CPT International 04/2021
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www.cpt-international.com<br />
WITH SUPPLIERS GUIDE<br />
Dezember<br />
<strong>2021</strong><br />
CASTING<br />
PLANT AND TECHNOLOGY<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
4<br />
Nuremberg, Germany // 18 –20.1. 2022<br />
<strong>International</strong> Trade Fair for Die Casting:<br />
Technology, Processes, Products<br />
Detecting trends, getting inspired,<br />
sharing ideas –trade fairs are all that<br />
and more. Come and discover<br />
EUROGUSS and its possibilities on site.<br />
#ReExperienceLive<br />
euroguss.com<br />
Honorary sponsors<br />
VDD Verband<br />
Deutscher<br />
Druckgießereien<br />
CEMAFON<br />
The European Foundry<br />
Equipment Suppliers Association
Welcome to<br />
the world of<br />
DieCast iQ<br />
Intelligent die casting solutions from Quaker Houghton<br />
We’re rethinking die casting, combining the ultimate<br />
choice of best-in-class die casting lubricants, process<br />
fluids and application equipment with the expertise<br />
and intelligence to solve your challenges completely.<br />
Working with you to deliver improved quality and productivity, lower<br />
total cost of ownership and exceptional environmental performance.<br />
This is DieCast iQ. Intelligent die casting solutions from Quaker Houghton.<br />
diecastiq.quakerhoughton.com
EDITORIAL<br />
Iron casting faces major<br />
challenges<br />
It is well known that it takes alot of energy to melt iron.Thisruns counter<br />
to decarbonization when carried out with fossil fuels, as in Germany for<br />
example. Those countries that have already made agood start with green<br />
electricity will have advantages.Thus the new iron foundry at truck and<br />
bus producer Scania is designedtoachieve CO 2<br />
-neutral production.<br />
Photo: BDG<br />
Martin Vogt<br />
Editor-in-chief<br />
e-mail: martin.vogt@bdguss.de<br />
More than 100 iron casters met<br />
for the Iron Melting Conference<br />
afew weeks ago in the<br />
German town of Saarbrucken –astate<br />
capital, by the way, that used to be<br />
highly reliant on coal mining and steel<br />
production. The conference mainly considered<br />
technical details, of course, such<br />
as bio-coke in cupola furnaces, operation<br />
with hydrogen, sample invoices,<br />
which solution costs how much, and<br />
whether it would perhaps be worth<br />
installing one’s own wind turbines on<br />
company grounds.<br />
Recently, however, the talk has been<br />
of climate and decarbonization. Electricity<br />
is expensive – CO 2<br />
in Germany has<br />
carried yet another price label since<br />
early <strong>2021</strong>, and the corresponding levies<br />
burden castings made in Germany. We<br />
now have our own research projects on<br />
the topic of hydrogen. The current situation<br />
is depressing: the green electricity<br />
generated here is by no means enough<br />
to cover demand. The challenges, many<br />
of which are discussed at such specialist<br />
conferences, are enormous, especially<br />
for iron casters. After all, the EU has<br />
declared that it wants to be climateneutral<br />
by 2050.<br />
Youmay see this from adifferent perspective<br />
because the conditions in your<br />
region are somewhat different. And one<br />
need not travel far from Germany to<br />
experience an alternative situation. A<br />
journey to Södertälje, in Sweden, is sufficient.<br />
There are two well-known companies<br />
in this town of about 70,000 inhabitants,<br />
southwest of Stockholm and<br />
barely an hour away by train. The Anglo-<br />
Swedish pharmaceutical group Astra-<br />
Zeneca (which recently became afamiliar<br />
name thanks to its coronavirus vaccine),<br />
and Scania which is headquartered here.<br />
The truck and bus producer also develops<br />
and manufactures its vehicles in Södertälje.<br />
And, in 2017, it decided to build a<br />
completely new iron foundry. This alone<br />
would be worth areport as iron casting<br />
faces particular challenges due to its<br />
energy consumption. But the Swedes<br />
also support the process because the special<br />
conditions in this country of forests<br />
and lakes are somewhat different from<br />
those in Germany: the foundry can produce<br />
65,000 tonnes ayear, achieved with<br />
optimized energy efficiency and reduced<br />
waste flows. And it is to be CO 2<br />
-neutral<br />
–thanks to the Swedish electricity mix.<br />
Youcan read the story about the plant in<br />
this issue.<br />
Have agood read!<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 3
Honorary sponsors<br />
VDD Verband<br />
Deutscher<br />
Druckgießereien<br />
CEMAFON<br />
The European Foundry<br />
Equipment Suppliers Association<br />
CONTENTS<br />
FEATURES<br />
6 INTERVIEW<br />
„Innovations are called for now“<br />
We examine how the machine constructor provides<br />
technical support to asector undergoing change<br />
in an interview with Stephan Eirich, Managing<br />
Director in the fifth generation. Robert Piterek<br />
10 COMPANY<br />
Light construction for the e-bike boom<br />
50 years after its topping-out ceremony, Stihl<br />
Magnesium Druckguss profits from athriving gardening<br />
sector as well as high demand for light<br />
e-bike motors. Robert Piterek<br />
16 ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING<br />
Newly manufacturing process of atungsten<br />
alloy<br />
Anew manufacturing process for the tungsten<br />
alloys WNiFe and WNiCu was developed to enable<br />
the use of tungsten for more demanding geometries.<br />
Sandra Walz<br />
CASTING<br />
Ariane 5Rocket<br />
currently hosts 25 GF<br />
components.<br />
COMPANY<br />
The New Foundry<br />
built by Scania<br />
in Södertälje, Sweden.<br />
20 COREMAKING<br />
No Fear of Challenges<br />
For the special geometry of aductile cast iron component,<br />
Livar in Slovenia performed acore shooting<br />
simulation with Magma C+M to virtually optimize a<br />
core geometry. Pia Sonntag<br />
www.cpt-international.com<br />
November<br />
WITH SUPPLIERS GUIDE <strong>2021</strong><br />
CASTING<br />
4<br />
PLANT AND TECHNOLOGY<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
Nuremberg, Germany // 18 –20.1. 2022<br />
<strong>International</strong> Trade Fair for Die Casting:<br />
Technology, Processes, Products<br />
Detecting trends, getting inspired,<br />
sharing ideas –trade fairs are all that<br />
and more. Come and discover<br />
EUROGUSS and its possibilities on site.<br />
#ReExperienceLive<br />
euroguss.com<br />
Cover-Photo:<br />
NürnbergMesse GmbH<br />
Messezentrum, 9<strong>04</strong>71 Nürnberg<br />
info@nuernbergmesse.de<br />
www.nuernbergmesse.de/en<br />
ADDITIVE<br />
MANUFACTURING<br />
Such precise and<br />
curves shapes are<br />
possible with anewly<br />
manufacturing<br />
process of atungsten<br />
alloy.<br />
NürnbergMesse is one of the 15 largest exhibition companies<br />
in the world and organises trade fairs at the Nuremberg<br />
Exhibition Centre and worldwide.<br />
4
CONTENTS<br />
INTERVIEW<br />
with Stephan Eirich,<br />
Managing Director.<br />
24 CASTING<br />
Complex Casting Solutions and their<br />
orbit journeys<br />
With casting solutions for rocket engines,<br />
GF Casting Solutions is also active in the aerospace<br />
industry. Patrick Costantini<br />
26 CASTING<br />
Fastcast concept enables new casting<br />
applications and designs<br />
Engineers succeeded in building an industrial-scale<br />
levitation melting system. Tatjana Elisabeth<br />
Avendaño<br />
30 DIE CASTING<br />
Detection and control of local hotspots<br />
Modern aluminum high pressure die casting (HPDC)<br />
is faced with increasingly complex challenges.<br />
Torben Disselhoff, Sebastian Biehl<br />
34 COREMAKING<br />
Towards amore sustainable core<br />
production process<br />
The Clustreg process is reclaiming inorganicbonded<br />
foundry sand, based on amechanically<br />
adsorptive process. Vincent Haanappel, Thomas<br />
Linke, Markus Jendrock, Enno Schulte<br />
40 PROCESS<br />
Increased efficiency through foundry<br />
process restructuring<br />
The BLANK-Group has restructured the casting<br />
processes using three approaches. Manuela Schmid<br />
COMPANY<br />
New high-bay<br />
warehouse<br />
at Stihl Weinsheim.<br />
44 COMPANY<br />
Scania builds zero C0 2<br />
foundry in Sweden<br />
It features acapacity of 65,000 tons ofgood castings<br />
per year and CO 2<br />
-neutrality. Gemco Engineers<br />
PROCESS<br />
The BLANK-Group<br />
presents three<br />
approaches for<br />
process restructuring.<br />
COLUMNS<br />
3 EDITORIAL<br />
50 NEWS IN BRIEF<br />
58 SUPPLIERS GUIDE<br />
65 FAIRS AND CONGRESSES/AD INDEX<br />
66 PREVIEW/IMPRINT<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 5
INTERVIEW<br />
Stephan Eirich<br />
is the 5th generation to head<br />
the Gustav Eirich machine factory.<br />
The 46-year-old believes<br />
in the transformation power of<br />
the foundry industry, including<br />
innovations from Eirich.<br />
Photos: Eirich
In the Evactherm<br />
process, sand<br />
preparation takes<br />
place under<br />
vacuum. Sand<br />
and additives are<br />
moistened with<br />
steam.<br />
Interview with Stephan Eirich<br />
„Innovations are called for now“<br />
Molding material plays adecisive role in the foundry sector. The long-established<br />
company Maschinenfabrik Gustav Eirich has long been delivering the machinery and<br />
technology with which the input material is used and reused inthe production of<br />
castings. We examine how the machine constructor provides technical support to a<br />
sector undergoing change in an interview with Stephan Eirich, Managing Director in<br />
the fifth generation.<br />
Mr. Eirich, your company has been an<br />
important supplier of molding sand<br />
preparation equipment for the foundry<br />
industry for decades. The sector is<br />
undergoing change. How do you perceive<br />
this?<br />
It is always remarkable where the customers<br />
who are interested in new technologies<br />
come from. The main focus<br />
here has shifted from regions like Germany<br />
and France to Turkey, China or<br />
Southeast Asia. These are very significant<br />
markets, where there is alot of<br />
activity.<br />
But the demands have also changed<br />
greatly. There are nolonger the many<br />
smaller foundries with the experts on<br />
board, but considerably larger companies<br />
that focus more strongly on the<br />
topics of sustainability, automation,<br />
Industry 4.0 or digitalization. At the<br />
same time, there is greater regulation<br />
–anexternal influencing factor that<br />
worries everyone. Another factor is the<br />
rise of e-mobility, which particularly<br />
affects the automotive casters.<br />
An investment backlog –which, to<br />
some extent, is now resolving itself<br />
again –built up due to the coronavirus<br />
pandemic. We are now seeing that the<br />
need to catch up is being counteracted<br />
with concrete projects. With regional<br />
differences, investment is now gaining<br />
pace again in, for example, the truck<br />
segment, agricultural technology, infrastructure,<br />
rail vehicle construction, or<br />
the production of manhole covers.<br />
Regarding sustainability: molding material<br />
is acirculatory material. How do<br />
you see its sustainability potentials?<br />
Sand circulation works well because it<br />
can function in aclosed system. But there<br />
is still arelatively large quantity that is<br />
removed from the material flow and disposed<br />
of at dumps. There is certainly still<br />
potential for future improvement<br />
through the use of recycling and better<br />
recycling plants. But there are also possibilities<br />
for retaining more sand in the system<br />
with existing plants, and not unnecessarily<br />
removing sand from the<br />
system due to exhaust air de-dusting.<br />
Do you have afigure for how much of<br />
the sand that is used is recycled and<br />
how much ends up at dumps?<br />
That’s difficult to say because it very<br />
much depends on the use of the core<br />
sand. One must consider what the sand/<br />
cast ratio is, the temperature load on<br />
the sand, and how great the system friction<br />
is, or the proportion of fine sand.<br />
Eirich has ahigh-end application on the<br />
market –the Qualimaster AT1. How<br />
important is this in your product range?<br />
The AT1plays acentral role for us. You<br />
can have the best mixer in the world,<br />
but it is difficult to control the sand correctly<br />
if it does not know what it is supposed<br />
to do with the next batch, or<br />
what external changes are going to<br />
bombard it during the day. What the<br />
AT1does used to be found in the classic<br />
laboratory. Most people who now use a<br />
more modern AT1from Eirich have<br />
almost completely phased out laboratory<br />
work because the AT1can measure a<br />
whole range of values such as, among<br />
others, compactability, compressive<br />
strength, shear strength, gas permeability,<br />
and springback –providing it with<br />
optimum control of the sand system.<br />
Once the sand has been prepared, alot<br />
of subsequent parameters (such as reject<br />
rates and finishing work) depend<br />
directly on the preparation.<br />
The device ensures consistent sand<br />
quality. The system remains extremely<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 7
INTERVIEW<br />
stable –whether starting up cold on<br />
Monday morning, or with heavy rain on<br />
Friday afternoon causing humidity to<br />
increase alot. Mold changes, such as a<br />
different sand/cast ratio, are automatically<br />
laid down in the system. The molding<br />
plant then reports that it needs<br />
sand now. And the AT1then regulates<br />
the entire sand preparation process.<br />
This reduces the defect rate –which is<br />
currently the largest cost driver in<br />
foundries.<br />
Are there actually any figures about<br />
what the AT1can achieve compared to<br />
asystem without it?<br />
We don’t have these empirical data. But<br />
you could well reduce the reject rate by<br />
up to 25% if, for example, the AT1were<br />
installed in combination with an<br />
Evactherm system to replace adifferent<br />
classic system. If one previously had a<br />
reject rate of 4%, for example, it would<br />
then become 3%. Youalso save on<br />
additive, and can reduce total energy<br />
costs by 10% with such an Evactherm<br />
system. Finishing work can also be<br />
reduced by up to 50%. These are follow-up<br />
costs that are not directly<br />
related to the sand system itself. But<br />
constant sand quality leads to all these<br />
improvements.<br />
How isbusiness with the AT1?<br />
The AT1 is an aggregate that people are<br />
quite happy to retrofit, and it can considerably<br />
improve the sand system with<br />
little effort. It is, in fact, afixed element<br />
of almost every plant. We recently presented<br />
the latest design, with many<br />
additional features, at GIFA 2019 –also<br />
as astand-alone unit. So if you have a<br />
complete third-party plant, the AT1can<br />
be used as acontrol system, digitally<br />
networked with other plants.<br />
We are also thinking about collaborating<br />
with other machine suppliers in<br />
this area so that jointly determined<br />
data can beused. Sand plants, sand<br />
preparation systems and furnaces all<br />
provide data, and the reject rate<br />
depends on these three large data volumes.<br />
When we combine all of this we<br />
can see what the optimum is for the<br />
caster.<br />
This collaboration towards digitalization<br />
sounds very promising. When will<br />
it bear fruit?<br />
Up to now, we have held talks with<br />
machine construction colleagues and<br />
each of them, of course, has already<br />
developed their own solutions. But it is<br />
an interface topic. Developing such a<br />
system will undoubtedly involve collaboration<br />
between different sectors. Ultimately,<br />
joint standards are also important.<br />
Germany’s Mechanical Engineering<br />
Industry Association (VDMA) is asignificant<br />
player here, taking everyone by<br />
the hand and creating uniform standards,<br />
such as the interface standard<br />
OPC UA. There are also considerations<br />
about setting standards that are competition-independent,<br />
particularly in the<br />
foundry sector.<br />
Which producers are you working with<br />
on joint data acquisition?<br />
HWS is one example of the suppliers<br />
with whom we are currently collaborating.<br />
And afurnace producer. And this is<br />
also important because, ultimately, we<br />
all have tosurvive against competition<br />
from Asia –regardless of whether in<br />
Europe or in Asia. We have to work<br />
together, for example under the<br />
umbrella of the VDMA or on aEuropean<br />
level. We will only achieve this<br />
together with other colleagues, particularly<br />
when topics such as climate neutrality<br />
are involved.<br />
Inorganic binders have long been on<br />
offer for molding material in foundries.<br />
This, however, cannot simply be recycled<br />
without further processing. Are<br />
there opportunities here infuture?<br />
That is an important question for the<br />
topics of sustainability and sand recycling.<br />
We can easily recycle green sand.<br />
It is, after all, our core business. The situation<br />
becomes considerably more difficult<br />
as soon as one looks at core sands,<br />
particularly inorganic ones. There are<br />
currently avariety of processes, particularly<br />
thermal and mechanical. And combined<br />
ones. None of them, however,<br />
operate really efficiently or with ahigh<br />
yield. And one also needs relatively solvent<br />
customers to install such aplant<br />
nowadays. So Isee alot of potential<br />
here in future, because everything that<br />
we currently drive to the dump could<br />
remain in the system, or at least be recycled<br />
in such away that it could be<br />
re-used as construction material, for<br />
example. Eirich is also looking at this<br />
topic. We already supply various<br />
machines for recycling sands with inorganic<br />
binding agents. We are currently<br />
trying acompletely different approach,<br />
however. But it is still too early to say<br />
more about that here. We are still in a<br />
very early research phase.<br />
What is Eirich’s current market position<br />
worldwide?<br />
We have aworldwide presence with our<br />
