An innovative concept in cast aluminum, designed for a lifetime!

Endless possibilities with our modular columns

Compose your own column

Thanks to our large range of decorative ornaments, you can compose your column as you wish

Simple mounting

With DC-FIX (fixation plates), we ensure a quick and easy installation.

Customised

Any size from xx to xxx m is possible. The customisation that your project needs.

Discover our columns with our extensive range of ornaments

Columns for each project

The columns can be placed both outdoors (veranda, pergola, gazebo, orangery, ...) and indoors (loft, renovation, decoration, ...).

Get inspired

Load-bearing structure

Our columns are not only decorative but also structural.

Are you looking for a load-bearing decorative column? Consult our buckling report to see which posts are suitable for your situation.

View technical information

Paris: Hotel Saint-James

Architects, designers and professionals

Thanks to our own aluminum sand foundry can we create custom work.
Would you like to have your own design realized?
Contact us and see what we can do for you!

Professionals

The main advantages of sand casting are:

• Swiftness and reasonable cost for the setting-up
• Excellent precision/cost ratio
• Products are easily adapted if necessary
• A perfect process for small to medium-sized quantities
• A perfect process for prototyping
• A perfect process for the production of our proprietary system of bespoke columns. 

But it is a relatively expensive process since it implies a high degree of highly skilled manpower. This explains partly the price of our elements for columns: it is a high-end product. It is made in Belgium, and it is belgian quality.

When it goes about large quantities, we subcontract the work to one of our partners specialized in die-casting. 

The development of the models and of the moulds for our capitals, bases and decorative rings used for the assembly of our columns..

This crucial phase will often imply a close cooperation with the client. 

The aluminium alloys

Many alloys exist, with various properties. These alloys were developed in function of the characteristics required for the casted parts, and in function of their usages. Aluminium is almost never used in its pure form. Alluminum is mixed with silicium, copper, magnesium, titanium, cobalt, etc. The quality of the alloy is measured before the casting, and noted in the "casting report".

In function of the needed characteristics, the casted parts will in some cases be case-hardened (to harden the surface of the part), or case-softened (to release the internal tensions in the metal).

Typical applications for sand casting 

• prototyping in its broad sense (automotive or aeronautical industries)
• small or medium-sized series, with high technical requirements (weapons, racing cars parts, high speed railway transportation)
• art castings, machinery for the food processing or the textile industries, the transportation sector, public lighting, etc.
• any part of complex shape, submitted to high mechanical strains, such as engine blocks, carters for torque converters, boggies for high-speed trains, landing gears...
• and: our system of modular, bespoke and and cut to size columns 

In brief, all applications where: lightness, good resistance to dynamical strain, weld-ability, a good thermal conductivity, etc. are required in various mixes, without necessarily looking towards mass-production.

It is not without reason that the engines and gearboxes of nearly all luxury cars are produced through aluminium sand-casting (much lighter than cast iron). See for instance this video on the Ferrari foundry. 

 

 

 

 

The four most used processes for the casting of aluminun are:

1. Sand casting

2. Die casting -gravity

3. Die casting - pressure 

4. Lost wax casting

We are specialised in sand casting, since we desire to be as flexible as possible so as to provide the best possible service to our customers. It is also the best process for the production of our system of cast decorative, architectural and structural columns for conservatories, gazebos, verandas, patios as well as for interior decoration or renovation purposes.. We use it for the manufacture of the capitals, the bases and the decorative rings, whilst the shafts are extruded. Our columns are much lighter than columns in cast iron.

Cast aluminium is a much better material for producing decorative columns inspired from traditional elegance than cast iron or cast steel, since it is lighter and thus easier to manipumale and to install; it is nearly as load-bearing as cast iron.

The main advantages of sand casting are:

• Swiftness and reasonable cost for the setting-up
• Excellent precision/cost ratio
• Products are easily adapted if necessary
• A perfect process for small to medium-sized quantities
• A perfect process for prototyping
• A perfect process for the production of our proprietary system of bespoke columns. 

