How Zircoa Rebuilt Investment Casting Crucible Supply for a European Aerospace Foundry
For an aerospace investment casting foundry producing turbine blades and vanes for jet engines, the material in the furnace is only part of the equation. Getting that material to the production floor — reliably, efficiently, and without unnecessary cost — matters just as much. When a European foundry found itself locked into an expensive, unreliable purchasing arrangement for its zirconia crucibles, the solution came from the partner closest to the problem.
The Challenge: An Intermediary That Added Cost Without Adding Value
The foundry had been an investment casting operation since the 1950s, supplying precision components to major aerospace engine manufacturers. Its zirconia crucibles, used in vacuum induction melting furnaces for superalloy casting, were sourced through a third-party supply chain management company that had held the purchasing contract for nearly a decade.
The arrangement delivered little of the value it promised. Rather than managing investment casting crucible supply against an annual forecast, the intermediary placed orders reactively as the foundry needed parts. The result was a steady stream of small, high-frequency international shipments, each carrying full freight costs and import duties. The intermediary charged approximately 20% for this order-passing service, essentially a fee that compounded with every delivery. Despite the added cost, no inventory was being held on the foundry’s behalf. When demand spiked, or a shipment was delayed, there was no buffer.
For a facility running continuous casting operations on aerospace-qualified components, that kind of exposure is unacceptable.
The Solution: A Direct Partnership Built Around the Foundry’s Actual Needs
Zircoa GmbH, Zircoa’s European sales office based in Wiesbaden, Germany, had maintained a direct relationship with this foundry since 2005. That proximity, which was both geographic and relational, put Zircoa GmbH in a position to see the problem clearly and propose a better solution.
During a site visit in early 2022, the Zircoa team proposed replacing the intermediary arrangement entirely with a direct supply program built around how the foundry actually operates. The foundry would place a single annual blanket order covering its full crucible demand across four configurations. Zircoa would handle the warehousing function the intermediary never provided.
Based on the foundry’s consumption forecast, Zircoa pre-packed inventory onto individually labeled pallets, each sized to deliver the specific quantities and crucible configurations needed for a defined production period. The foundry calls off a pallet as production requires and receives exactly what it needs; this means no excess inventory accumulating on their floor and no waiting on an overseas shipment to arrive.
On logistics, Zircoa consolidates those shipments with other European orders into shared sea containers, significantly reducing per-unit freight costs compared to the previous pattern of frequent individual dispatches. With inventory staged at a European warehouse, delivery time dropped from extended international lead times to just a few days. Zircoa’s facility in Solon, Ohio/USA provides a secondary backup: in urgent situations, alternative inventory can be confirmed and expedited by air — a contingency the previous arrangement never offered.
The Results: An Investment Casting Crucible Supply That Works
Restructuring the investment casting crucible supply relationship produced measurable improvements across cost, efficiency, and supply reliability:
- Reduced annual purchasing to a single blanket order, eliminating the administrative burden of frequent individual transactions
- Cut freight costs by consolidating shipments into shared containers rather than repeated international dispatches
- Lowered the carbon footprint of crucible delivery, with consolidated sea freight producing substantially lower emissions per unit than frequent small shipments
- Replaced a pass-through purchasing fee with a managed supply service that delivers warehousing, staged inventory, and consolidated logistics
- Established an active inventory buffer that reduced on-hand stock at the foundry while maintaining access to product within days
- Created a direct backup fulfillment path through Zircoa USA for emergency or urgent requirements
The foundry’s satisfaction with both the crucibles and the new supply structure — rated at the highest levels across product, service, and innovation — reflects a relationship built over nearly two decades and, now, a supply model engineered around the foundry’s actual operational reality.
Zircoa GmbH is extending this direct warehousing program to additional European customers where consistent annual demand and defined crucible programs make it the right fit. If your casting operation is managing similar supply chain friction, contact Zircoa to explore what a direct supply arrangement could look like for your program.