own companies in all the important<br />
markets: from Brazil, the USA, and<br />
South Africa; to India, China and Japan.<br />
At the moment, the major industrialized<br />
nations play the greatest role, at least<br />
until the other countries have recovered<br />
from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.<br />
We are sure that India, above all,<br />
will play agreater role. And China also<br />
remains very strong.<br />
Youmentioned automotive foundries<br />
that have been unsettled by the trend<br />
towards e-mobility. What exactly do<br />
you observe here?<br />
The major influencing factors are currently<br />
e-mobility and changes in internal<br />
combustion engines caused by downsizing<br />
–atrend that was already making<br />
its presence felt. Eight cylinders became<br />
six and then four in combination with,<br />
for example, aturbocharger –which<br />
also brought automotive casters new<br />
business with cast housings. The gears,<br />
of course, are changing with the use of<br />
stronger electric motors in vehicles.<br />
Some of them will also fall victim to<br />
downsizing. But the entire braking system,<br />
the form of the vehicle’s brakes, is<br />
also changing. They may have smaller<br />
brake calipers, smaller brake disks,<br />
because there is less need for braking<br />
due to recuperation. But there is uncertainty<br />
because nobody knows where the<br />
journey will take them in the medium<br />
term. The situation, however, may also<br />
offer opportunities for new composite<br />
STEPHAN EIRICH, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF<br />
MASCHINENFABRIK GUSTAV EIRICH<br />
Stephan Eirich –who studied machine construction at RWTH Aachen and specialized<br />
in process technology –leads the traditional company (founded in 1863) in<br />
the fifth generation. He rounded out his university education with an international<br />
MBA. The 46-year-old joined Eirich in 2006 and took over management of it<br />
in 2012 –initially for the machine factory and then for the entire group with its<br />
1100 -1200 employees. He focuses on technology, product development and<br />
machines. Ralf Rohmann co-manages the company.<br />
8
Eirich is familiar in the sector for its<br />
machine technology for molding material.<br />
But you also serve other sectors.<br />
Which ones?<br />
In addition to the foundry sector, weare<br />
mainly active in metallurgy, sinter and<br />
pellets, recycling, technical ceramics,<br />
refractory materials, chemistry (including<br />
battery development), as well as<br />
building materials and glass.<br />
The Qualimaster AT1measures compactability, compressive strength, shear strength, gas<br />
permeability, spring back and temperature and can thus control the sand system.<br />
casting materials and, of course, possibilities<br />
for casters –such as battery and<br />
motor housings.<br />
And how can Eirich support foundries<br />
during this transformation phase?<br />
Despite all the ups and downs in the<br />
foundry industry, weare confident that<br />
the sector will cope with these challenges<br />
well. But innovations are called<br />
for now. How can Igenerate decisive<br />
competitive advantages? Do Iinvest in<br />
automation or do more about digitalization<br />
to improve my reject rate and<br />
energy use? And which systems do I<br />
want to use to achieve this? And,<br />
because Idon’t know exactly what<br />
tomorrow will bring, should Iperhaps<br />
position my foundry abit more flexibly?<br />
We offer customer-specific solutions for<br />
all these questions.<br />
Let’s move on to the currently omnipresent<br />
topic of climate neutrality. The<br />
European Union should become climate-neutral<br />
by 2050, other countries<br />
will follow in the subsequent two<br />
decades. How can the sector approach<br />
this challenge?<br />
We definitely have to take this topic<br />
very seriously. Energy and resource efficiency<br />
are already matters for every<br />
foundry. They need high temperatures,<br />
they need moving mechanisms, they<br />
use materials. All this should be optimized<br />
so that foundries need as little<br />
of them as possible to produce the best<br />
possible product. We have customers<br />
who want precisely this, but at the<br />
same time they also want the cleanest<br />
workplaces with the lowest noise and<br />
odor emissions –amodern foundry for<br />
modern jobs.<br />
Our Evactherm process offers assistance<br />
here. Evactherm does not mean<br />
sand preparation under avacuum and<br />
no longer having an upstream cooler<br />
–regardless of whether aconveyor belt<br />
or mixing cooler –but having the complete<br />
preparation take place in aclosed<br />
mixing system. This means that our system<br />
first adds the additive to the sand,<br />
and then over-dampens it appropriately.<br />
This excess moisture is much better<br />
at activating the bentonite as a<br />
binding agent in the system.<br />
And you also reduce the boiling<br />
point of the water by building up a<br />
vacuum in the machine. It already starts<br />
bubbling at 70, 60 or 50 degrees,<br />
depending on how great avacuum you<br />
set up. Youcan then accurately define,<br />
via the vacuum, that the foundry sand<br />
will always leave the system at 41°C –<br />
and the damp interior atmosphere helps<br />
moisten the sand and additive components.<br />
Steam distributes water better<br />
than any other moistening method.<br />
In addition, the air is sucked out of<br />
the system and the next batch of sand<br />
inserted. Nothing gets into the exhaust<br />
system and filter, which can therefore<br />
also be designed up to 50% smaller. You<br />
also do not need the large number of<br />
old sand silos. The use of additive can be<br />
cut by20%, and energy consumption by<br />
10%. Youcan also make the machine<br />
much thinner by using servomotors.<br />
So then the logical final question is<br />
always where isyour journey taking<br />
you, what revolutionary technologies<br />
are being developed? Can you tell me<br />
something about this?<br />
We are considering the megatrends,<br />
such as e-mobility. Wherever there is a<br />
risk that aparticular business field could<br />
weaken, we examine where we could<br />
compensate for it. For some years now<br />
we have been involved in developing<br />
new products for lithium-ion batteries<br />
where, interestingly, Evactherm technology<br />
also plays amajor role. And<br />
then, in parallel, we are also weighing<br />
up getting into the hygiene industry,<br />
where our mixing technology –with all<br />
its advantages –isstill unfamiliar. We<br />
think that there are major opportunities<br />
there. And then, of course, there<br />
are all the topics regarding digitalization.<br />
All the current opportunities and<br />
possibilities of artificial intelligence are<br />
incredibly exciting. How can apreparation<br />
plant that we supply to acustomer<br />
today always move within an optimum<br />
range, as asystem, without the customer<br />
have to make use of experienced<br />
experts, which are becoming more and<br />
more difficult to find? The machine supplier<br />
should perhaps implement this<br />
knowledge in the plant. We see great<br />
opportunities here, and we also think<br />
that we have aresponsibility here to<br />
our customers. How do we exploit the<br />
huge quantity of data? They need to be<br />
intelligently analyzed and tapped to<br />
find out where the change is, or where<br />
effects can be predicted. The systems<br />
that offer real benefits similar to the<br />
AT1are growing. It has always been<br />
important for us to think outside the<br />
box when it came to developments.<br />
Thus, for example, the Evactherm process<br />
came from battery production for<br />
classic lead-acid batteries in the foundry<br />
industry. And now it is moving from<br />
there to lithium-ion batteries, in which<br />
we are researching. This technology<br />
transfer between the sectors is<br />
undoubtedly one of our company’s<br />
greatest strengths.<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 9
COMPANY<br />
50 Years of Stihl in Weinsheim<br />
The machine park in Weinsheim has grown greatly during<br />
recent years. The most efficient hot-chamber die-casting<br />
machines with clamping forces of 300 -1000 tonnes are<br />
located here.<br />
Light construction<br />
for the e-bike boom<br />
Stihl Magnesium Druckguss comes out of the recent crisis strengthened –neither the<br />
coronavirus pandemic nor the flooding innearby Prüm could change that. 50 years after<br />
its topping-out ceremony, the company profits from athriving gardening sector aswell as<br />
high demand for light e-bike motors. Inthe medium term, however, the volatile magnesium<br />
supply chain could still threaten Stihl’s booming business in magnesium die casting.<br />
by Robert Piterek, Düsseldorf<br />
Photos: Andreas Bednareck<br />
Everywhere one looks business is<br />
booming in Weinsheim and the<br />
area around the nearby small town<br />
of Prüm in the Eifel region: whether at<br />
door producer Prüm Türenwerke, the<br />
Arla dairy plant constructor, oratTesla<br />
Automation (previously Grohmann<br />
Engineering) who make equipment for<br />
automating Tesla production. The companies<br />
are growing, investing, expanding,<br />
and waking up the formerly structurally<br />
weak region from its pandemicrelated<br />
slumber of the last one-and-ahalf<br />
years.<br />
Double-digit growth<br />
Despite the fact that specialists, in particular,<br />
are gradually becoming rare in<br />
the region, the company has had a<br />
noteworthy growth spurt: Stihl Magnesium<br />
Druckguss, the largest hot-chamber<br />
die-casting foundry in Germany, and<br />
probably in Europe, is also celebrating<br />
its 50th birthday this year. The workforce<br />
here grew by more than 100<br />
between Christmas 2020 and now –<br />
to its present level of 924 employees.<br />
The parent company is the Stihl<br />
Group, based in Waiblingen, with<br />
almost 20,000 employees worldwide.<br />
During the first eight months of the<br />
year the family-run company achieved<br />
remarkable year-on-year growth of 11.7<br />
10
percent, with sales of about 3.5 billion<br />
euros. Stihl Magnesium Druckguss, the<br />
Group’s engine room for component<br />
construction, made an important contribution<br />
towards these dream figures.<br />
The machines in Weinsheim operate<br />
at full utilization capacity, and the<br />
amount of machinery is growing<br />
because Stihl products have been in<br />
greater worldwide demand than ever<br />
for some time now. Firstly, this is due to<br />
the good growth of vegetation in the<br />
last two years, which always brings<br />
more business for the manufacturer of<br />
power tools for gardening, landscaping,<br />
forestry and construction. Secondly,<br />
sales increased because of the coronavirus<br />
pandemic driving many DIY enthusiasts<br />
and horticulturalists to give their<br />
best. Another important reason for the<br />
massive growth in Weinsheim, however,<br />
is the consistently increasing jobbing<br />
work for e-bike components made of<br />
cast magnesium, namely gear and<br />
motor housings for e-drives. The segment<br />
has reported record growth due<br />
to the trend towards e-mobility and the<br />
rise of cycling activities during the coronavirus<br />
crisis. The e-bike segment,<br />
according toforecasts, isset to undergo<br />
almost double-digit growth until 2030<br />
–every year.<br />
23-year-old tool<br />
mechanic Michael<br />
Breuer repairs<br />
amold with two<br />
cavities.<br />
Millions invested in jobbing work<br />
“That is aremarkable market,” rejoices<br />
Hartmut Fischer, Managing Director of<br />
Stihl Magnesium Druckguss. 17 million<br />
euros have been invested in the promising<br />
field of jobbing work, contrary to<br />
usual practice at the family-run company.<br />
Further expansion is likely.<br />
Whereby e-bike components for a<br />
major Stuttgart-based automotive and,<br />
now, also e-bike supplier already make<br />
up more than half of the jobbing castings<br />
–and this proportion is rising. The<br />
benchmark for e-bikes is the 3 kg<br />
motor. “And they can only achieve this<br />
with magnesium,” according to Fischer.<br />
70 percent of current production in<br />
Weinsheim is for Stihl and 30 percent is<br />
jobbing castings. Jobbing work has<br />
therefore grown substantially during<br />
the last five years.<br />
Premium class in the<br />
hot-chamber segment<br />
Alot has changed at the works itself<br />
since Fischer took up his position in<br />
2015. The number of die-casting plants<br />
has risen from 20 to 26 –and another<br />
two have been ordered. Inaddition, a<br />
Multiple production is trumps: Stihl can produce up to 16 components with one shot of<br />
magnesium melt.<br />
new production logistics system was set<br />
up in 2019 with astate-of-the-art highbay<br />
warehouse. Fischer now uses<br />
machines with clamping forces of up to<br />
1,000 tonnes. “In the cold-chamber segment<br />
the top limit is currently the Tesla<br />
Giga Press with aclamping force of<br />
8,000 tonnes. In the hot-chamber segment<br />
1,000 tonne plants, two of which<br />
we are now operating, are the premium<br />
class,” Fischer compares the two<br />
die-casting technologies. The advantage<br />
is that the greater the clamping force,<br />
the more components can be produced<br />
per shot. In Weinsheim one load of<br />
magnesium melt is used to make up to<br />
16 castings.<br />
Ahigh level of automation contributes<br />
to the high efficiency of the production<br />
facilities: arobot within the<br />
fenced-in casting cells of the 1,000-<br />
tonne plants takes the casting cluster<br />
out of the machine, quenches it, and<br />
then removes the sprues and burrs<br />
using apunch press. The plant is fed<br />
magnesium ingots directly melted at<br />
the machine. In practice, the fully automated<br />
process is accompanied by<br />
hydraulic hissing sounds, the muffled<br />
thuds ofthe deburring press, and<br />
clouds of steam from the quenching of<br />
the clusters. Workers appear, when necessary,<br />
to examine the control panels or<br />
roll full component pallet cages out of<br />
the casting hall.<br />
The most varied of castings –such as<br />
crankcases and ventilator housings for<br />
brush cutters, jet sweepers and hedge<br />
trimmers –then pass through sometimes<br />
wide-ranging finishing processes<br />
involving blasting machines or five-axis<br />
machining centers. Numerous robots<br />
also work alongside the workforce,<br />
including two per processing cell to<br />
carry out work steps in parallel and save<br />
time. Modern visualization technology<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 11
COMPANY<br />
is also used, so the metal comrades can<br />
take the components out of the pallet<br />
cages autonomously and further process<br />
them.<br />
AGVs in the die-casting works<br />
Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are<br />
used for transport to the washing plant<br />
and todispatch. One of the three kneehigh<br />
vehicles that drive through the<br />
aisles with rubber antennae and green<br />
identification lamps is called Willy –<br />
controlled autonomously via wireless<br />
LAN. When abox in the mechanical<br />
processing area is full, the high-tech<br />
trolley receives atransport order,<br />
depending on its free capacity, that it<br />
then fulfils autonomously. Welcome to<br />
the future –even if alot of imagination<br />
is required to see Willy as an early predecessor<br />
of Star Wars’ R2D2.<br />
The autonomous Willy and his two<br />
companions should not, however,<br />
remain the tip of the digitalization iceberg<br />
at Stihl. Asystem is already operating<br />
at the works to keep an eye on the<br />
performance of the machines. “Two<br />
screens and one measurement device<br />
show us how the processes are progressing<br />
and where, specifically, we<br />
need to intervene toprevent the production<br />
of any rejects,” reports Fischer.<br />
The new MES system for evaluating the<br />
large volume of machine data acquired<br />
from the coming year onwards –which,<br />
when successfully implemented, will be<br />
introduced at many Stihl sites worldwide<br />
–will also be asignificant milestone<br />
onthe path to digitalization.<br />
Quality assurance using artificial intelligence<br />
is being considered, as is the<br />
topic ofpredictive maintenance. There<br />
is no shortage of ideas or the will to<br />
implement them atStihl.<br />
Producing magnesium castings<br />
economically<br />
But the process itself, in particular, is<br />
crucial for economical production. Time<br />
plays adecisive role here, and<br />
hot-chamber die casting is especially<br />
Automatic finishing<br />
of achainsaw component<br />
in one of the<br />
numerous machining<br />
halls containing,<br />
among other things,<br />
dry machining,<br />
cleaning, visual<br />
inspection and<br />
pre-assembly.<br />
1,000-tonne hot-chamber die-casting<br />
cell with integrated crucible, punch press,<br />
and robot handling from removal to<br />
deburring.<br />
helpful due to its short cycle times: the<br />
entire dosing unit is in the melt with<br />
this process. Although it is only possible<br />
to use material temperatures of below<br />
700°C and preferably produce small<br />
components, the melt feed is comparatively<br />
short –enabling rapid cycles. The<br />
closed circulatory system, through<br />
which the 650 °C magnesium melt is<br />
shot into the tool, offers further advantages:<br />
firstly, the almost complete<br />
absence of oxygen lowers the risk that<br />
12
must be taken into account for this<br />
light metal with its high tendency to<br />
oxidize. Secondly, fewer pores develop<br />
in the casting –animportant quality<br />
feature of hot-chamber die-casting<br />
technology. Cold-chamber machines –<br />
with their external, longer melt feed<br />
–are also suitable for larger parts and<br />
materials such as aluminum, whose<br />
melting point is about 750 °C.<br />
Aproduction area for aluminum<br />
gravity casting is also currently under<br />
construction. The site was chosen<br />
because of its competitiveness within<br />
the Stihl production alliance. Gravity<br />
casting offers considerable advantages<br />