But it is a relatively expensive process since it implies a high degree of highly skilled manpower. This explains partly the price of our elements for columns: it is a high-end product. It is made in Belgium, and it is belgian quality.

When it goes about large quantities, we subcontract the work to one of our partners specialized in die-casting. 

The development of the models and of the moulds for our capitals, bases and decorative rings used for the assembly of our columns..

This crucial phase will often imply a close cooperation with the client. 

The aluminium alloys

Many alloys exist, with various properties. These alloys were developed in function of the characteristics required for the casted parts, and in function of their usages. Aluminium is almost never used in its pure form. Alluminum is mixed with silicium, copper, magnesium, titanium, cobalt, etc. The quality of the alloy is measured before the casting, and noted in the "casting report".

In function of the needed characteristics, the casted parts will in some cases be case-hardened (to harden the surface of the part), or case-softened (to release the internal tensions in the metal).

Typical applications for sand casting 

• prototyping in its broad sense (automotive or aeronautical industries)
• small or medium-sized series, with high technical requirements (weapons, racing cars parts, high speed railway transportation)
• art castings, machinery for the food processing or the textile industries, the transportation sector, public lighting, etc.
• any part of complex shape, submitted to high mechanical strains, such as engine blocks, carters for torque converters, boggies for high-speed trains, landing gears...
• and: our system of modular, bespoke and and cut to size columns 

In brief, all applications where: lightness, good resistance to dynamical strain, weld-ability, a good thermal conductivity, etc. are required in various mixes, without necessarily looking towards mass-production.

It is not without reason that the engines and gearboxes of nearly all luxury cars are produced through aluminium sand-casting (much lighter than cast iron). 

 Endless possibilities with our modular columns

Compose your own column

Thanks to our large range of decorative ornaments, you can compose your column as you wish

Simple mounting

With DC-FIX (fixation plates), we ensure a quick and easy installation.

Customised

Any size from xx to xxx m is possible. The customisation that your project needs.

We have the shaft that fits in your project

- The shafts are extruded

- The shafts are available in 5 diameters 60, 80 ,100, 140 and 200 mm, two models-designs  P1= smooth/round or P2= fluted/grooved

- We cut the shafts to your desired length. The maximum lenght of our shaft is 6 metres.

-The column can be used as a decorative element or as a load-bearing element

Decorative column:       

No restriction - all types of shafts are eligible

Load-bearing column:   

Under load, when the post has to offer bearing capacity, the wall tickness and the length of the post determine the application load and the buckling load.

        Via the buckling load report, you can determine which type of shafts are eligible.

  Our large range of ornaments 

Our architectural and ornamental columns are fully modular. This means that all bases, capitals, rings and shafts whithin the same range of diameter can be selected independently. The whole of all elements is delivered in one kit. The composition of the column is done at the workplace.

 Two types of ornaments : Non-structural and structural elements.

Non-structural ornements: ( pedestals, capitals and rings)

The shaft slides through the ornament.

Structural ornements: ( pedestals and capitals)

The shaft is placed on the pedestal. The height of the pedestal extends the column.

A structural capital comes on the top of the shaft and extending the column.

Where is the column placed?

New situation:

Ornaments: all types ornements are eligible

Existing situation:

Replacement or placing a column in an existing environment.

Choose non-structural ornaments where a fixation plate DC-FIX B can be used.

Every situation is different, so you have to ask yourself: How do we place and fix the column?

New sitution + evacuation of rain water:

- Shaft minimum diameter : 100 mm

     DC-100 P1 - round shaft - inner diameter 90 mm

     DC-100 P2 - fluted shaft - inner diameter 82 mm

- Ornaments:

    Capitals: non strucutural element    

    Bases:

• DC-100 TRAD ROY A,
• DC-100 SQUA A or B
• DC-100 SQUA ROY A or B
• DC-100 SQUA A MAX or B MAX
• DC-100 SQUA ROY A MAX or B MAX

How to install our decorative column?

Preparing of the ornaments, preferably with drilling, tapping and grub screws 

 Mounting of the decorative column

 Consult our catalog. Use the filters to obtain all possible ornaments with your possible limitations (such as buckling load, existing situation, drainage).