Castings Technology has installed a new vacuum arc remelting furnace at its £18 million Sheffield factory, adding a major piece of production equipment to an expansion designed to increase UK capacity for high-integrity titanium castings.
The multi-million-pound furnace has been lifted into position at the company’s new 196,000 sq ft facility and is described as the largest unit of its type in commercial use in the UK and one of the largest globally. The factory is expected to become operational later in 2026.
Vacuum arc remelting, or VAR, gives manufacturers tight control over the melting of reactive and high-performance metals. At Castings Technology, titanium feedstock is formed into an electrode and melted under vacuum at controlled weights and temperatures before the molten metal is poured into a ceramic mould.
The mould is then spun, using centrifugal force to force the titanium into complex sections under controlled pressure. The process allows thinner and more precise wall sections to be produced than static casting methods can readily achieve, reducing some of the material that would otherwise have to be removed during subsequent machining.
Handling around the furnace has also been designed with automation in mind. Moulds and parts will move on a bogie-based loading system rather than relying on forklift or manual transfer, giving the production team tighter control over positioning while reducing the physical handling associated with large, hot, and expensive components.
The VAR furnace is one part of a broader manufacturing investment. Castings Technology is also installing a large vacuum heat-treatment furnace, described as one of the largest in Europe, alongside CNC machining and 3D-printing capability.
Combining those processes within one operation gives the company greater control over successive stages of component manufacture. Melting, casting, thermal processing, additive pattern production, and machining each create potential delays when capacity is scarce or work has to move between several specialist suppliers.
For titanium components, that manufacturing chain can be particularly demanding. Titanium offers high strength relative to its weight, good corrosion resistance, and useful performance at elevated temperatures, but it is highly reactive when hot and requires carefully controlled melting, moulding, and heat-treatment conditions.
Large castings increase the difficulty further because metal flow, cooling, distortion, dimensional accuracy, and defect control become more challenging as component size and complexity increase. Aerospace, energy, defence, marine, and other highly regulated customers also require manufacturing processes to remain tightly controlled once components and suppliers have been qualified.
Castings Technology describes itself as the UK’s only commercial titanium castings company and produces both individual parts and small batches for mission-critical applications. Its current markets include aerospace, defence, space, industrial gas turbines, marine engineering, and industrial pumps.
Richard Cook, managing director at Castings Technology, said: “This is a significant moment for Castings Technology. The furnace represents a major step forward in our manufacturing capability and reflects the scale of our ambition as we move into our new home in Sheffield.”
The investment is expected to create 20 jobs directly, with recruitment spanning production, quality, technical, maintenance, and commercial functions. New recruits this summer have included maintenance engineers, pattern-shop operatives, and welding apprentices, illustrating the mix of conventional manufacturing skills and newer automated processes required by the expanded operation.
The company says the new facility is intended to increase productivity and capacity while securing critical elements of its supply chain. That is particularly relevant in titanium manufacturing, where a shortage of approved melting, heat-treatment, or machining capacity can constrain output even when demand for finished parts remains strong.
Keeping more processes under one roof does not remove the need for specialist suppliers, but it reduces the number of external production stages capable of determining lead time. It also gives manufacturing engineers a more direct route between melting, inspection, heat treatment, machining, and corrective process work when a complex casting does not behave as expected.
The Sheffield factory is due to become operational later this year. Commissioning the furnace, heat-treatment plant, machining equipment, and associated handling systems will determine how quickly the investment translates into qualified output — because in titanium production, the useful measure of a large furnace is the number of conforming castings that eventually leave it.