compared to die casting because lighter<br />
and more complex structures are possible<br />
using undercuts and filigree<br />
designs, even if production is considerably<br />
more expensive given the longer<br />
cooling times required. The introduction<br />
of the new production technology<br />
in Weinheim is, however, worth the<br />
trouble because it ensures sales of the<br />
company’s particularly powerful chainsaws.<br />
Stihl at EUROGUSS<br />
In their core segment of magnesium die<br />
casting, Fischer and the developers in<br />
Weinsheim and Waiblingen approach<br />
the limits of what is technically possible<br />
to save weight, gain quality benefits or<br />
increase performance. One highlight of<br />
their work was the feather-light magnesium<br />
pistons for the Stihl MS 400 professional<br />
chainsaw that won first place<br />
in the Magnesium Die-Casting Competition<br />
at EUROGUSS in 2020. Although<br />
the pistons are difficult to cast and<br />
require higher temperatures they are<br />
produced with the work’s only coldchamber<br />
die-casting machine. The<br />
chainsaw now has amore powerful<br />
engine with the same weight of its predecessor<br />
model –animportant decision-making<br />
criterion for professionals,<br />
e.g. forestry workers.<br />
Fischer also hopes to win the competition<br />
again in early 2022 when EURO-<br />
GUSS opens its doors once more in<br />
Nuremberg –asatrade fair with faceto-face<br />
contacts. His company has<br />
entered the race with acomponent for<br />
acordless electric chainsaw that has<br />
many integrated functions and is produced<br />
with two molds per shot. In addition<br />
to representing his company at the<br />
leading European die-casting trade fair,<br />
the manager, who is also President of<br />
the Association of German Die-Casting<br />
Foundries (VDD), will speak about topics<br />
of urgent interest to the sector.<br />
Ventilator side of a<br />
chainsaw already<br />
pre-assembled in<br />
Weinsheim. The<br />
crankshaft and piston<br />
rod are then<br />
added in Waiblingen,<br />
where the<br />
engine is also put<br />
together.<br />
One of three autonomous<br />
transport<br />
robots that take<br />
components after<br />
finishing for washing,<br />
labelling, and<br />
dispatch. It is networked<br />
via wireless<br />
LAN to enable<br />
autonomous movement.<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 13
COMPANY<br />
40 percent efficiency increase<br />
planned by 2030<br />
One of these may well be climate neutrality,<br />
which Germany wants to achieve<br />
by 2<strong>04</strong>5, the European Union by 2050.<br />
In addition to the megatrends of e-mobility<br />
and digitalization, the energyintensive<br />
foundry sector faces another<br />
challenge. Stihl Magnesium Druckguss is<br />
already climate-neutral in the areas of<br />
Scope Iand Scope II of the Greenhouse<br />
Gas Protocol, which involves the energy<br />
used (e.g. electricity, gas, oil, heating<br />
oil) as well as the company’s vehicle<br />
fleet. “We buy green electricity and<br />
compensate with certificates according<br />
to the gold standard,” Fischer describes<br />
the corporate strategy. “This costs alot,<br />
but weare doing it with the clear goal<br />
of becoming considerably more efficient<br />
during coming years because it is<br />
important that the products, if possible,<br />
do not become more expensive – or<br />
only slightly more so,” Fischer describes<br />
the discrepancy between ambitious<br />
environmental objectives and competitive<br />
business. The die-caster intends to<br />
increase efficiency by another 40 percent<br />
by 2030. An ambitious goal when<br />
one considers that conventional efficiency<br />
increases using LED lighting or<br />
waste heat recovery have already been<br />
fully utilized.<br />
The fact that almost every week a<br />
sector company declares its climate<br />
neutrality makes him skeptical.<br />
Because, particularly in the case of climate<br />
neutrality including Scope III, the<br />
input materials for production must be<br />
included in the assessment, e.g. ore for<br />
steel or bauxite for aluminum. Supply<br />
chains that he believes could hardly<br />
have reduced their CO 2<br />
footprint to<br />
zero.<br />
Climate neutrality with<br />
green magnesium<br />
But time is short: customers such as<br />
Mercedes want to receive climate-neutral<br />
products by 2037. At present, however,<br />
green magnesium is more wishful<br />
thinking than reality. While the light<br />
metal is one of the ten most common<br />
elements in the earth’s crust, itisalmost<br />
entirely supplied by China. Although<br />
Stihl has proactively assured its own<br />
supply, other magnesium-processing<br />
works currently have great difficulty<br />
with the supply chain. The German<br />
Non-Ferrous Metal Association (WVM)<br />
even fears developments similar to those<br />
affecting semiconductors. The entire<br />
supply chain must become climateneutral<br />
for companies to also achieve a<br />
An employee visually<br />
inspecting a<br />
blasted customer<br />
casting.<br />
Scope III climate balance. Companies<br />
are already starting to exert pressure on<br />
their suppliers. An exercise, however,<br />
that will have little effect on economic<br />
giants like China. “We need green magnesium,”<br />
Hartmut Fischer stresses. And<br />
in China plants are also being built to<br />
produce magnesium with significantly<br />
lower CO 2<br />
emissions. For this purpose,<br />
magnesium chloride is obtained from<br />
salt lakes, as is currently happening in<br />
Israel and the USA. The crux of the matter<br />
is that these plants do not yet operate<br />
properly. Extensive internal recycling<br />
without long transport routes,<br />
however, offers the Weinsheim die-casters<br />
potential for using magnesium with<br />
alow CO 2<br />
footprint.<br />
14
New high-bay warehouse in the<br />
brand new logistics hall, for which<br />
Stihl invested 18 million euros in<br />
2019.<br />
Stihl celebrated the<br />
construction of the<br />
new magnesium<br />
die-casting works<br />
in front of unfinished<br />
administration<br />
and production<br />
halls in 1971.<br />
The prelude to 50<br />
years of successful<br />
production.<br />
Photo: Stihl<br />
50 YEARS OF STIHL MAGNESIUM DRUCKGUSS<br />
1971: Topping-out ceremony on 10 September 1971; production of castings<br />
started in November 1971.<br />
1975: Founding of the works fire brigade and opening of ateaching workshop<br />
that has trained 500 apprentices since 2013.<br />
1979: 50millionth casting produced.<br />
1981: 10years of Stihl Magnesium Druckguss, the foundry has about 800<br />
employees.<br />
1985-2014: Expansions with administration buildings, foundry halls and<br />
orks hall.<br />
2019: Groundbreaking ceremony for the new production logistics building<br />
which, with an investment of EUR 18 m., is Stihl’s greatest single investment<br />
at the Weinsheim site.<br />
2020: Winner of the Magnesium Die-Casting Competition at EUROGUSS for<br />
developing afeather-light die-cast piston.<br />
Hartmut Fischer has been Managing Director of Stihl Magnesium Druckguss since 2015. After<br />
studying mechanical engineering in Hanover, hestarted his career at Stihl and was also active<br />
for the family-run company in Brazil. Fischer, who is also President of the Association of German<br />
Die-Casting Foundries (VDD), is married with three children.<br />
And who will pay the bill for climate<br />
neutrality? The President of the German<br />
Foundry Association (BDG), Clemens<br />
Küpper, believes that the costs for<br />
foundries will amount to 5-10percent<br />
of sales every year –considerably higher<br />
than the sector’s average profit margin.<br />
“The die-casters alone will be unable to<br />
pay that,” Fischer is convinced.<br />
The Stihl manager developed the<br />
first chainsaw with acatalytic converter<br />
for his company and is proud of the fact<br />
that corresponding emission savings are<br />
now possible entirely without this<br />
device thanks to investments in the<br />
high triple-digit millions. “We want to<br />
work sustainably and achieve CO 2<br />
neutrality,”<br />
the Stihl manager stresses as a<br />
farewell. Whatever happens, his company<br />
will be apioneer in the foundry<br />
industry because Stihl’s course towards<br />
climate neutrality has been set – as<br />
early as next year, all production sites<br />
worldwide are to be converted.<br />
www.stihl.de<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 15
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING<br />
Photos: Gesellschaft für Wolfram Industrie mbH<br />
Such precise and sometimes curved shapes are impossible to form from the hard heavy metal, whose extremely high melting point is between<br />
3,387 and 3,422 °C, using conventional machining or forming processing techniques.<br />
Additive manufacturing of complex components<br />
Newly manufacturing<br />
process of atungsten alloy<br />
In order to enable the use of tungsten for more demanding geometries and thus to<br />
increase the efficiency and longevity of the components, Bayerische Metallwerke GmbH,<br />
which belongs to the Traunstein-based Gesellschaft für Wolfram Industrie mbH, has<br />
developed anew manufacturing process for the tungsten alloys WNiFe and WNiCu. This<br />
is characterized by the fact that the multi-phase mixed crystal alloy is obtained in apowder<br />
form that is suitable as astarting material for 3-D printing and coating processes.<br />
By Sandra Walz, Munich<br />
16
Tungsten alloys (WNiFe /WNiCu)<br />
are used because of their corrosion<br />
resistance against molten<br />
metal and high thermal conductivity for<br />
chill-mold casting processing of aluminum.<br />
Yet, also in tool manufacture and<br />
for shielding from alpha and gamma<br />
radiation, the heavy metal with its density<br />
comparable to gold is indispensable.<br />
However, ataround 3,400 °C,<br />
tungsten has the highest melting point<br />
of all chemical elements and is therefore<br />
very difficult to work with, as well<br />
as due to its Mohs hardness of 7.5. As a<br />
result, components with more complex<br />
shapes, such as curves or conical bores,<br />
often have to be switched to hot-work<br />
tool steel, which is easier to form.<br />
“Due to its resistance to corrosion<br />
and erosion from molten metals as well<br />
as its excellent thermal conductivity,<br />
tungsten is the material of choice in the<br />
field of cast aluminum,” says Nabil<br />
Gdoura, research and development<br />
engineer at Bayerische Metallwerke<br />
GmbH, Dachau, Germany. “The very<br />
high density of 19.25 g/cm 3 in its pure<br />
form also makes itagood alternative to<br />
the harmful lead, which is still used for<br />
radiation shielding in medicine, for<br />
example.”<br />
In the case of casting molds, also<br />
known as chill-molds, used in aluminum<br />
processing, the aim is often to have<br />
long but atthe same time very thin and<br />
sometimes conically shaped cooling<br />
channels of less than 1mmindiameter<br />
in order toensure the most uniform<br />
and rapid heat dissipation possible.<br />
Otherwise, the material quality of the<br />
end product can be adversely affected<br />
by the formation of cracks. Such precise<br />
and sometimes curved shapes are<br />
impossible to model from the hard<br />
heavy metal, whose extremely high<br />
melting point is between 3,387 and<br />
3,422 °C, using conventional machining<br />
or forming processing techniques.<br />
Therefore, for these complex components<br />
for the purposes mentioned, it<br />
has so far been necessary to switch to<br />
hot-work steel, which can be brought<br />
into almost any desired shape with the<br />
help of 3-D printing techniques.<br />
Figure 1: In order to enable the use of<br />
tungsten for more demanding geometries,<br />
Bayerische Metallwerke GmbH<br />
developed anew manufacturing process<br />
for atungsten alloy and patented<br />
it in early <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
New tungsten alloy in powder<br />
form suitable for 3-D printing<br />
After completing the two-year development<br />
phase, Bayerische Metallwerke<br />
applied for apatent for their new manufacturing<br />
process for atungsten alloy<br />
product (Figure 1)and its further use at<br />
the beginning of 2020, which was<br />
finally granted in January of this year.<br />
“The special feature of our tungsten-nickel-iron<br />
alloy is that we obtain<br />
it in the form of apre-alloyed powder,”<br />
(Figure 2)explains Dr.-Ing. Hany<br />
Gobran, research and development<br />
manager at Bayerische Metallwerke and<br />
inventor ofthe manufacturing technology.<br />
“This is suitable as astarting product<br />
for 3-D printing and coating processes.”<br />
In the absence of an<br />
alternative, only amixed powder has so<br />
far been used to make tungsten usable<br />
for components with complex geometries.<br />
The main disadvantage of such<br />
mixtures, however, results from the different<br />
melting points of tungsten<br />
(around 3,400 °C) and of nickel and<br />
iron, both of which change their physical<br />
state at around 1,500 °C. Asaresult,<br />
alarge part of the two added substances<br />
evaporates in an uncontrolled<br />
manner during the melting process in<br />
the further processing process. This is<br />
because the boiling points of nickel and<br />
iron are already around 2,700 °C and<br />
3,000 °C respectively. Thanks to the<br />
pre-alloying in the process developed<br />
by Gobran, on the other hand, all three<br />
elements are combined as amultiphase<br />
material in each individual powder particle<br />
(Figure 3), so that their composition<br />
and distribution in the end product<br />
can beprecisely controlled and no loss<br />
of the binder metals has to be accepted.<br />
According to the common standardized<br />
variants, the new alloy can be produced<br />
with 80 to 98.5 %(weight) tungsten,<br />
0.1 to 15 %(weight) nickel and 0.1<br />
to 10 %(weight) iron and/or copper.<br />
This achieves adensity of the end product<br />
of 17 to 18.8 g/cm 3 ,which is desirable<br />
for applications in the aluminum<br />
Figure 2: The special feature of the new tungsten-nickel-iron alloy is that it is obtained in the form of apre-alloyed powder.<br />
This is suitable as astarting product for 3-D printing and coating processes.<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 17
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING<br />
behaviour and the grain size of the<br />
powder between 10 and 200 µm can<br />
also be determined (Figure 4). In this<br />
way, the alloy is individually prepared<br />
for the desired type of further processing<br />
–such as plasma coating processes<br />
or additive manufacturing.<br />
Figure 3: Thanks to the master alloy, the three elements tungsten, nickel and iron are combined<br />
as amulti-phase material in each individual powder particle, so that their composition<br />
and distribution in the end product can be precisely monitored and controlled and no loss of<br />
the binder metals has to be accepted.<br />
Anew manufacturing process<br />
enables materials to be upcycled<br />
If, for example, the hot-work steel previously<br />
used for thin and conical cooling<br />
channels in cast aluminum chill-molds is<br />
replaced by the tungsten alloy developed<br />
by Gobran, the application benefits<br />
not only from the heavy metal’s<br />
resistance to corrosion and erosion.<br />
Compared to steel, tungsten also has<br />
the advantage of much higher thermal<br />
conductivity, sothat the wear on the<br />
chill-molds can be massively reduced.<br />
Due to its higher density, the alloy<br />
product is also an alternative to poisonous<br />
lead, which is used not only for<br />
radiation shielding, but also as astabiliser<br />
–for example in the tool industry.<br />
“Another special feature of our alloy is<br />
that we can make the powder from<br />
scraps or chips,” adds Gdoura. “This is a<br />
big step forward from both an economic<br />
and environmental perspective,<br />
as it allows us to recycle and upcycle<br />
waste products from conventional processes.”<br />
www.wolfram-industrie.de<br />
Figure 4: During the comminution process as part of the manufacturing process, the flow<br />
behaviour and the grain size of the powder between 10 and 200 µm can also be determined.<br />
In this way, the alloy is individually prepared for the desired type of further processing.<br />
industry, tool manufacture and for<br />
alpha and gamma radiation shielding.<br />
“The higher the proportion of tungsten<br />
in the end product, the more resistant it<br />
is to molten aluminum and the better<br />
its thermal conductivity,” explains<br />
Gobran. “If, on the other hand, good<br />
ductility and mechanical machinability<br />
play agreater role, the proportion of<br />
tungsten in the alloy can also be<br />
reduced accordingly. The composition<br />
can therefore always be adapted to the<br />
specific application and the respective<br />
complexity of the shape.” During the<br />
comminution process as part of the<br />
manufacturing process, the flow<br />
GESELLSCHAFT FÜR WOLFRAM INDUSTRIE MBH<br />
Originally founded in 1911 in Berlin as Wolfram Drahtfabrik GmbH for the manufacturing<br />
and processing of tungsten and molybdenum by the grandfather of the<br />
current managing partner Marion Freifrau von Cetto, the company changed its<br />
name to the Gesellschaft für Wolfram Industrie mbH in 1928. The company’s<br />
headquarters were moved to Traunstein in 1943, where additional production<br />
buildings were constructed in the 1950s. After the death of the shareholder<br />
Helga Freifrau von Cetto, her daughter Marion Freifrau von Cetto took over<br />
management of the company as the owner in 1974. In 1991, the Gesellschaft für<br />
Wolfram Industrie mbH acquired the competitor Bayerische Metallwerke GmbH<br />
in Dachau that had been active in the market since 1926, and thus expanded its<br />
product range. Both companies produce exclusively in Germany. There are currently<br />
57 employees at the Dachau location and 63 in Traunstein. In August 2018,<br />
the company opened another location in Winterthur, Switzerland, with Wolfram<br />
Industrie GmbH.<br />
18
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Innovations for a better world.
