Alloy Metal Casting 4 mm and 5 mm dia Rods for a Small Company

Your accountant needs to run a cost analysis, what's best for your business can only be determined by carefully working out the pro's and con's of any changes, and making the right decision based on facts and figures....What's the projected payback period will determine if it's the way to go, or better to source the quantity from a trusted supplier....It might only make economic sense if you are producing or require a certain minimum volume, and that figure has some guarantee of continued growth...In any case these decisions are not to be made hastily....If this deficit is holding the business back and there is ample demand to insure growth, and the right people are in place to meet quality demands of customers and prospective customers, then it might be advisable to work towards this goal....

It sounds like you want to copy the designs of valves that you repair, and start developing the means of making the valves on your own. Is this what you are talking about?

Without any numbers, which are commercially sensitive, anyone's guess is as good as anyone else's.

It is really advisable to meet your own requirements, regardless of what they are or mean.

It is advisable to check the economics of the whole business from time to time and here and there.

Expanding into a new field of work would be a requirement set by market pressure and opportunity.

A welding business will need a skilled welder. This should be the first investment.

90% confirmation: No.

If you insist on getting into the foundry business, you would be better off making your own valve design. Careful you don't get in over your knowledge base, and wind up costing you your business.

A wise man once told me (he ran an oilfield services and repair business), that if the did not already know the business inside out, he would not dip his toe in that water.

Based on the little you have told us, no, don't try it.

You would be incurring a major liability for little savings, if any, especially if you are in the petrochemical industry.

If these are what I picture, they are most likely extruded.

It sounds like you are examining the cost benefit of making your own welding rods by melting ingot material and recasting it as rods. I know that you pay a hefty premium per pound (or kilogram) to get alloys such as stellite or colmonoy in rod form rather than ingots.

If that is the case, then setting up a small casting foundry using a small induction melter and permanent molds is feasible. I've done hardsurfacing using stellite rods that were poured in 24" lengths into a vee shaped steel mold and I have seen rod made by pouring into glass tubes set into sand backing with the glass broken away afterwards. Both methods are relatively fast and cheap, but induction melting equipment is relatively expensive and the economic payback requires analysis mentioned by others.

I suspect it will be hard to make the operation run profitably, but then you won't know until you evaluate it.