Foundry-Planet recently spoke with Gavin Shipley, Technical Director at Sarginsons, about the company's latest achievements and the wider developments shaping the UK foundry sector. Drawing on many years of expertise and supported by funding from the PIVOT programme (Performance Integrated Vehicle Optimisation Technology), a £5.8 million initiative financed by the Advanced Propulsion Centre, Sarginsons has brought a new generation of lightweight casting technology to the global market. During the interview, Shipley discussed the current state of the British foundry industry, highlighted the value of close cooperation between industry partners, and outlined recent advances in lightweight manufacturing.
In June, the PIVOT consortium, comprising Sarginsons Industries, Aston Martin, Siemens, GESCRAP, and Brunel University, reached a significant milestone in the development of lightweight automotive components. At the "Casting the Future of Aluminium" event, hosted by the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), the partners presented newly developed cast aluminium subframes for the demonstrator vehicle of a leading British automotive manufacturer. Compared with the components they are intended to replace, the new front subframe is 17% lighter, while the rear version achieves a weight reduction of 35%.
The innovative subframes were created by combining Sarginsons' casting design expertise with topology optimisation technology supplied by Siemens, including the Simcenter™ OptiStruct® and Simcenter™ Inspire™ software platforms. Building on decades of material testing and detailed microstructural analysis, Sarginsons has developed the capability to accurately predict aluminium behaviour throughout the casting process. As a result, structural castings can be assessed in virtual crash simulations before any molten metal is poured. This digital validation approach reduces the need for conservative over-engineering by replacing assumptions with precise material performance data, enabling the production of lighter and more efficient structural castings.
From Coventry to Global Recognition
How did a foundry in Coventry become a driving force behind a world-first automotive innovation? During his keynote presentation, Gavin Shipley explained that the achievement was made possible through the combination of several key elements working together. As he noted: "A physical crash test can cost up to £1 million every time you run one. For decades, the only way to be safe was to over-engineer, adding mass and material to compensate for uncertainty. What we've demonstrated today is an alternative. By combining virtual engineering, AI and advanced casting expertise, we're able to understand precisely how a component will behave before any metal is poured, giving manufacturers the confidence to design for real performance rather than worst-case assumptions. For decades, engineers have been forced to design around the limitations of casting. We're now turning that thinking on its head, unlocking entirely new possibilities for lighter, stronger and more efficient vehicle structures."
Speaking with Shipley, it soon becomes clear that Sarginsons has established itself as a highly advanced foundry. The company combines traditional foundry expertise with state-of-the-art technologies, including real-time X-ray inspection systems, innovative production methods, and inorganic binder technology. Throughout the conversation, Shipley's enthusiasm for both the company's heritage and its future ambitions was unmistakable. He also emphasized that groundbreaking innovation is not reserved for large corporations. Sarginsons demonstrates that small and medium-sized enterprises can successfully lead projects of global significance when the right capabilities, expertise, and strategic drivers are in place.
Meaningful Simulation Begins with Reliable Data
At Sarginsons, one of the most important foundations for innovation is data. Although the company invests in the latest equipment and manufacturing technologies, Gavin Shipley believes that the greatest value lies not in the machinery itself, but in the information it continuously produces. Discussing the current challenges facing the UK foundry industry, he points out that many companies still operate within a traditionally conservative environment where change is often approached cautiously. Advancing towards more innovative manufacturing requires not only new skills and financial investment, but also the systematic collection and evaluation of process data. As Gavin explains, meaningful simulation is only possible when the underlying manufacturing processes have first been thoroughly measured and understood. Encouraging industry leaders to recognize this is essential if the sector is to progress collectively.
Comprehensive data management has therefore become one of Sarginsons' defining strengths. While many foundries have only recently started building structured data systems, Sarginsons has spent the past two decades gathering, analysing, and applying production data across its operations. According to Gavin, one of the most valuable investments a company can make is time, especially the time required to establish a robust database and extract meaningful insights from it. Although this long-term commitment has given Sarginsons a significant advantage, he emphasizes that companies beginning today do not necessarily need decades to build a solid foundation. With a focused approach, a dependable data infrastructure can be developed within one or two years. Even so, data on its own is not enough to drive lasting innovation.
Why Human Expertise Remains Indispensable
Although Gavin Shipley sees high-performance computing as a key enabler of future casting development, he is equally convinced that technological progress cannot replace human expertise. In his view, lasting success depends on bringing together three essential elements: advanced computing capabilities, extensive manufacturing experience, and reliable engineering data. Only the combination of these strengths enables foundries to fully realize the potential of modern production technologies.
Shipley takes a balanced perspective on the growing influence of artificial intelligence. He considers AI an indispensable tool for advancing electric vehicle development and producing lighter, weight-optimized components. At the same time, he stresses that traditional foundry knowledge remains fundamental and cannot simply be substituted by digital technologies. He encourages foundries to actively incorporate AI into their operations, warning that companies that fail to do so risk losing their competitive position. Rather than describing increasing complexity as either an advantage or a disadvantage, he sees it as a turning point that can create either opportunities or challenges, depending on how effectively a company develops, applies, and preserves its expertise. This is becoming increasingly relevant as customer expectations continue to evolve, particularly with regard to sustainability, material efficiency, and recycling.
Rethinking Recycling: Turning Material Impurities into an Advantage
During our discussion, Gavin Shipley challenged the common perception that recycled materials inevitably compromise component performance. He acknowledged that many foundries remain cautious about using recycled aluminium alloys because impurities can influence material properties. However, he explained that Sarginsons has adopted a different philosophy. Rather than trying to eliminate every impurity, the company adjusts the alloy chemistry to account for the existing material composition and designs its processes accordingly. In his view, the industry needs to move beyond greenwashing and pursue genuinely sustainable solutions by working towards components manufactured entirely from recycled material. He recognizes that this transition cannot happen overnight, making gradual progress towards fully recycled products the most realistic path forward.
Although many foundries continue to face technical and operational challenges when increasing recycled content, Shipley believes that market expectations are already changing rapidly. Customers are no longer interested solely in mechanical performance; they are increasingly requesting verified carbon footprint data alongside conventional material specifications. He expects carbon-related information to become just as important as traditional engineering data, driven both by Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) requirements and by a broader transition towards greener technologies throughout industry. In addition, he argues that sustainable product development is not only about selecting the right material, but also about reducing overall material consumption and designing components with recycled content as a fundamental consideration from the outset.
Sarginsons' Vision for the Future of Casting
One of the key lessons Sarginsons has embraced is that adding excessive material to ensure safety is no longer the best engineering approach. Instead of relying on over-engineering, the company has focused its efforts on accurately predicting mechanical properties while reducing development risks through advanced software tools and machine learning. This strategy has positioned Sarginsons at the forefront of establishing new standards for the foundry industry. Looking ahead, the company's ambition is to achieve fully software-defined manufacturing for structural aluminium castings, where digital engineering plays a central role throughout the production process.
Having spent the past seven years at Sarginsons, Gavin Shipley shared his outlook on both the company's future and the direction of the wider foundry industry over the coming decade. He expects the connection between virtual engineering and the finished casting to become increasingly seamless, with risk assessment and validation taking place almost entirely within digital environments before production begins. More broadly, he believes that long-term competitiveness will depend less on manufacturing at the lowest possible cost and more on technical expertise, specialist knowledge, and the ability to interpret complex manufacturing data. In his view, these capabilities will only become more valuable as artificial intelligence continues to advance. For Foundry-Planet, the conversation with Gavin Shipley provided valuable insight into the principles, technologies, and long-term vision that distinguish Sarginsons and contribute to the company's continued success.