COREMAKING<br />
Photos and Graphics: LIVAR/EXOTHERM-IT<br />
The perfect core.<br />
Core Shooting Simulation<br />
No Fear of Challenges<br />
For the special geometry of aductile cast iron component, Livar inSlovenia performed<br />
acore shooting simulation with Magma C+M to virtually optimize acore geometry.<br />
By Pia Sonntag, Aachen, Germany<br />
Livar is with 750 employees one of<br />
the biggest foundries in Slovenia.<br />
The grey and ductile iron foundry<br />
had to deal with asomewhat unusual<br />
project. They received arequest for<br />
manufacturing aductile iron casting. In<br />
order to be able to represent the special<br />
geometry, the foundry decided to first<br />
produce acore segment and then overshoot<br />
it in asecond core box (Figure 1).<br />
In the first cores produced, the surface<br />
of the inserted sand core was not completely<br />
filled with sand (Figure 2). Manually<br />
adding extra vents and flow paths<br />
Figure 1: Core segment inserted in the core box.<br />
Figure 2: Incompletely shot core.<br />
20
Nuremberg, Germany<br />
18 –20.1. 2022<br />
<strong>International</strong> Trade Fair for Die Casting:<br />
Technology, Processes, Products<br />
Detecting trends, getting inspired, sharing ideas – trade fairs are all that<br />
and more. Come and discover EUROGUSS and its possibilities on site.<br />
#ReExperienceLive<br />
Honorary sponsors<br />
VDD Verband Deutscher<br />
Druckgießereien<br />
CEMAFON<br />
The European Foundry Equipment<br />
Suppliers Association<br />
euroguss.com
COREMAKING<br />
Figure 3: Results for air pressure and sand density.<br />
did not improve the situation. As a<br />
Magmasoft user, Livar was familiar with<br />
the possibilities of the core shooting<br />
simulation and turned to its contact in<br />
Slovenia, the company Exotherm-IT,<br />
exclusive representative of Magma.<br />
Magma C+M was implemented to investigate<br />
and solve the problem.<br />
The first simulation was performed<br />
with standard data. However, inthe critical<br />
area, the results still showed too<br />
high sand densities. Therefore, it was<br />
decided to first calibrate the sand properties<br />
and shooting parameters. For this<br />
purpose, avirtual design of experiments<br />
was defined in Magma C+M, and atotal<br />
of 36 designs with different sand properties<br />
were tested. The results were<br />
compared in the critical zone with an<br />
evaluation area. Using the main effects<br />
diagram, which shows the influence of<br />
different sand and process conditions on<br />
the core density (Figure 3), optimized<br />
sand data for Livar could be determined.<br />
After calibrating the sand properties,<br />
it was possible to identify and systematically<br />
investigate the causes of the<br />
core defect occurred. With the help of<br />
the simulation results, Livar was able to<br />
show that the air pressure differences<br />
near the critical area were too small to<br />
transport the sand to the inserted core<br />
segment. Therefore, the sand initially<br />
flowed through narrow passages above<br />
the critical area and compacted, thus<br />
stopping the further transport of the<br />
sand.<br />
In order for the sand to reliably fill<br />
the critical areas, the pressure gradient<br />
should therefore be increased by closing<br />
shoot nozzles. For this purpose,<br />
another virtual design of experiments<br />
was carried out: Shoot nozzles were<br />
automatically switched off inpairs on<br />
each half of the core box, starting with<br />
the vents farthest from the critical area<br />
(Figure 4, Table 1).<br />
Figure 4: Virtual test plan for opening and closing the shoot nozzles.<br />
Table 1: Shoot nozzles (s. Figure 4)were automatically switched off inpairs.<br />
design vents no. 1 vents no. 2 vents no. 3 vents no. 4 vents no. 5<br />
d01 x o o o o<br />
d02 x x o o o<br />
d03 x x x o o<br />
d<strong>04</strong> x x x x o<br />
d05 x x x x x<br />
d06 x x x x x<br />
Figure 5: Calculated core density depending on sand and process properties.<br />
22
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40% with<br />
Monitizer ®<br />
Figure 6: Calculated core density for the optimized solution.<br />
In the Assessment Perspective of Magma C+M, two<br />
objectives were analyzed: the average and the minimum<br />
sand density in the critical area of the core. From the six<br />
variants, version 4showed the best results (Figure 5). By<br />
systematically switching off four shoot nozzles, the pressure<br />
differences were significantly increased. This allowed<br />
the sand to be transported to the end of the critical area.<br />
The verification of this solution (Figure 6)inthe real<br />
core box immediately resulted in good core quality. The<br />
bottom line: The virtual optimization was successful, and,<br />
despite initial difficulties, Livar was able to reliably meet<br />
the customer‘s requirements.<br />
https://livar.si/en<br />
www.exotherm.si/en<br />
Pia Sonntag, Magma Gießereitechnologie GmbH,<br />
Aachen, Germany<br />
ABOUT LIVAR D.D.<br />
As one of the largest foundries in Slovenia, Livar employs<br />
over 750 people. The foundry produces high-quality grey<br />
and ductile iron castings. Livar has its own tooling and<br />
machining shop. The technology department is equipped<br />
with the latest technology, including Magmasoft. The<br />
casting process is constantly monitored by various control<br />
systems, ensuring comprehensive quality control of production,<br />
finishing, packaging and shipping.<br />
Monitizer ® is the tried and tested Industry 4.0 platform<br />
for foundries. It offers everything you need to collect,<br />
visualise and analyse your data –toreduce cost, scrap<br />
and downtime.<br />
Contact us to find out more:<br />
T: +4544505050<br />
E: disa.industries@disagroup.com<br />
www.disagroup.com
CASTING<br />
Photos: GF Casting Solutions<br />
Castings for Space Travel<br />
Ariane Rocket at Paris Air Show in 2019.<br />
Ariane 5currently hosts 25 GF components.<br />
Complex Casting Solutions<br />
and their orbit journeys<br />
With casting solutions for rocket engines, GF Casting Solutions is–next to its more<br />
popular role as automotive supplier –also active in the aerospace industry and travels<br />
far away over our heads in orbit. Read what the casting industry offers for fascinating<br />
space industry.<br />
By Patrick Costantini, Schaffhausen, Switzerland<br />
To make itshort, tradition meets<br />
innovation when casting technology<br />
isapplied in rockets because<br />
there hardly is another manufacturing<br />
technology that was longer tested –<br />
casting being one of the oldest manufacturing<br />
processes invented by humans.<br />
And still, material as well as component<br />
properties are perfect for the high level<br />
of requirements set for rocket engines.<br />
As long-standing supplier, GFCasting<br />
Solutions produces highly complex precision<br />
casting parts for Ariane Group, of<br />
which already more than 25 components<br />
per launch travelled to space.<br />
The Ariane 5rocket currently hosts<br />
25 GF components. The extremely high<br />
requirements for rocket engines are<br />
achieved by accurately defined materials<br />
and further developments of the<br />
component design –realized in the precision<br />
casting process. In GF components<br />
for rocket engines, special heat-resistant<br />
and strong Chromium/Nickel based<br />
alloys are in use that deliver extremely<br />
strong protection against corrosion,<br />
high strength and that are at the same<br />
time easy to weld.<br />
To face the extreme conditions in the<br />
rocket engine, the components need to<br />
24
Figure 1: Aerospace engine demonstrator by<br />
GF Casting Solutions. The foundry group<br />
delivers components for the Ariane engines<br />
Vulcain 2and Vinci.<br />
be extremely resistant against high temperatures.<br />
But to achieve all these high<br />
properties, it does not have to be casting<br />
all alone! The experience especially<br />
with smaller series of components has<br />
shown that the metal 3-D printing process<br />
can perfectly complement the casting<br />
process.<br />
This is why GF offers metal additive<br />
manufacturing with precision casting<br />
Figure 2: Additively manufactured turbocharger<br />
demonstrator. GFalso produces metal-3-<br />
D-parts for rocket engines.<br />
combined with the same specialized<br />
processes and post processing entirely<br />
certified for the aerospace industry. GF‘s<br />
many years of casting experience and<br />
process know-how are thus complemented<br />
by state-of-the-art technology.<br />
GF’s space components for Ariane<br />
Group can be found in the engines Vulcain<br />
2and Vinci which were both successfully<br />
tested and qualified in years<br />
2018 and 2019. The first start of Ariane<br />
6rocket is scheduled for December 2022<br />
from Guiana Space Center and will<br />
bring the James Webb Space Telescope<br />
(Webb) to space. Further GF cast components<br />
will be part of Ariane 6, the successor<br />
of Ariane 5.<br />
In year 2018, GF Casting Solutions<br />
announced the acquisition of aprecision<br />
casting specialist and achieved to diversify<br />
its business fields. From aspecialist<br />
for iron casting and high-pressure die<br />
casting, the company developed to a<br />
casting specialist with four technologies<br />
in-house offering solutions for six different<br />
market segments. With its precision<br />
casting competence at two locations in<br />
Ticino, Switzerland, and in the north of<br />
Romania, GF offers highly complex casting<br />
solutions as well as metal additive<br />
manufacturing for industrial and commercial<br />
aerospace industry.<br />
Patrick Costantini, GF Casting Solutions<br />
AG, Schaffhausen, Switzerland<br />
Competence in<br />
Shot Blast Technology<br />
20 Years<br />
As afull-range supplier,wedesign<br />
andmanufactureshot blasting<br />
machines including filter and<br />
transporttechnology.<br />
We placeparticularvalue to service.<br />
➜ New shot blasting machines<br />
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machines<br />
➜ Wear andspare parts<br />
➜ Inspection andconsulting<br />
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➜ Modernizationand<br />
improvementinperformance<br />
AGTOS<br />
Gesellschaftfür technische<br />
Oberflächensysteme mbH<br />
Gutenbergstraße 14<br />
D-48282 Emsdetten<br />
Tel. +49(0)2572 96026-0<br />
info@agtos.de<br />
www.agtos.com<br />
288-01/21-4c-GB<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 25
CASTING<br />
Up to this point, almost<br />
all relevant titanium-based<br />
alloys as well as aluminum<br />
and super alloys were cast<br />
successfully with the pilot<br />
plant.<br />
Levitation melting in<br />
investment casting<br />
Fastcast concept enables new<br />
casting applications and designs<br />
Engineers succeeded in building anindustrial-scale levitation melting system: Aspecial<br />
design now allows the high purity casting ofvarious reactive metals and alloys with up<br />
to 500 grams as well as short cycle times.<br />
By Tatjana Elisabeth Avendaño, Munich, Germany<br />
Photos and Graphics: ALD Vacuum Technologies GMBH<br />
Various crucible melting methods<br />
are used up to date for metal<br />
melting in investment casting.<br />
Although widely used, they have some<br />
disadvantages. For most (non-reactive)<br />
materials ceramic crucibles are used<br />
which can result in impurities or<br />
ceramic inclusions affecting the quality<br />
of the cast part. Reactive metals, e.g.<br />
Titanium alloys, are melted in cold wall<br />
crucibles. The low superheat and high<br />
power consumption in the cold wall<br />
sealing process is aprice for acleaner<br />
melting process.<br />
For the first time, non-contact levitation<br />
melting can be used as an alternative<br />
on an industrial scale, as ALD<br />
Vacuum Technologies GmbH, Hanau,<br />
Germany, has succeeded inincreasing<br />
the previous limited weight quantity of<br />
only 50 grams to unprecedented 500<br />
grams. Using numerical modelling the<br />
melting experts have devised anew system<br />
design that works with two alternating<br />
magnetic fields, which allows<br />
these higher weight quantities to be<br />
kept in levitation. Now with FastCast<br />
various metals and alloys like titanium,<br />
aluminum, or super alloys can be<br />
melted reliable in anon-contact levitation<br />
process without contamination<br />
and subsequently casted in amold. The<br />
process allows agentle, less turbulent<br />
filling process of the mold, which is<br />
favored by ahigh-speed take-off ofthe<br />
mold and therefore the low relative<br />
velocity between free-falling melt and<br />
sinking mold. The special and extensively<br />
patented design allows strong<br />
superheating with comparatively low<br />
power input which favors “defect”-free<br />
casting resulting in economic benefits<br />
and lower mold preheating temperatures.<br />
The integrated mold centrifuge<br />
coupled with the high superheat<br />
enables the casting of highly complex<br />
and filigree investment castings made<br />
of reactive titanium alloys.<br />
26
Ceramic crucibles are widely used<br />
for casting nickel-based or iron-based<br />
alloys. They are cost-efficient and to a<br />
certain extent allow superheating, i.e.<br />
raising the temperature above the<br />
liquidus temperature of the alloy. However,<br />
these crucibles are rather unsuitable<br />
for melting extremely reactive<br />
materials at high temperatures, as this<br />
leads to an inadmissible contamination<br />
of the melt. This prevents the manufacturing<br />
of high purity, near net-shape<br />
casting parts made of metals and alloys<br />
such as titanium. By comparison, the<br />
competitive cold wall casting technique<br />
is more suitable for such materials but<br />
requires high amount of power for<br />
melting the material in water-cooled<br />
copper crucibles. Furthermore, overheating<br />
is not very feasible with this<br />
method, because most of the power<br />
required flows directly into the cooling<br />
water ofthe crucible and is, so to<br />
speak, dissipated. Therefore, amelting<br />
process without the material coming<br />
into contact with the crucible (non-contact)<br />
would be desirable. ALD Vacuum<br />
Technologies had set itself the goal of<br />
converting this principle into afully<br />
functional plant fit for industrial use.<br />
Figure 1: The Lorentz force established by the electromagnetic fields holds the melt in suspension<br />
and prevents it from leaking.<br />
Figure 2: During the FastCast levitation melting, the square ingot (500 g)floats in the electromagnetic<br />
field and begins to melt after 15 seconds in contact-less condition.<br />
How toincrease weight in<br />
levitation melting<br />
“One process fairly suitable to start<br />
with was the so-called levitation melting,”<br />
reports Dr. Sergejs Spitans, R&D<br />
Process Engineer, Physicist &Simulation<br />
Expert at ALD Vacuum Technologies. “A<br />
‘conventional’ levitation melting uses<br />
an axisymmetric coil to create amagnetic<br />
field in which metallic samples<br />
can be contact-free confined and<br />
melted. The problem is that Lorentz<br />
force confinement vanishes on the symmetry<br />
axis and the melt leakage is prevented<br />
in this lowest point of alevitated<br />
melt only by the surface tension.<br />
Therefore, only small molten metal<br />
samples up to 50 grams can be levitated<br />
in this ‘conventional’ way.”<br />
As part of his dissertation work and<br />
under the supervision of Prof. Dr.-Ing.<br />
(Doctor of Engineering) Egbert Baake<br />
from the Institute of Electrotechnology<br />
(ETP) atLeibniz University Hannover,<br />
Dr. Sergejs Spitans from ALD used<br />
numerical models and various experiments<br />
to find away to significantly<br />
increase the melt weight. Together<br />
with engineers from ALD, apilot plant<br />
was developed where numerous aluminum-,<br />
nickel- and titanium- (Ti-6Al-4V)<br />
alloys upto500 grams were successfully<br />
melted in high purity without inclusions.<br />
The method applies two horizontal<br />
and orthogonal electromagnetic<br />
fields ofdifferent frequencies in order<br />
to exert aLorentz force also at the bottom<br />
ofthe levitated sample. Therefore,<br />
the weight of the charge can be increased<br />
and the charge can be melted<br />
drip- and leakage-free. Levitation melting<br />
prevents contamination of the molten<br />
metal with the crucible material<br />
and results in significantly higher alloy<br />
purity. Inaddition, heat losses from the<br />
liquid metal are limited to radiation<br />
and evaporation only, which allows<br />
much higher superheat temperatures<br />
to be achieved. The high superheat<br />
opens up new avenues for mold design<br />
and thus for thin-walled and complex<br />
castings such as medical or aerospace<br />
applications.<br />
From concept work to<br />
industrial-scale pilot plant<br />
After an extensive series of simulation-aided<br />
design iterations, the optimized<br />
process was transferred into a<br />
functional plant including feeder, preheating<br />
furnace and casing. “The final<br />
scale-up configuration has amodular<br />
levitation assembly group that consists<br />
of four ferrite poles and four inductors,<br />
each is water-cooled and protected by<br />
heat shields,” describes Spitans. The<br />
opposing inductors form apair that<br />
operates at the same frequency and<br />
produces an instantaneous magnetic<br />
field in the same direction. The orthogonal<br />
orientation allows to compensate<br />
the regions of the zero Lorentz force<br />
that occurs if only one field is activated.<br />
“Levitation melting is only slightly more<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 27
CASTING<br />
the next cycle can start. All in all, the<br />
cycle times are rather short, with less<br />
than 60 seconds, making the process<br />
very economical.<br />
Figure 3: To ensure the suitability and efficiency of the system, common investment casting<br />
components such as turbocharger wheels have been casted using the plant.<br />
Figure 4: Based on this design, ALD is going to develop avariant in cooperation with interested<br />
users, specifically for the needs of their own production and in terms of feeding and<br />
mold number (adapted to the mold shell).<br />
Plants available for test runs<br />
Up to this point, almost all relevant titanium-<br />
and aluminum-based alloys as<br />
well as super alloys were cast successfully<br />
using the pilot plant. To ensure the<br />
suitability and efficiency of the system,<br />
common investment casting components<br />
such as turbocharger wheels were<br />
cast using the plant. Based on this<br />
design, ALD is going to develop aproduction<br />
FastCast system in cooperation<br />
with interested users, specifically for the<br />
needs of their own production.<br />
Feeding and mold number (adapted<br />
to the mold shell) in particular will be<br />
taken into account. Therefore, the<br />
demonstrator can be used for test runs.<br />
Although the actual plant is semi-automated,<br />
aspecial department at ALD is<br />
working on more features that meet<br />
the requirements of Industry 4.0. For<br />
