Hi Dreadnought1, Welcome to the MLU forum!
Some more pics of the SEW Freo patterns would be appreciated by all I'm sure.
Making the cast iron malleable rather than just recasting gray iron is about the only thing to add.
The following from
http://www.keytometals.com/Articles/Art96.htm covers it very well. I've quoted the generic contents as far as possible. Visit the link above for more detail.
Quote:
...Charge materials (foundry returns, steel scrap, ferroalloys, and, except in cupola melting, carbon) are carefully selected, and the melting operation is well controlled to produce metal having the desired composition and properties. Minor corrections in composition and pouring temperature are made in the second stage of duplex melting, but most of the process control is done in the primary melting furnace...
... In general, the technology of molding and pouring malleable iron is similar to that used to produce gray iron. Heat treating is done in high-production controlled-atmosphere continuous furnaces or batch-type furnaces, again depending on production requirements.
After solidification and cooling, the metal is in a white iron state, and gates, sprues, and feeders can be easily removed from the castings by impact. This operation, called spruing, is generally performed manually with a hammer... ...After spruing, the castings proceed to heat treatment, while gates and risers are returned to the melting department for reprocessing.
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Regards
Alex