminiscence of the tradition of cloth making by artist Norbert Pielsticker. Light in appearance, the cloth unfolds to a height of four meters, weighs four tons, and was cast in the Siempelkamp Giesserei. This project was also staged in social media and "unveiled" on LinkedIn.

Picture: Screenshot LinkedIn

"40 tons of iron torn apart"

On campus of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) another work of art can be admired that was created in cooperation with the Siempelkamp Giesserei – the name itself stands for tension and energy: "40 tons of iron torn apart It all started with a 40-ton block of iron, cast in the Siempelkamp Giesserei. The artist Nino Maaskola drilled holes into the block which he then filled with explosives. The "boom", which was quoted in the media, created two wedges which found their place on the KIT premises in 2020. This is another illustration of how fire and iron are harnessed not only for industry but also for artistic projects.

Picture: Screenshot Instagram / ninomaaskola

International reach

The casting technology of Siempelkamp Giesserei has long since reached the international art scene. Take Kunsthalle Basel, for example: Here the Berlin-based artist Nevin Aladag exhibited her artwork "March" in 2015. A total of 100 small cast iron ball segments with a diameter of 16 cm and a weight of approximately 1,600 g join together to form an installation. The result was a large "sheet of music" on the Kunsthalle building showing the first bars of Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca". The producer: again Siempelkamp Giesserei.

The manufacturing process was particularly exciting here: for each individual sphere segment a model was made of Styrofoam, which the artist worked on manually. This gave each sphere an individual look. An original cannonball from the historical museum in Basel served as a model.

Picture: Screenshot Siempelkamp Bulletin 01/2015

Bulletin (PDF)

Core business and art excursion

As before, the classics in the product range of Siempelkamp Giesserei are the numerous castings for a wide variety of industrial sectors. “The excursions into the field of art mean an exciting challenge for us, which our team is really passionate about,” says Dirk Howe, Managing Director of Siempelkamp Giesserei.