example, adigital twin of each casting<br />
part can be generated to ensure highest<br />
quality control. Since they are individual<br />
casts, each part can be tracked down to<br />
defects that may show up before or<br />
after the casting. “The high purity,<br />
excellent reproducibility, and continuous<br />
and automated single batch production<br />
line favors avery high casting<br />
quality, making non-contact levitation<br />
melting particularly suitable for investment<br />
casting parts in demanding sectors<br />
such as aerospace and medical<br />
technology. Wecan’t wait tomove this<br />
process to the next level together with<br />
industry partners,” Spitans sums up.<br />
www.ald-vt.com<br />
efficient than the cold wall crucible,<br />
however, the advantages like predefined<br />
melt purity, absence of the skull<br />
scrap, fast melting speed and tremendous<br />
superheat up to 250 °C at the<br />
moment of mold filling makes the process<br />
extremely attractive for complex<br />
castings,” Spitans adds.<br />
To meet the demands of industrial<br />
production, the pilot plant offers a<br />
semi-automated process chain with up<br />
to 10 molds. The upper housing contains<br />
avertical feeding unit of the<br />
pre-alloyed metal electrode to be<br />
melted. The lift moves the mold to the<br />
upper position right below the melting<br />
zone. The melting starts as the lower<br />
end ofthe vertically oriented Ti-alloy<br />
electrode is immersed in the region of<br />
two-frequency horizontal and orthogonal<br />
electromagnetic (EM) fields. EM<br />
fields rapidly melt up to 500 grams of<br />
material from the tip of the electrode<br />
and simultaneously confine the liquid<br />
metal in alevitation condition. The<br />
electrode is moved up and detached,<br />
the levitated melt can be superheated.<br />
After that the melt is released by retracting<br />
poles and it falls down under<br />
gravity in the awaiting preheated mold.<br />
Instantly the mold is accelerated vertically<br />
down to reduce the relative velocity<br />
and to catch the melt without<br />
splashing. Further mold deceleration to<br />
afull stop and consequent spinning<br />
completes the smooth and qualitative<br />
mold filling. After that, the form exits<br />
through the unloading chamber and<br />
THE ALD VACUUM TECHNO-<br />
LOGIES GMBH<br />
is based in Germany near Frankfurt/<br />
Main and supplies equipment and<br />
systems for thermal and thermochemical<br />
treatment of metallic materials in<br />
solid and liquid form. The company’s<br />
competence consists of its mastery in<br />
vacuum process technology and of its<br />
know-how in designing custom-tailored<br />
system solutions for use in these<br />
fields. As one of the world’s leading<br />
manufacturers of vacuum equipment<br />
for vacuum metallurgy and heat<br />
treatment, ALD employs approx. 900<br />
people in 10 countries.<br />
28
www.ifcindia2022.com
CASTING<br />
Photos and Graphics: University of Duisburg-Essen<br />
High pressure die casting<br />
Targeted control of mold temperature<br />
control for an energy-efficient<br />
die casting process.<br />
Detection and control<br />
of local hotspots<br />
Modern aluminum high pressure die casting (HPDC) is faced with increasingly complex<br />
challenges. These include the economic and ecological challenges facing industry, the<br />
energy and mobility revolution and the reduction of CO 2<br />
emissions. On the other hand,<br />
there are the demands on the increasingly complex castings, which can only be cast to<br />
ahigh quality with the latest technology. In addition, HPDC machines require ahigh<br />
amount ofenergy for the production of castings. The temperature control of the casting<br />
tools plays adecisive role here because asignificant amount ofthe required energy is<br />
attributed to the tempering or the thermal management of ahigh pressure die casting<br />
machine [1][2][3].<br />
By Torben Disselhoff, Duisburg und Sebastian Biehl, Gladbeck<br />
30
a<br />
b<br />
DoubleSpot<br />
BigSpot<br />
1<br />
2<br />
3<br />
MiddleSpot<br />
Process drift<br />
Figure 1: a) Model tool with which b) different cooling concepts can be investigated.<br />
The research project is being realized<br />
in cooperation with the company<br />
thermobiehl Apparatebau<br />
GmbH, Gladbeck. The temperature control<br />
of HPDC tools is an important qualitative<br />
aspect within the production of<br />
castings. For highly complex high pressure<br />
die casting components, the entire<br />
temperature control of the tool must be<br />
matched to the casting and the (local)<br />
cooling conditions. This is achieved by<br />
using temperature control units, component-specific<br />
cooling concepts and<br />
expert process knowledge. [4]<br />
a<br />
Termography camera<br />
Procedurestamp<br />
Sprayingunit<br />
Base body<br />
b<br />
Figure 2: a) Test rig for<br />
setting and evaluating<br />
different temperature<br />
control variants; b) video<br />
demonstration.<br />
The tool itself also has an influence on<br />
the production and temperature control<br />
of the castings. Therefore, atool<br />
can be divided into three condition<br />
levels during production.<br />
> Condition level 1: Starting up the<br />
tool<br />
> Condition level 2: Production with<br />
slightly worn tool<br />
> Condition level 3: Production with<br />
(highly) worn tool<br />
Process drift<br />
Within the first two levels, only afew<br />
deviations of the process window occur<br />
and reproducible production takes<br />
place. During condition level 3, there<br />
are more deviations from the specifically<br />
set process window, the so-called<br />
process drifts. These lead to areduced<br />
quality of the castings and apoorly<br />
running process. Often the defects are<br />
only discovered in the further course of<br />
the process chain or during the inspection<br />
of the castings and are remedied<br />
with adelayed reaction. During this<br />
period, production takes place outside<br />
the previously defined process window.<br />
This can lead to areduced output of<br />
the machines as well as to defective or<br />
low-quality castings.<br />
It should be noted that the process<br />
knowledge of the individual phases is<br />
incomplete due to the complexity of<br />
the process and tool. This process<br />
knowledge is continuously expanded<br />
through analyses of the casting defects.<br />
Machine learning methods (ML) are<br />
rarely or never used in the analyses<br />
mentioned. The great advantage of<br />
machine learning methods is that they<br />
are able to identify complex correlations<br />
that are not revealed by classical<br />
analysis methods. The process as well as<br />
tempering data of the HPDC process<br />
should therefore be examined with ML<br />
to investigate these hidden dependencies.<br />
At the same time, the causes of<br />
process drifts can be better analysed,<br />
understood and, atbest, eliminated.<br />
This research aims to achieve the following<br />
objectives:<br />
> Reduction of the ramp up time of<br />
die casting tools<br />
> Avoidance of thermally induced<br />
defects within condition level 3<br />
> Introduction of data analyses by<br />
using ML<br />
> Analyses should be possible without<br />
large investments: Reaching SMEs<br />
Theoretical consideration<br />
To realize the aims, amodel tool was<br />
first designed, with which it is possible<br />
to investigate different cooling con-<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 31
CASTING<br />
a b c d<br />
DoubleSpot BigSpot MiddleSpot<br />
Processdrift<br />
Figure 3: The theoretical considerations (top) on the influence of the different cooling variants (a-d) on the formation of hotspots in the<br />
casting are well illustrated by the real conditions measured with the thermography camera (bottom).<br />
cepts. The entire experimental setup is<br />
to be designed realistically so that the<br />
results can be transferred to practice.<br />
The base unit offers the possibility<br />
to adjust and test avariety of cooling<br />
settings. The model tool (Figure 1b) and<br />
some of the possible cooling variants<br />
(Figure 1a) can be seen in Figure 1.Due<br />
to the different cooling variants, the<br />
local heat centres are created at different<br />
locations. These are indicated here<br />
by red markings at their theoretical<br />
point ofappearance. The change in the<br />
local heat centre of apossible process<br />
drift (Fig. 1a), which can be caused by<br />
e.g. calcination or leakage, is also taken<br />
into account. The process drift is generated<br />
here by areduced cooling capacity<br />
of the second cooling channel.<br />
With the help of the base unit, the<br />
aim istocheck whether heat centres<br />
can be specifically adjusted and shifted.<br />
At the same time, the generation of<br />
process drifts is to be controlled.<br />
Proof of concept<br />
Following the theoretical considerations,<br />
atest stand was designed. Apartial<br />
section can be seen in Figure 2. In<br />
addition to the base unit (see Figure 1),<br />
the test stand contains asprayer, athermal<br />
imaging camera for recording and<br />
evaluating the surface temperatures, a<br />
stamping tool that can be heated and<br />
pressed onto the die surface in specific<br />
programmes and atemperature control<br />
unit for setting the temperature control<br />
parameters. For ademonstration, follow<br />
the QR code in Figure 2, where you<br />
will find avideo showing the test stand<br />
in operation.<br />
The thermal reactions of the base<br />
body to different cooling variations are<br />
recorded and measured with the thermographic<br />
camera. Figure 3shows the<br />
resulting thermographic images.<br />
This clearly shows that the previous<br />
theoretical considerations have to be<br />
implemented in the real process. This<br />
means that different heat centres have<br />
to be generated and controlled in atargeted<br />
manner. Another important<br />
aspect is that process drifts can be<br />
experimentally simulated and investigated.<br />
This is shown bythe comparison<br />
of the images „Middle Spot“ and „Process<br />
drift“. It can be clearly seen that<br />
the cooling is strongly impaired by the<br />
reduced performance of the cooling<br />
channel and no longer has the same<br />
properties as in aflawless process (cf.<br />
Middle Spot). Based on the recorded<br />
process data, this difference can also be<br />
seen.<br />
Data analysis<br />
The analyses of the data show that it is<br />
possible to qualitatively represent a<br />
process drift. Aregion of interest (ROI)<br />
was defined on the base unit and measured<br />
using athermographic camera.<br />
The temperature data plotted over time<br />
and the ROI can be seen in Figure 4.<br />
It can be clearly seen that the cooling<br />
starts at alater point in time during<br />
the process drift and thus has areduced<br />
cooling capacity over time. After<br />
approx. 40 scooling time, atemperature<br />
difference of about 10 °C is present.<br />
If such aprocess drift occurs in temperature<br />
critical areas, such atemperature<br />
difference can influence the quality of<br />
the casting.<br />
Thus, the temperature data can be<br />
used to make an initial assessment of<br />
the cooling effect. The analyses so far<br />
have shown that both the image<br />
recordings and the temperature data<br />
provide essential insights into the<br />
cooling behaviour of the base body.<br />
However, the cause or the course of<br />
occurrence of this reduced cooling performance<br />
can only be represented with<br />
great difficulty or not at all. In this<br />
respect, the use of machine learning<br />
methods should make adecisive contribution.<br />
32
130<br />
Surface Temperature in °C<br />
120<br />
110<br />
100<br />
90<br />
80<br />
70<br />
0 20 40 60 80 100<br />
Time in s<br />
Temperature "Middle Spot"<br />
Temperature "Processdrift"<br />
Figure 4: Temperature profile in the ROI area. During the process drift, cooling starts at alater point in time. After approx. 40 scooling<br />
time, atemperature difference of approx. 10 °C is present.<br />
For this purpose, the entire data set,<br />
consisting of 180 data rows and 46 data<br />
columns, was used. The selected functionally<br />
dependent variable water flow<br />
channel 2istobepredicted from the<br />
remaining 45 functionally independent<br />
variables with the help of the machine<br />
learning algorithms. Since the numerical<br />
values of the variable water flow<br />
channel 2are known tothe system, this<br />
is referred to as supervised machine<br />
learning. With the learned prediction<br />
function, it is possible to predict the<br />
flow values of the second cooling channel<br />
taking into account new process<br />
data.<br />
Figure 5shows the graphical representation<br />
of the comparison of the real<br />
measured values and the predicted values,<br />
i.e. the results of the prediction<br />
function of the test. The high agreement<br />
of the values (good approximation<br />
of the 45° axis) indicates apromising<br />
use of machine learning methods<br />
now.<br />
What´s next<br />
In the further course of the research<br />
project, further and more complex<br />
shapes and cooling variants are to be<br />
tested. For this purpose, new model<br />
tools must be constructed, with which it<br />
is possible, for example, to record cooling<br />
close to the contour or also the<br />
influence of contours in general.<br />
In addition, the generated data will<br />
be examined with machine learning<br />
methods. This can become particularly<br />
Flow rate inl/min predicted values<br />
15<br />
14<br />
13<br />
12<br />
11<br />
10<br />
important for the aspect of reduced<br />
ramp up time. Because with ahigh prediction<br />
quality, adetailed analysis of<br />
the process can be made possible. This<br />
process knowledge can then beused for<br />
the corresponding process optimization.<br />
The algorithms can also bring decisive<br />
advantages regarding the questions of<br />
how aprocess drift can be controlled<br />
and where aprocess drift comes from.<br />
For verification, the results are to be<br />
transferred to areal process to test the<br />
developed methodology and adapt it to<br />
foundry operations. At the same time,<br />
this solution offers the foundry industry<br />
the basic implementation of machine<br />
learning methods.<br />
R² = 0,9601<br />
9<br />
9 10 11 12 13 14 15<br />
Flow rate in l/min measured values<br />
Figure 5: Comparison of the real measured and the predicted values. There isgood<br />
agreement.<br />
https://thermobiehl.de/en<br />
https://www.uni-due.de/mfi/index_en<br />
Torben Disselhoff, M. Sc., research associate,<br />
Institute for Technologies of Metals<br />
(ITM), University Duisburg-Essen,<br />
Germany, and Sebastian Biehl, Managing<br />
Director, thermobiehl Apparatebau<br />
GmbH, Gladbeck, Germany.<br />
References:<br />
www.cpt-international.com<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 33
COREMAKING<br />
Photos and Graphics: Foseco<br />
Reclamation of inorganic bonded sand<br />
Towards amore sustainable<br />
core production process<br />
The Clustreg process isaninnovative process for reclaiming inorganic-bonded foundry<br />
sand, based on amechanically adsorptive process. Results show that, even after 10 reclamation<br />
cycles, foundry sand derived from cores bonded with Solosil TX inorganic binder<br />
systems could be re-used, without detrimentally affecting the flowability of the sand<br />
mixture, or the mechanical properties and gas permeability of the manufactured cores.<br />
Although the pH value and conductivity did significantly increase after one reclamation<br />
cycle, this had no negative impact on the core quality of reclaimed sand.<br />
By Dr. Vincent Haanappel, Hengelo, Thomas Linke, Borken, Markus Jendrock and Dr. Enno Schulte, Freudenberg<br />
An increasing number of automotive<br />
aluminum foundries are<br />
replacing organic with inorganic<br />
binder systems in order to reduce emissions<br />
of volatile organic compounds and<br />
ensure amore sustainable production<br />
process. An efficient sand reclamation<br />
process for inorganic-bonded sand<br />
would provide further benefits in<br />
terms of reduced emissions and energy<br />
consumption.<br />
Introduction<br />
It is common knowledge that alarge<br />
number of castings are manufactured in<br />
clay-bonded molding materials [1]. For<br />
technical and economic reasons, the<br />
bentonite- or clay-bonded sand is now<br />
treated after use, with the result that<br />
most of the material can be re-used,<br />
reducing costs and environmental<br />
impact. This process is known as reclamation.<br />
Separate to the above-mentioned<br />
clay-bonded sand systems, there is a<br />
large variety of organic binder systems<br />
for core and mold production [2]. These<br />
34
Figure 1: The Clustreg process.<br />
materials can also be reclaimed, using<br />
mechanical and thermal processes. The<br />
resin- or organic-bonded sand undergoes<br />
thermal exposure during casting<br />
and cooling, before the core residue is<br />
removed using ashake-out process.<br />
Some of the binder bridges close to the<br />
casting surface are exposed to high<br />
temperatures and are almost completely<br />
decomposed, which makes the<br />
shake-out less complicated. During<br />
mechanical reclamation, the binder can<br />
be relatively easily removed from the<br />
surface of the sand grains, as the<br />
Figure 2: Rotareg process principle, KLEIN<br />
Anlagenbau AG.<br />
strength of the organic binder bridges<br />
is quite low.<br />
When using organic-bonded sand<br />
systems, emissions are mainly caused by<br />
burning off the organic binder components<br />
in the sand molds or cores during<br />
the casting process. An increasing number<br />
ofautomotive aluminium foundries<br />
are therefore replacing organic with<br />
inorganic binder systems to reduce<br />
emissions of these volatile organic compounds,<br />
and to ensure amore sustainable<br />
production process [3]. If an efficient<br />
sand reclamation process for<br />
inorganic-bonded (IOB) sand could be<br />
developed, it would reduce emissions<br />
and energy consumption further still.<br />
However, the reclamation process for<br />
inorganic-bonded sand is, from atechnical<br />
point of view, very different to<br />
that being developed for organicbonded<br />
sand systems.<br />
Aluminium automotive foundries<br />
use core packages consisting of base<br />
cores, inlet, outlet cores and waterjacket<br />
cores. The system is known as a<br />
mono-system, because only one binder<br />
system is used, with, if needed, two different<br />
grain sizes (distribution) of silica<br />
sand. During the foundry process, the<br />
core package faces mild thermal exposure<br />
only in certain areas, for example,<br />
the inlet, outlet cores and the waterjacket<br />
cores. As aresult of the low thermal<br />
impact, some areas in the core<br />
package remain at room temperature,<br />
while other parts undergo very short<br />
thermal exposure at 500 °C, before<br />
rapidly cooling to 200 °C within approximately<br />
30 minutes.<br />
When using inorganic binder systems,<br />
the binder bridges are generally<br />
