Our Process

Though the trade of architectural precast has changed greatly over our 90-year history, our quality driven craftsman process remains unchanged.

The process of plaster modeling and concrete modeling was brought to us by our co-founder, Nicholas Carosi Sr., “Grandpa.” After leaving Italy at the age of 13, “Grandpa” was a stone-mason and plaster craftsman for most of his young life in America. He brought this art form to A&C through his background in making plaster crown-molding and cornices via running and casting plaster. “Grandpa’s” skills as a craftsman were so renowned that he was commissioned in 1963 to create a plaster model for the new United States Presidential Seal.

While the size, scope and details of architectural precast have changed from when “Grandpa” started, our process (his process) has remained the same and is as follows:

  1. We take similar panels and group them into a mold group with like profiles or section.
    Example: Here is a generic roof cornice spandrel.
    step1
  2. We make plaster runs (or castings) of the positive profiles of the panels.
    step2
  3. We form-up and pour concrete on top of plaster.
    step3
  4. Finally, we flip the hardened concrete mold over (now we have a negative profile) and pour actual panels off the concrete mold.
    step4

This process allows us to create the perfect casting surface for architectural precast panels. The advantages of this process, in terms of quality and construction control are:

  • Creates a perfectly accurate casting surface.
  • Creates a perfectly seamless casting surface. (No built-forms or pallet lines.)
  • Creates a perfectly consistent casting surface. (Never worried about panel not aligning as it is literally “cast in stone.”)
  • Creates extremely sharp panel edges, transitions and corners. (Unsurpassed in our industry.)
  • Minimizing the daily work on each mold for set-up crew (The crew is not laying out pallets every day, etc.)

The advantage of our process, allowed Arban & Carosi to become recognized throughout the country for its quality product and strive for excellence. Today, we are the only precaster in the nation that still uses these quality-driven methods because of our past, present and future pursuit for excellence in architectural precast.

For more information on these processes you can download our PowerPoint Presentation and view our videos at Technical Information page.