Know How
Fonderie de la Côte casts aluminum and copper alloys. It uses sand casting, investment casting (lost-wax) and permanent mold casting. Some of its specilaties are:
What we do
Visage craquelé - Mounir Chaïbi - aluminium AS7G
Forme d'ananas - ABehot - aluminium AS7G
Sculpture - ABehot - aluminium
Sculpture - MChaïbi -aluminium AS7G
Houta - Mounir Chaïbi - bronze CuSn12
Tampon de pyrogravure
Médailles - bronze
Porte clef - aluminium
Espagnolette - bronze
Coquille - cupro-aluminium
Trophée cuve de réacteur
Croix pattée du Vexin (brutes)
History
Fonderie de la Côte has been founded in 2013 by Alexandre Behot. Engineer in materials & processes, specialized in metal casting, Alexandre Behot discovered casting at graduate school and became fond of it. Since then he accumulated 8 years of practice in metal casting. After beginning his carrer as engineer in aeronautical industry he set up his workshop, dealing with both activities for 3 years. As more & more casting projects arrived, he decided to stop industry for a while and dedicate his time to Fonderie de la Côte
Equipment
Design
CAD with Fusion 360
Pattern making
woodcraft workshop
clay, plaster, polystyrene… patern making
3D printer PLA 200x200x230mm
Molding
special fine art foundry sand
dewaxing oven 500x500x700mm
gravity die for aluminum
Smelting
oil furnace 16kg bronze – 8kg aluminum
gaz furnace 3kg bronze – 1kg aluminum
electrical régulated furnace for smelting/holding 5kg aluminum
Heat treat
electrical regulated kiln 30-1000°C 150x100x100mm
Manifest
Casting is as old as the hills. It takes part in the corpus of technics that grow for and with human beings. Unrecognized, it may appear obsolete at the age of “homo-numericus” and “anthropocene”. However metal casting offers some benefits that no other technics equal yet. From aircraft parts to zip sliders passing through The Thinker by Rodin, metal casting is necessary and everywhere.
In this context, Fonderie de la Côte is a project thought to make casting compilant with todays chalenges. As best as possible thought local, sustainable and environment friendly, the workshop is a test bench for a mix of some ways of thinking like frugal innovation and open source. It’s not only about production but experimenting other ways of production. At the end of the day the aim is to share technical and economical lessons learned.