more rigid, with higher mechanical<br />
resistance, compared to organic binder<br />
bridges; indeed, the hardness of the<br />
cured inorganic binder is close to the<br />
hardness of silica. Based on the higher<br />
abrasion resistance of the cured binder,<br />
sand reclamation processes that comprise<br />
only grinding of the grains are not<br />
recommended.<br />
This study focuses on the development<br />
of asand reclamation process for<br />
Solosil TX inorganic-bonded sand cores<br />
from an automotive foundry. After presenting<br />
the Clustreg sand reclamation<br />
process, results from 10 reclamation<br />
cycles will be highlighted, including<br />
sand characteristics (particle size [distribution],<br />
Limiting Oxygen Index, LOI in<br />
short, pH, conductivity), flowability of<br />
the sand mixture, bending strength values<br />
and gas permeability of the manufactured<br />
cores.<br />
Description of the process for<br />
reclaiming inorganic-bonded sand<br />
With the Clustreg process (Figure 1),<br />
Klein Anlagenbau AG, Freudenberg,<br />
Germany, has developed an innovative<br />
mechanically-adsorptive process for the<br />
reclamation of water glass-bonded<br />
foundry sand. The process comprises a<br />
sequence of three main steps.<br />
In the first step, the used sand is processed<br />
in aRotareg mechanical<br />
pre-cleaning unit (Figure 2). During this<br />
stage, the binder residues, additives and<br />
quartz dust (if present) are loosened<br />
from the sand grains and dedusted in a<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 35
COREMAKING<br />
first dedusting stage. The used sand<br />
falls vertically from the top with a<br />
defined mass flow (10 t/h) to arapidly<br />
rotating turntable. This accelerates the<br />
sand outwards and shoots it almost<br />
radially into asand bed. The sand is<br />
cleaned by the impact and by rubbing<br />
the sand grains against each other.<br />
Depending on the desired degree of<br />
cleaning, the sand can circulate several<br />
times in the pre-cleaning unit. An initial<br />
pre-dedusting stage is integrated into<br />
the processing chamber.<br />
After this mechanical treatment<br />
step, the sand is again intensively<br />
dedusted in aclassifier. The main advantages<br />
of the Rotareg process are the<br />
gentle sand treatment, the robust and<br />
inexpensive plant technology and its<br />
ability toprocess many different binder<br />
systems, especially for water glassbonded<br />
foundry sands.<br />
In the innovative second step, the<br />
mechanically pre-treated sand is mixed<br />
with an adhesive agent and acarrier<br />
material in aspecific way in amaturator.<br />
Binder residues and dust particles<br />
are bound to the carrier material in the<br />
used sand-adhesive agent-carrier mixture.<br />
The grain surface is also cleaned of<br />
fine dust particles. After the mixture<br />
has passed through the maturator, it<br />
enters the third treatment stage, the<br />
splitter.<br />
In the splitter, the sand and the carrier<br />
material, now with the binder residues<br />
and dust components bound to it,<br />
are separated from each other. Todo<br />
so, the mixture is passed over afluidized<br />
bed, through which heated air<br />
(< 200°C) flows from below. Due to the<br />
fluidization and specific suction, as well<br />
as the low density of the carrier material<br />
compared to the sand, the carrier<br />
material, binder residues and dust particles<br />
are discharged upwards and<br />
removed. After the sand has passed<br />
through the splitter, the regeneration<br />
Table 1: Average particle size, pH, conductivity and LOI as afunction of the reclamation<br />
cycle. Foundry sand was always LA32.<br />
(cycli) Av. Part. Size (AFS) pH Conductivity LOI<br />
00 –Foundry sand 272 μm (51) 6.1 4μS/cm 0.18 %<br />
01 –EN1275 266 μm (52) 10.8 198 μS/cm 0.25 %<br />
02 –EN1305 260 μm (53) 10.8 358 μS/cm 0.22 %<br />
03 –EN1313 255 μm (54) 11.2 323 μS/cm 0.26 %<br />
<strong>04</strong> –EN1317 254 μm (54) 11.0 326 μS/cm 0.28 %<br />
05 –EN1334 258 μm (54) 11.0 291 μS/cm 0.35 %<br />
06 –EN1478 262 μm (53) 11.4 372 μS/cm 0.34 %<br />
07 –EN1497 266 μm (52) 11.2 424 μS/cm 0.40 %<br />
08 –EN1531 263 μm (53) 11.6 438 μS/cm 0.41 %<br />
09 –EN1544 262 μm (53) 11.6 478 μS/cm 0.52 %<br />
10 –EN1578 253 μm (54) 11.0 417 μS/cm 0.42 %<br />
Table 2: Core weight, bending strength, flexural modulus and gas permeability as<br />
afunction of the reclamation cycle. Foundry sand was always LA32.<br />
Sample (cycli) Core weight Bending<br />
strength<br />
Flexural<br />
Modulus<br />
Gas Permeability<br />
00 –Foundry sand 145.6 ±0.3 g 477 ±7N/cm² 4.3 ±0.4 Mpa 140 ±1mD<br />
01 –EN1275 144.7 ±0.2 g 495 ±2N/cm² 5.4 ±0.1 Mpa 157 ±3mD<br />
02 –EN1305 144.7 ±0.2 g 531 ±12N/cm² 4.9 ±0.1 Mpa 147 ±2mD<br />
03 –EN1313 142.5 ±0.1 g 537 ±18N/cm² 4.7 ±0.1 Mpa 153 ±4mD<br />
<strong>04</strong> –EN1317 142.6 ±0.1 g 505 ±11N/cm² 4.9 ±0.1 Mpa 159 ±2mD<br />
05 –EN1334 142.6 ±0.2 g 519 ±9N/cm² 5.1 ±0.2 Mpa 155 ±1mD<br />
06 –EN1478 143.9 ±0.2 g 5<strong>04</strong> ±11N/cm² 4.4 ±0.1 Mpa 142 ±1mD<br />
07 –EN1497 142.8 ±0.2 g 508 ±17N/cm² 4.1 ±0.2 Mpa 148 ±1mD<br />
08 –EN1531 143.6 ±0.2 g 498 ±5N/cm² 4.1 ±0.1 Mpa 158 ±1mD<br />
09 –EN1544 144.3 ±0.3 g 500 ±23N/cm² 4.1 ±0.2 Mpa 139 ±1mD<br />
10 –EN1578 143.8 ±0.4 g 521 ±32N/cm² 4.4 ±0.1 Mpa 138 ±2mD<br />
process is complete and reclaimed sand<br />
can bere-used in the core making process.<br />
During process development, great<br />
importance was attached to the fact<br />
that the plant technology is simple and<br />
robust and that, apart from the usual<br />
hardened wear parts required for sand<br />
treatment, no special materials are<br />
required (e.g., no heat-resistant steels,<br />
special sealing materials, etc.). It is also<br />
important tonote that energy consumption<br />
is only about 20% of that of<br />
thermal reclamation plants for the reclamation<br />
of water glass-bonded<br />
foundry sands. Moreover, Clustreg<br />
plants are characterized by very encouraging<br />
regeneration results, including<br />
low sand loss.<br />
Matching processing parameters<br />
For trials of the reclamation process,<br />
sand cores were manufactured on a<br />
Laempe core shooter. Toprovide achallenge,<br />
the sand cores were hot cured<br />
only, without any post-heat treatment.<br />
The process was carried out on inorganic-bonded<br />
sand cores with fully-developed<br />
mechanical strength.<br />
As noted above, the process is characterized<br />
by various input parameters,<br />
which must be optimized to the type of<br />
inorganic-bonded sand cores. After<br />
some initial testing and analysis, including<br />
determining the optimized processing<br />
parameters, afirst series of reclamation<br />
trials were started, each with 20 kg<br />
of used inorganic-bonded sand. During<br />
these cycles, the machine and processing<br />
parameters were kept constant.<br />
Methodology and results<br />
In this section, several test methods will<br />
be presented and the results discussed<br />
in more detail. However, the intention<br />
is not to present all available results,<br />
which is beyond the scope of this paper,<br />
but to collect the most relevant data<br />
from the reclamation process for further<br />
managing sand systems in the<br />
foundry industry. Assuch, results from<br />
10 reclamation cycles will be presented,<br />
including sand characteristics (particle<br />
size [distribution], LOI, pH, and conductivity),<br />
flowability of the sand mixture,<br />
flexural strength values, and gas permeability<br />
of the manufactured cores.<br />
Sand characteristics<br />
The starting point was athermallyreclaimed<br />
organic-bonded sand based<br />
on LA32. Previous tests showed that the<br />
data/results of this thermally-treated<br />
sand are identical to new sand. Sand<br />
36
Figure 3: Microscope pictures of recycled sand, including grain size distribution. a) after 0cycles; b): after 5cycles; c): after 10 cycles.<br />
cores were manufactured using aLaempe-type<br />
core blower with additions of<br />
1.70 wt% Solosil TX (liquid binder) and<br />
0.80 wt% Solosil TX (additive); all percentages<br />
are based on sand. Table 1 lists<br />
the average particle size of the recycled<br />
sand together with the pH, conductivity<br />
and LOI values.<br />
From this table, it can be seen that<br />
the particle size after reclamation was<br />
only slightly lower (AFS =53-54) than<br />
the zero sample (i.e., the thermallytreated<br />
organic-bonded sand) with an<br />
AFS of51.<br />
More interesting were the pH and<br />
conductivity of the reclaimed sand.<br />
After the first reclamation cycle, the pH<br />
increased to values above 10, whereas<br />
the conductivity increased towards<br />
about 200 μS/cm. After two reclamation<br />
cycles, the pH was about 11, while conductivity<br />
increased towards values<br />
higher than 300 μS/cm. These high<br />
values can be explained by the use of<br />
an alkaline-type inorganic binder system,<br />
mainly based on sodium silicate. It<br />
is likely that asmall amount of the<br />
binder residue remained present on the<br />
surface ofthe sand grains. There was<br />
however no negative impact on the<br />
strength data, as can be seen in Table 2.<br />
The LOI values remained relatively low,<br />
independent of the number of reclamation<br />
cycles, due to the use of the inorganic<br />
binder system.<br />
As already mentioned, the particle<br />
size distribution was stable, without significant<br />
changes. Figure 3shows micrographs<br />
of the sand after 0, 5and 10 reclamation<br />
cycles. Interestingly, even<br />
after 10 cycles, the sand grains are still<br />
bright and shiny, anindication of the<br />
effectiveness of the sand reclamation<br />
process. It was found that the lower the<br />
brightness of the sand grains, the lower<br />
the mechanical strength and flowability<br />
of the sand mixture, which detrimentally<br />
affected the performance of the<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 37
COREMAKING<br />
Figure 4: Appearance<br />
of sand grains:<br />
sample taken after<br />
maturation time 1<br />
(a) and maturation<br />
time 2(b) where<br />
maturation time 2 is<br />
less than maturation<br />
time 1.<br />
Figure 5: Flowability<br />
of sand mixtures<br />
after various reclamation<br />
cycles.<br />
recycled sand. This can be observed<br />
from Figure 4,inwhich two batches are<br />
shown, the left part after maturation<br />
time 1and the right part after maturation<br />
time 2, where maturation time 2 is<br />
less than maturation time 1.<br />
Flowability<br />
The flowability of the sand mixture was<br />
measured using aBrookfield Powder<br />
Flow Tester (PFT). This was initially<br />
developed to characterize the flow<br />
behavior of solid powder material with<br />
particle sizes up to amaximum ofabout<br />
1mm. As there was also aneed to<br />
determine and to define the flowability<br />
of sand mixtures with arelatively small<br />
amount of aliquid, the PFT was used<br />
for these applications.<br />
To compare different types of sand<br />
mixtures, the results are published in a<br />
flow function plot, as per Schulze [4].<br />
This flow function plot shows the flowability<br />
of various types of samples over<br />
different ‘consolidation stresses’, these<br />
being considered as compressive stress.<br />
This plot shows various regions starting<br />
with free flowing and progressing<br />
through easy flowing, cohesive, very<br />
cohesive and non-flowing. The lower<br />
the curve, the higher the measured<br />
flowability. Figure 5shows the unconfined<br />
failure strength (kPa) as afunction<br />
of the major principal consolidating<br />
stress (kPa). Results from the sand<br />
mixtures show clearly that, irrespective<br />
of the number of reclamation cycles,<br />
under the highest compressive stress<br />
and inall cases, the sand mixture was<br />
easy flowing. The highest flowability<br />
was achieved with the zero-reclaimed<br />
sand mixture.<br />
In relation to this, the weight of the<br />
sand mixture placed in the sample<br />
holder can also be an indirect indication<br />
of flowability. Inthis case, the Hausner<br />
ratio [5] or the Carr index C[6] is sometimes<br />
used to obtain amore quantitative<br />
value of the flowability. The weight<br />
of the as-received sample (without reclamation)<br />
in this case was 315 g, while<br />
for the other sand mixtures, the weight<br />
was lower than 300 g, indicating<br />
slightly lower compaction, corresponding<br />
to slightly lower flowability.<br />
Core characteristics<br />
Table 2lists the core weight, bending<br />
strength, flexural modulus and gas permeability<br />
as afunction of the number<br />
of reclamation cycles. Measurements of<br />
the cores were done after 12 hstorage<br />
at 25°C and 30% RH.<br />
This table clearly shows that the<br />
weight of the samples did not significantly<br />
change with the number of reclamation<br />
cycles and was always between<br />
146 gand 143 g, indicative of compaction<br />
/good flowability of the sand mixture.<br />
Bending strength values started at<br />
477 N/cm² (compared to atarget value<br />
of 475 N/cm²) and increased slightly<br />
after reclamation. Irrespective of the<br />
number of reclamation cycles, strength<br />
values were always between 500 and<br />
540 N/cm².<br />
The reason for the slight increase in<br />
strength was the removal of fines<br />
during the process. The flexural modulus<br />
showed no relation to the number<br />
of reclamation cycles and was always<br />
between 4.1 and 5.4 Mpa. Gas permeability<br />
started toincrease initially after<br />
reclamation but stabilized around 150<br />
mD.<br />
Summary<br />
This study presents an innovative process<br />
for the reclamation of inorganic-bonded<br />
foundry sand, based on a<br />
38
mechanically-adsorptive process called<br />
the Clustreg process [7]. After pre-testing<br />
with different processing conditions<br />
to optimize the various processing<br />
parameters, 10reclamation cycles were<br />
performed while maintaining constant<br />
machine parameters. Results from these<br />
10 reclamation cycles are presented,<br />
including sand characteristics (particle<br />
size [distribution], LOI, pH, conductivity),<br />
flowability of the sand mixture,<br />
bending strength values and gas permeability<br />
ofthe manufactured cores. It<br />
was found that, even after 10 reclamation<br />
cycles, foundry sand derived from<br />
cores with inorganic binder systems<br />
could be re-used, without detrimentally<br />
affecting flowability of the sand mixture,<br />
and the mechanical properties and<br />
gas permeability of the manufactured<br />
cores. Although the pH and conductivity<br />
did increase significantly after one<br />
reclamation cycle, this had no negative<br />
impact on the core quality of reclaimed<br />
sand.<br />
From these results, it can be concluded<br />
that, after starting with the<br />
most challenging parameters to stress<br />
the process and installation, and with<br />
the support of laboratory results to<br />
optimize the machine parameters,<br />
improved processing parameters could<br />
be determined. With this set of processing<br />
parameters, no issues occurred with<br />
this type of Solosil TX inorganic-bonded<br />
sand after 10 reclamation cycles.<br />
In future, asmaller project is<br />
planned to include five reclamation<br />
cycles with cores that will face athermal<br />
load comparable to foundry conditions.<br />
www.foseco.com<br />
References:<br />
www.cpt-international.com<br />
Acknowledgement<br />
The authors gratefully acknowledge Joachim<br />
Buchen Managing Director (KLEIN<br />
Anlagenbau AG, Freudenberg, Germany)<br />
and Tim Birch (Foseco UK, Tamworth,<br />
United Kingdom) for their contribution<br />
to this study. Thanks are also due to J.<br />
Morsink (Foseco EN, Enschede, the Netherlands)<br />
for his contribution to the analysis<br />
and characterization of the samples.<br />
Vincent Haanappel, R&D Manager, Foseco<br />
Nederland B.V., Enschede, The Netherlands,<br />
Thomas Linke, <strong>International</strong><br />
Project Manager Mould &Core, Vesuvius,<br />
Borken, Germany, Markus Jendrock<br />
and Dr.-Ing. Enno Schulte, KLEIN Anlagenbau<br />
AG, Freudenberg, Germany<br />
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Process Optimization<br />
Increased efficiency through<br />
foundry process restructuring<br />
“A change process can only work if you pick up the employees and actively involve<br />
them,” says Peter Schäfer, Head of Investment Casting Production Unit 2atthe BLANK-<br />
Group. He demonstrated this by restructuring the casting processes in the company –<br />
and the success proves him right. The BLANK-Group presents three approaches that have<br />
led to significant improvements and thus changed the process flow in the long term.<br />
By Manuela Schmid, Riedlingen<br />
Photos: Feinguss Blank<br />
Changes and process adjustments<br />
do not always have to be rocket<br />
science. It often helps to remember<br />
the core process as well as the<br />
golden rule: communication and openness<br />
in dealing with the workforce.<br />
What sounds simple at first becomes a<br />
real challenge, especially in many medium-sized<br />
companies that have grown<br />
quickly.<br />
Approach I: Transparency and<br />
communication<br />
This is also the case at the BLANK-Group<br />
in Riedlingen. “What used to work in<br />
the ‘small official way’ has now become<br />
more complex and has an impact on<br />
adjacent work processes,“ says Schäfer.<br />
In addition, the plants and kilns extend<br />
over different parts of the building,<br />
which makes consistent communication<br />
and coordination more difficult than in<br />
abuilding structure that was originally<br />
designed specifically for one activity.<br />
The result: it quickly becomes confusing<br />
–ano-go for safe production planning.<br />
Peter Schäfer fought against this<br />
state of affairs and achieved alot<br />
within ashort time. Using the lean<br />
management approach, existing processes<br />
were examined and critically scru-<br />
40
PROCESS<br />
Figure 1: The planning corner in the foundry and displays at the plants (right photo) provide all employees with aclear insight into the shift<br />
planning and the current capacity utilization.<br />
tinized under the premise of ”What can<br />
be improved quickly?” The result: a<br />
diverse package of measures that delivers<br />
high added value through many<br />
small improvements and increases<br />
employee motivation.<br />
1. Create transparency<br />
In order to increase transparency<br />
within the individual shifts, the workflow<br />
was fundamentally reorganized<br />
through astructural change. ”Across<br />
the entire company group so-called<br />
group spokespersons were introduced<br />
for each shift. They schedule the<br />
employees on an assignment board,“<br />
explains Peter Schäfer. Inthe case of<br />
the foundry, for example, there are the<br />
deployment fields ”open casting“,<br />
”roll-over process“ or ”multi-move<br />
robot“.<br />
2. Making information easily accessible<br />
Peter Schäfer additionally established<br />
information displays in the casting area<br />
that provide information about the status<br />
of the individual plants. ”Especially<br />
due to the structures that have grown<br />
over the years, it is not obvious at first<br />
glance what the total output of aplant<br />
is on adaily or shift basis. Here information<br />
boards with an integrated abacus<br />
help to show the number of castings<br />
made,“ says Schäfer, ”An outlook is also<br />
possible in this way. The boards not<br />
only show the current status, but also<br />
what still needs to be done in the<br />
course of the week.“ The graphic representation<br />
also enables the group<br />
spokespersons to get aquick overview<br />
and, if necessary, to react quickly in case<br />
of deviations.<br />
3. Improve communication<br />
Open communication is the basis for<br />
successful cooperation. In the foundry,<br />
however, restrictions arise simply<br />
because of the work processes: The<br />
entire team ofashift cannot meet for a<br />
team meeting because the furnaces<br />
must always be occupied. But how is it<br />
ensured that the information nevertheless<br />
reaches all employees? Through<br />
short information paths, regular discussions<br />
and the integration of the new<br />
information boards this deficit could be<br />
eliminated quickly and easily. Asapilot<br />
project the department is additionally<br />
testing the proof of training via aticket<br />
system. ”The employees read the numbered<br />
training sheets and then ‘stamp’<br />
on their training card the information<br />
they received,“ explains Schäfer, ”We<br />
have aquick insight via the cards if<br />
there isstill aneed tocatch up. In addition,<br />
the topic of personal responsibility<br />
is again promoted here, because we<br />
rely on the conscientious training declaration<br />
of the employees.“<br />
Figure 2: Visual presentation of the actual<br />
state via blackboards and an abacus.<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 41
PROCESS<br />
they are currently working on or in<br />
which device acasting will be used<br />
later. But Iamconvinced that the motivation<br />
in the team increases when you<br />
know what you are working on. In<br />
addition, you have to keep reminding<br />
yourself that there is avalue, acommitment,<br />
atask behind every casting<br />
–inmyopinion, this respect, also<br />
towards the complex production process,<br />
is abasic prerequisite.“ Therefore,<br />
ashowcase has been installed in the<br />
casting department displaying investment<br />
castings with information on the<br />
end application. Additionally anew<br />
part and its intended use is presented<br />
every month throughout the company.<br />
But there is also another intention<br />
behind the involvement of the foundrymen.<br />
”The employees in the casting<br />
area only see the shell and the hot<br />
melt. If run-out errors occur during the<br />
casting process, they cannot always be<br />
explained immediately in many cases,“<br />
says Schäfer, ”This is where the foundrymen<br />
can help us, because they are in<br />
the middle of the process and often<br />
recognize better apattern with regard<br />
to melt, geometry and run-out<br />
defects.“<br />
Figure 3: Training record asapilot project in the separation plant of the BLANK-Group.<br />
Approach II: Clarity and personal<br />
responsibility<br />
For the general process flow, inaddition<br />
to open communication aclear<br />
process and the enabling and empowering<br />
ofemployees are decisive for successful<br />
cooperation. The second part in<br />
the series on process restructuring in<br />
the foundry focuses on these important<br />
aspects.<br />
4. Clarity<br />
During the investment casting process,<br />
wax parts are produced with the help<br />
of an aluminum tool, these are assembled<br />
to so-called trees and then covered<br />
with ceramic mass and sanded. The<br />
resulting shells are then first melted out<br />
in the foundry before they can be fed<br />
into the casting process. The challenge<br />
here is that the shells are often similar<br />
which makes visual inspection difficult.<br />
Areference to the production order is<br />
only possible through the enclosed production<br />
papers. In this case the clarity<br />
could beincreased by acolour system.<br />
Each melting unit, as for example the<br />
”roll-over process“ or ”multi-move<br />
robot“, is assigned acolour that is<br />
reflected on the corresponding trolleys<br />
that transport the shells.<br />
6. Promoting personal responsibility<br />
This conviction also played adecisive role<br />
in another of Peter Schäfer‘s concerns.<br />
For him one premise applies to all activities<br />
that occur in the casting area: to<br />
make the employees more responsible.<br />
”We are not all car mechanics. Nevertheless,<br />
everyone can check the oil level<br />
and change the wheels. Iwould like to<br />
achieve this state in the foundry as<br />
well.“ The employees should be able to<br />
react proactively and be well<br />
acquainted with their tools, the casting<br />
furnaces. Maintenance interventions<br />
can thus be prevented or, when they<br />
occur, recognized in time and dealt with<br />
at little expense.<br />
”As asupervisor it is important to<br />
give self-determination and responsibility<br />
back to the worker. Only then potentials<br />
can unfold and alearning effect<br />
occurs. Itisdeadly when supervisors get<br />
bogged down in micromanagement.“<br />
Approach III: Cooperation<br />
The third report in the series on process<br />
optimization in the foundry is dedicated<br />
to the topic of cooperation.<br />
Figure 4: Increasing clarity through colour<br />
system for different plants.<br />
5. Increasing the reference to the end<br />
product<br />
Another topic close to Peter Schäfer‘s<br />
heart is the reference to the end product.<br />
”At BLANK about 1500 different<br />
models of about 400 customers are<br />
manufactured every year. Asaresult,<br />
most employees do not know what<br />
42
Figure 5: The casts for the next shift are prepared on trolleys.<br />
other, everyone benefits from easier and<br />
faster processes at the end. This had to<br />
be learnt again in the department.“<br />
The changes led to asustainable<br />
improvement of the working atmosphere.<br />
”The feedback so far has been<br />
consistently positive. People are having<br />
more fun at work,“ says Peter Schäfer<br />
happily. This is also reflected in an<br />
improvement in the key figures: The<br />
measures have led to amore stable and<br />
predictable output. ”My conclusion of<br />
the past months is that automation,<br />
Industry 4.0 and optimizations in production<br />
are indispensable for keeping<br />
up with the times. However, itisjust as<br />
important to pick up the employees<br />
and bring them along –and not simply<br />
present them with afait accompli.<br />
Structuring before automation is the<br />
right approach here”, concludes<br />
Schäfer.<br />
www.feinguss-blank.de/en<br />
Beside many hard facts especially the<br />
soft facts contribute to employee motivation<br />
and productive cooperation.<br />
Therefore this aspect was also critically<br />
examined within the scope of the<br />
improvement processes in the foundry<br />
sector.<br />
7. Working together<br />
The cohesion of adepartment plays a<br />
decisive role for asmooth workflow.<br />
Within the shifts asense of ”we“<br />
quickly develops through daily cooperation.<br />
People help each other. Itbecomes<br />
more difficult with cross-shift activities:<br />
”In the foundry, for example, materials<br />
have to be prepared for the next shift<br />
or the furnaces have to be prepared<br />
accordingly. Inthe past there were<br />
always points of friction here. Each shift<br />
worked for itself, which often delayed<br />
the activities in the next shift,“ explains<br />
Peter Schäfer, ”We were able to achieve<br />
alot here through targeted discussions<br />
and new work processes. Preparing for<br />
the next shift is now aregular part of<br />
the workflow.“<br />
But cohesion is not only important<br />
within departments. Upstream and<br />
downstream processes must be also<br />
integrated. ”There was often too much<br />
isolated thinking. Today, employees<br />
help each other out, move between<br />
departments and thus grow further<br />
together.”<br />
This is right and important in order<br />
to survive in the sector of medium-sized<br />
businesses in the long term. Markets are<br />
volatile and to be able to react to them<br />
companies need to be flexible.<br />
Many of the presented approaches<br />
aim to create asense of community<br />
among employees. ”When you help each<br />
Productivity in 3D<br />
Manuela Schmid, Marketing &Company<br />
Communication, Feinguss Blank,<br />
Riedlingen<br />
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CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 43
COMPANY<br />
Northwest view<br />
on the state-of-the-art New Foundry with<br />
finishing area and ventilation ducts.<br />
44
Scania builds zero CO 2<br />
foundry<br />
in Sweden<br />
New iron foundries are rarely built in Europe nowadays. But Scania,<br />
one of the world’s leading manufacturer of trucks, has now completed<br />
an impressive new work in Södertälje near the Swedish capital of Stockholm<br />
in cooperation with Gemco Engineers. It features a capacity of<br />
65,000 tons of good castings per year, increased energy efficiency,<br />
reduced waste stream and CO 2<br />
-neutrality. The first casting in the stateof-the-art<br />
foundry took place in December 2020.
By Gemco Engineers, Eindhoven,<br />
The Netherlands<br />
Mikael Lindén, Scania project manager for the new foundry,<br />
Cees Noortman, Gemco project manager, Anders Svensson, energy<br />
and development engineer at Scania (from left to right).<br />
Photos: Scania and Gemco<br />
Scania isamanufacturer of trucks<br />
for distribution, long-distance and<br />
heavy transport applications,<br />
buses and coaches. The Swedish provider<br />
of transport solutions strongly<br />
focusses on innovation, environmental<br />
impact and customer satisfaction. This<br />
also includes the development and<br />
improvement of anew generation of<br />
truck engines.<br />
For Scania, to support its goals in<br />
view of development(s) of both product<br />
and production processes of key castings<br />
for the various generations of truck<br />
engines, the realization of anew<br />
foundry works became an obvious step<br />
to take. Strategic product development,<br />
including direction, supply and demand,<br />
global market development, and even<br />
location are ongoing topics for consideration<br />
and action within Scania and<br />
the group it is member of. However, for<br />
the new foundry works, another parallel<br />
recurring discussion took place that<br />
increasingly focused on the desire to<br />
build afoundry with areal and excep-<br />
Aerial view of the new foundry and visualization of the different departments.<br />
46
COMPANY<br />
tionally high level of sustainability. Targeting<br />
e. g. the use of 100 percent<br />
renewable energy and zero CO 2<br />
emissions<br />
was one of the sustainability<br />
objectives for the new foundry. That<br />
sustainability concept for the new<br />
foundry was fully in line with Scania’s<br />
“strategy for the future”.<br />
Södertälje –Scanias development<br />
and production epicenter<br />
In 2017 the investment decision was<br />
taken for the realization of anew<br />
foundry at Scania’s premises in Södertälje,<br />
Sweden. For Scania it also meant<br />
that Södertälje remains the epicentre of<br />
development and production. For the<br />
realization of the foundry Scania<br />
worked with Gemco, Eindhoven, The<br />
Netherlands, as its foundry engineering<br />
and project management partner. The<br />
cooperation between Scania and<br />
Gemco however started long before<br />
this project, as it was about ten years<br />
ago that Scania engaged Gemco for the<br />
development ofanew casting. The<br />
decision to build anew foundry was<br />
agreed after an extensive period of<br />
close cooperation between Scania and<br />
Gemco in which different alternatives<br />
were considered and carefully analyzed,<br />
including the modernization and extension<br />
of the existing foundry.<br />
Also in 2017 the basic concept for<br />
the New Foundry was made, in which<br />
Scania and Gemco put together the<br />
principal layout, sizing of the main<br />
View on the core-setter molding line<br />
in Södertälje.<br />
Product flow through automated<br />
finishing area –inthis case engine<br />
blocks for trucks.<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 47
COMPANY<br />
Picture above: View from<br />
the outside on the core-shop<br />
with scrubber.<br />
Picture below: Overview of the<br />
melting department in the new<br />
Scania iron Foundry.<br />
equipment, the budget for the process,<br />
aproject plan and cooperation structure,<br />
and time-schedule. In order to<br />
achieve the closest possible cooperation<br />
with Scania, at all time, Gemco engineers<br />
would reside Södertälje.<br />
Implementation of up-to-date<br />
technologies<br />
The new to build casting facility was<br />
realized on new factory premises (of<br />
approximately 98,000 m 2 overall) of<br />
which the foundry facility occupies<br />
48
35,000 m 2 for aproduction of<br />
65,000 ton per year of good castings.<br />
That is three times the capacity of the<br />
existing foundry. This production will<br />
be achieved with the same number of<br />
people that work in the existing<br />
foundry, which are approximately 200<br />
persons.<br />
To achieve both efficient as well as<br />
sustainable production –with Sustainable<br />
Development Goals (SDG’s) in<br />
mind –only the most up-to-date technologies<br />
and even completely new<br />
technological solutions were applied.<br />
Solutions were designed and created<br />
in multilateral cooperation between<br />
Scania’s project organization –which<br />
includes Scania production, engineers,<br />
and maintenance and safety representatives<br />
–, Gemco engineers and the<br />
equipment manufacturing companies,<br />
as well as the building engineering<br />
company. Before deciding for asolution<br />
principle, thorough evaluations<br />
were made from every perspective,<br />
such as efficiency, maintainability,<br />
operator safety and environmental<br />
impact. During the early stages Gemco<br />
calculated key figures for energy<br />
needed and for the requisite of cooling<br />
water, compressed air and other<br />
media. Atask not to be underestimated,<br />
to list and map out the requirements<br />
for processes of equipment consumption<br />
not yet determined, while<br />
the architecture and engineering service<br />
provider Sweco did the engineering<br />
of the building. “Our high ambitions<br />
and technical solutions inspired<br />
and challenged us and our suppliers to<br />
raise the level in the work on energy<br />
efficiency, which will certainly benefit<br />
the foundry industry in the future”<br />
says Mikael Lindén project manager<br />
for the new foundry.<br />
Notwithstanding atripling of production<br />
capacity, the improved materials<br />
handling, and newly introduced<br />
sand recycling significantly reduce the<br />
required transport per cast unit.<br />
Energy usage will decrease while<br />
improved casting processes and heat<br />
recovery allow for energy gains. “We<br />
are convinced that the new foundry<br />
brings Scania closer to the goal of sustainable<br />
production,” according to<br />
Anders Svensson, energy and development<br />
engineer at Scania<br />
Successful teamwork<br />
For the realization of the project<br />
Gemco delivered project management<br />
support, integration design and engineering,<br />
specialized area project managers<br />
for charge, melt and pour, sand<br />
preparation and reclamation, environmental,<br />
heat recovery and molding,<br />
shake out and casting-cooling departments.<br />
“I want to emphasize that<br />
together with Scania we all acted as<br />
one team for the design and commissioning<br />
of the complete foundry, combining<br />
knowledge and expertise from<br />
different angles”, says Gemco Project<br />
Manager Cees Noortman.<br />
Overall, acombined team of 50<br />
people had to be managed and it<br />
takes good teamwork and great team<br />
effort for asuccessful realization of<br />
such aproject. Gemco also supplied<br />
site management during the construction<br />
phase on site. Abig challenge was<br />
that certain detailed engineering was<br />
still ongoing during the building construction.<br />
Challenging was also the<br />
tough timetable, as is usual in the<br />
industry sector. During the entire duration<br />
of the project, there has been a<br />
very close collaboration with Skanska<br />
(building contractor) and Sweco (building<br />
design). The first casting in the<br />
new foundry was carried out in<br />
December 2020 and production is currently<br />
ramping up.<br />
Gemco will further support Scania<br />
in the ramp-up phase. Together with<br />
Scania the company will follow the<br />
production processes closely, for<br />
instance to measure the equipment<br />
performances. Gemco will be engaged<br />
in the project at least until the new<br />
foundry is in regular production.<br />
“We are really pleased with this<br />
reference project and the very good<br />
cooperation with the Scania team. To<br />
have contributed to this big foundry<br />
project with athree times higher<br />
capacity than the old one. To realize<br />
special solutions together, to achieve<br />
50 %more energy efficiency, significantly<br />
reduce waste streams and to<br />
reduce the carbon footprint of the factory<br />
was achallenge and Ibelieve that<br />
together we have been successful on<br />
the goals set before we started the<br />
project. All in all, it has been avery<br />
stimulating and interesting project”,<br />
deems finally Cees Noortman, project<br />
manager at Gemco.<br />
www.gemco.nl<br />
Gemco Engineers, Eindhoven,<br />
The Netherlands<br />
Process<br />
Optimisation<br />
with<br />
Intelligent<br />
Temperature Control<br />
REGLOPLAS<br />
Multiple Distribution<br />
Systems Water<br />
160 °C<br />
www.regloplas.com
NEWS<br />
EUROGUSS 2022<br />
Die casting sector comes together as one<br />
As the annual highlight and start-ofyear<br />
gathering for the die casting<br />
industry, EUROGUSS, the international<br />
exhibition for die casting, processes<br />
and products, will take place again in<br />
Nuremberg from 18 to 20 January 2022.<br />
After two turbulent years, the die casting<br />
sector will now come together<br />
again asone at Exhibition Centre<br />
Nuremberg. The enormous diversity of<br />
the sector will be showcased in four<br />
halls and covers machinery and equipment,<br />
processes, toolmaking and mold<br />
fabrication, foundries and associated<br />
technologies. EUROGUSS is complemented<br />
by competitions, presentations,<br />
and the German Die Casting Congress.<br />
Structural components have clearly<br />
gained in importance in the automotive<br />
industry over the last years, with a<br />
trend towards even larger parts. This<br />
presents aclear opportunity for the<br />
die-casting industry. Larger and more<br />
complex parts produced in the die-casting<br />
process are acurrent trend. The<br />
automotive market is seeing the discussion<br />
of new body-in-white-concepts,<br />
with atendency to ever larger parts<br />
produced in aluminum die casting. This<br />
offers the possibility to functionally<br />
integrate various other parts, producing<br />
them in one shot, instead of in various<br />
production steps. This, in turn, reduces<br />
complexity and increases productivity in<br />
the automotive manufacturing process<br />
for the body-in-white. “We are seeing<br />
an entire front or entire back of acar<br />
produced in one shot, coming out of a<br />
die-casting machine every 2minutes.<br />
With this we see huge potential for an<br />
even more efficient production process<br />
for the automotive industry and afascinating<br />
opportunity for die casting,”<br />
says Cornel Mendler, Managing Director<br />
Die Casting.<br />
“The very high level of registrations<br />
shows just how much the die casting<br />
community is looking forward to finally<br />
meeting one another and interacting in<br />
person again at EUROGUSS,” says Christopher<br />
Boss, Director EUROGUSS at<br />
NürnbergMesse. “I am especially<br />
pleased that alot of well-known exhibitors<br />
have increased their stand space<br />
yet again compared with 2020. EURO-<br />
GUSS offers visitors and exhibitors alike<br />
the ideal conditions for safe in-person<br />
networking.”<br />
Apart from Germany, the countries<br />
with the largest exhibitor contingents<br />
include Italy, Turkey, Spain and Austria.<br />
Overall, around 60 percent of all exhibitors<br />
come to Nuremberg primarily<br />
from other European countries. In<br />
addition, several pavilions have already<br />
been announced. For example, the Italian<br />
foundry association Amafond is<br />
organizing an exhibition of the Italian<br />
die casting industry on adisplay area<br />
of around 600 square metres. Other<br />
pavilions will put the spotlight on surface<br />
technology and additive manufacturing.<br />
There will also be special display<br />
areas for research and educational<br />
institutions, and government-subsidized<br />
stands for young companies and<br />
start-ups.<br />
EUROGUSS not only provides an<br />
overview of the enormous diversity<br />
and wide-ranging applications for die<br />
casting technology; it also showcases<br />
the excellence and capabilities of asector<br />
that plays akey role in industrial<br />
supply chains. The European Die Casting<br />
Award, which is being presented<br />
for the first time in 2022 by the VDD<br />
(Association of German Die Casting<br />
Foundries) and EUROGUSS, will honour<br />
some of these outstanding achievements.<br />
The competition serves to highlight<br />
the diverse applications, innovative<br />
strength, high quality and<br />
capabilities of die casting as aforming<br />
process using the materials aluminum,<br />
magnesium and zinc. Awards will be<br />
presented for the three best submissions<br />
in each material category. The<br />
awards ceremony will take place<br />
during EUROGUSS, and visitors will be<br />
able to look at the winning workpieces.<br />
The EUROGUSS Talent Award,<br />
which was introduced in 2020, will<br />
again recognize the best emerging talent<br />
in the sector. The authors of bachelor’s<br />
ormaster’s theses relating to an<br />
innovation, improvement or new applications<br />
in die casting including its<br />
entire value chain will be given the<br />
opportunity to pitch their work to a<br />
high-calibre jury. The winners not only<br />
receive attractive prizes but also get to<br />
present themselves directly to decision-makers<br />
from potential employers.<br />
The supporting programme for<br />
EUROGUSS goes into various issues in<br />
more depth and explores the current<br />
hot topics in the industry. On the first<br />
day of the event on 18 January, adiscussion<br />
panel on the two relevant<br />
issues of additive manufacturing and<br />
digitalization in the die casting sector<br />
takes place. It will give interested participants<br />
the chance to find out about<br />
the opportunities and challenges of<br />
these technologies and discuss them<br />
with experts.<br />
The aim of the EUROGUSS Buyers’<br />
Day, anew addition to the programme<br />
on the second day of the event on 18<br />
January, istoprovide the necessary<br />
overview to enable smart procurement<br />
decisions. Among other things it will<br />
look at what the trends are in purchasing,<br />
the direction that die casting procurement<br />
is taking due to technical<br />
and legal changes like the German supply<br />
chain act, and how raw materials<br />
purchasing can be made more efficient<br />
in future. The various speakers and<br />
experts have been involved in procurement<br />
for along time and know what<br />
the challenges are.<br />
Sustainability is another topical<br />
issue that will be tackled by EURO-<br />
GUSS. Many players along the process<br />
chain have already taken initiatives in<br />
this area, for example with plans to<br />
achieve carbon neutrality. Atthe same<br />
time, OEMs and policymakers are<br />
increasing their requirements and<br />
regulations. Asustainability survey<br />
commissioned by EUROGUSS will provide<br />
an overview of the industry’s<br />
engagement in this area.<br />
The 21st German Die Casting Congress,<br />
which is being held concurrently<br />
with EUROGUSS in NCC Ost at Exhibition<br />
Centre Nuremberg, is being organized<br />
as always by the VDD (Association<br />
of German Die Casting Foundries)<br />
and will also provide extensive insights<br />
into die casting.<br />
www.euroguss.de/en<br />
50
NEWS<br />
FOUNDRIES AND CORONA<br />
CAEF Yearbook 2020 published<br />
Data of unique scope and depth show<br />
the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic<br />
on European foundries. While the European<br />
production of non-ferrous metals<br />
decreased by 19.2% overall, the production<br />
of iron, nodular iron and steel<br />
castings decreased by 19.8% compared<br />
to 2019.<br />
The Covid-19 pandemic shaped social<br />
and economic life worldwide in 2020. In<br />
the wake of the rising infection figures<br />
European governments reacted with<br />
drastic measures to reduce the public<br />
health risk and absorb the resulting<br />
economic damage.<br />
In spring, therefore, the production<br />
facilities of many foundries as well as<br />
their suppliers and customers were completely<br />
shut down –often for several<br />
weeks –innumerous European countries.<br />
After production has restarted<br />
around summer with great efforts and<br />
adapted hygiene concepts, there was a<br />
renewed increase in Covid-19 case numbers<br />
towards the end of the year, which<br />
put aburden on economic recovery.<br />
Government support measures and<br />
the high adaptability and performance<br />
The European<br />
Foundry Association<br />
2020<br />
of the industrial sector prevented more<br />
detrimental distortions. In addition to<br />
the challenges directly related to the<br />
infection situation in the companies,<br />
the European foundry industry suffered<br />
from problems on both sides, supply<br />
and demand.<br />
While particlularly the cyclically sensitive<br />
and casting-intensive automotive<br />
industry in Europe, was in deep crisis,<br />
problems in logistics were already<br />
becoming apparent. The planning reliability<br />
for foundries was thus considerably<br />
impaired.<br />
The current developments in the<br />
European foundry industry and the<br />
market for castings can only be seen<br />
against the background of the year<br />
2020. Onthe one hand, it is necessary<br />
to understand statistical base effects,<br />
and onthe other hand, the challenges<br />
associated with the economic recovery<br />
go back to the developments of the<br />
previous year. Meanwhile, the industrial<br />
transformation towards climate neutrality<br />
has tended to intensify during the<br />
pandemic. The challenges and opportunities<br />
for foundries have thus become<br />
even more diverse in their own production<br />
processes and in the strategic consideration<br />
of customer segments.<br />
Finally, for the European foundry<br />
industry, the CAEF publication “The<br />
European Foundry Industry 2020” provides<br />
acomprehensive overview of the<br />
relevant data in unique depth and<br />
breadth. In addition to these data, the<br />
publication includes reports on the economic<br />
developments in the CAEF member<br />
countries and the foundry associations‘<br />
assessments of the most<br />
important market developments for<br />
castings.<br />
www.caef.eu<br />
METAL FAIR INPOLAND<br />
„Industrial Autumn“ in Kielce<br />
More than 10,000 industry insiders visited<br />
the industrial exhibitions held<br />
under the banner of STOM and METAL<br />
from October 19-21, an attendance<br />
reminiscent ofthe times before the<br />
pandemic.<br />
Almost 500 exhibitors showcased in the<br />
seven expo halls; machine tools, cutters,<br />
bending machines, complete robotic<br />
lines, specialized foundry machines,<br />
welding equipment, microscopes. To<br />
put it in anutshell –anything and<br />
everything the industry needs was<br />
available at the expo. Such awide<br />
range of industries has made it possible<br />
for entrepreneurs to expand their contacts’<br />
network. Aunique opportunity:<br />
the combination of the <strong>International</strong><br />
Fair of Technologies for Foundry METAL<br />
and STOM, the Exhibition of Metal Processing<br />
Technologies. There was also<br />
great interest in the 3-D Printing Days.<br />
“The Kielce event has much<br />
advanced; its business scope is much<br />
Already for the 23rd<br />
time METAL, the<br />
trade fair for<br />
foundry technologies,<br />
opened its<br />
doors for exhibitors<br />
and participants in<br />
the Polish city of<br />
Kielce.<br />
more extensive than the foundry sector.<br />
There are many different industries<br />
brought together here. These sectors<br />
depend on each other. This combination<br />
is areal competitive advantage of<br />
Targi Kielce”, said Wojciech Plaza, President<br />
of the Management Board of<br />
foundry supplier Kratos Polska.<br />
The gala ceremony was held on the<br />
first day of the fair; the best products<br />
and services showcased at the „Industrial<br />
Autumn“ earned accolades. The<br />
next METAL trade fair will take place<br />
from 20 to 22 September 2022.<br />
www.noricangroup.com<br />
Photo: Metal<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 51
NEWS<br />
Photo: Foseco<br />
Cleaning with Coveral MTS 1533 can result to 50% dross dry in the aluminum melt.<br />
NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR DIE CASTING<br />
Foseco showcases at EUROGUSS<br />
Foseco will be showcasing new product<br />
and equipment technologies for die<br />
casting foundries at EUROGUSS from<br />
January 18th to 20th 2022. At the<br />
Foseco booth, visitors can discover<br />
new, innovative solutions for cost<br />
effective melting and holding of aluminum,<br />
optimized melt treatment, transfer<br />
and dosing. Foseco’s booth is in Hall<br />
7A, Nr. 523.<br />
As the die casting industry becomes<br />
more sophisticated, demands for<br />
improved metallurgical control are<br />
increasing. To meet this demand, Foseco,<br />
Borken, Germany, has added new<br />
features to its industry leading FDU<br />
degassing units and MTS melt treatment<br />
stations to ensure that our technology<br />
is state of the art in technology<br />
for automated aluminum melt treatment:<br />
> Smartt software offers various programs<br />
for rotary degassing and predicts<br />
the best treatment practice based on<br />
ambient conditions, melt temperature,<br />
rotor design and alloy composition. The<br />
treatment parameters are automatically<br />
transferred into the FDU MTS.<br />
> Smartt ensures that any defined<br />
hydrogen level can be reached through<br />
acombination of degassing and subsequent<br />
upgassing as appropriate. Acustomized<br />
report system records all<br />
parameters to ensure full process traceability.<br />
> Granulated grain refiners are automatically<br />
dispensed by the Metal Treatment<br />
Station. This grain refiner offers<br />
many advantages such as improved<br />
melt fluidity during casting, reduced<br />
inclusion level and better mechanical<br />
properties. The dross remaining after<br />
the treatment is low in metal which<br />
additionally saves costs. The dosing<br />
equipment uses agravimetric load cell<br />
to ensure highest dosing precision for<br />
best metallurgical results as well as<br />
repeatability and traceability.<br />
> Shaft and rotor design are continuously<br />
improved to offer high efficiency<br />
in degassing at long service life.<br />
Furthermore, Coveral MTS fluxes are a<br />
range ofnew granulated treatment<br />
agents to cover the principal foundry<br />
operations of cleaning, drossing, modification<br />
and grain refinement. Also a<br />
complete range of silicon carbide and<br />
clay graphite crucibles, retorts and<br />
other specialized shapes for use in fuel<br />
fired, induction and electric resistance<br />
furnaces are offered by Foseco. In the<br />
aluminum metal transfer area crucibles<br />
from the Enertek energy saving and<br />
Duratek long life family highlight the<br />
energy and cost saving potential in<br />
melting, holding, and metal processing<br />
furnace applications.<br />
The monolithic refractory lining<br />
range of the foundry supplier includes<br />
Alugard low-cement castables and Triad<br />
no-cement castables. The Triad range<br />
contains anew aluminum “non-wetting”<br />
additive giving excellent resistance<br />
to corundum development across<br />
awider temperature band, while Kellundite<br />
dry-vibratable linings are ideally<br />
suited to coreless induction melting furnaces.<br />
Insural multi-part and highly insulating<br />
dosing furnace linings for aluminum<br />
foundries combine energy savings with<br />
long-service life and resistance to oxide<br />
build-up. The use of energy efficient<br />
dosing furnaces in aluminum foundries<br />
is seen by many as the best available<br />
technology today. Foseco is now able to<br />
supply anew multi-part and highly<br />
insulating lining made of Insural which<br />
is delivered ready toinstall. Energy saving<br />
can be as high as 17%.<br />
www.foseco.com<br />
52
CASTING PLANT & TECHNOLOGY 2/<strong>2021</strong> 53
NEWS<br />
Photo: Foseco<br />
HIGH-PRESSURE GREEN SAND IRON CASTING<br />
Feeder sleeves deliver fluoride<br />
emission free performance<br />
Feedex FEF –anew fluoride emission<br />
free, highly exothermic high strength<br />
feeder sleeve material.<br />
Foseco launches Feedex FEF, afluoride<br />
emission free, low VOC highly exothermic,<br />
high strength feeder sleeve material,<br />
ideal for high pressure casting, to support<br />
greensand foundries committed to<br />
reducing environmental impact and costs<br />
as their need for high performance spot<br />
feeders continues to step up.<br />
Available for the complete range of<br />
ram-up feeder sleeves, the novel formulation<br />
sets anew standard in sustainability<br />
and feed performance for<br />
high-pressure automatic molding lines<br />
to deliver on the increasing demands of<br />
casting today’s iron applications. Ongoing<br />
weight reduction, alloy developments<br />
and the demand for improved<br />
mechanical applications are driving constant<br />
change.<br />
Feedex FEF supports the industry’s<br />
strong focus on reducing and eliminating<br />
harmful emissions and hazardous<br />
waste, being both fluoride emission<br />
free and lower in VOC than market<br />
alternatives. At the same time, it is<br />
proven to deliver the highest thermal<br />
and feed performance. It offers the<br />
identical industry-valued easy application,<br />
consistency, and high strength of<br />
conventional low fluoride Feedex HD<br />
products, which makes the new feeder<br />
sleeves particularly suitable for the challenges<br />
of high-pressure automatic<br />
molding lines.<br />
Christof Volks, <strong>International</strong> Marketing<br />
Manager, comments: “With the<br />
launch of Feedex FEF sleeve material,<br />
Foseco is proud to offer ahighly sustainable<br />
and strongly performing feeder<br />
sleeve formulation. Importantly, wealso<br />
realize another major step forward in<br />
our commitment to setting the benchmark<br />
for sustainability in the foundry<br />
industry. Our target is to become the<br />
first supplier to offer fully fluoride emission<br />
free feeder sleeves across our entire<br />
feeding product portfolio. We’re very<br />
close toachieving this goal.”<br />
The new sleeve material is the latest<br />
addition to Foseco’s fluoride free portfolio,<br />
which also includes Kalminex 2000<br />
and Kalminex SD insert sleeves for<br />
tougher conditions. To further benefit<br />
foundry sustainability-related targets,<br />
Feedex FEF is manufactured with a<br />
novel, renewable binder system which<br />
avoids the use of non-renewable conventional<br />
PUCB binder systems, thereby<br />
being more environment friendly.<br />
Beyond their environmental advantages,<br />
ram-up sleeves based on the new<br />
material enhance foundries’ ability to<br />
meet the mechanical and productivity<br />
demands of complex high-precision<br />
casting. All the feeding sleeve products<br />
are carefully produced in acontrolled<br />
process to achieve consistent feed performance.<br />
Applying the feeding solutions<br />
avoids shrinkage defects. It also<br />
improves casting yields, with yields<br />
exceeding 75% frequently reached with<br />
many case studies developed together<br />
with our customers, thereby reducing<br />
the amount of non-productive metal<br />
poured. Plus, significant savings are also<br />
achieved in fettling and cleaning operations.<br />
For foundries seeking greater ease<br />
of application, Foseco’s recently introduced<br />
Feedex VAK feeders are now also<br />
available in afluoride emission free version.<br />
The innovative self-centring feeder<br />
sleeves, in combination with the appropriate<br />
support pin, can be easily applied<br />
on fast cycling automatic molding lines<br />
to enable spot feeding of even the<br />
smallest contact areas.<br />
www.foseco.com<br />
54
Photo: Reichmann Casting Finishing<br />
SUSTAINABLE METAL TRADE<br />
Automatic grinding „Made in Germany“<br />
The new MAUS 600 is amodern standard 5-axis NC<br />
machine especially for small to medium lot sizes.<br />
By taking over the intellectual property<br />
of MAUS, mechanical engineering company<br />
Reichmann from Weissenhorn,<br />
Germany, has combined the technical<br />
know-how and experience of both<br />
companies. The result is the new MAUS<br />
600 product line: In the new MAUS 600<br />
grinding centre, reliable and robust<br />
mechanical engineering “Made in Germany“<br />
with ahigh level of process<br />
know-how meets high flexibility and<br />
economic efficiency in acompact, standardized<br />
housing.<br />
“The aim ofthe development of the<br />
new MAUS 600 product line was to<br />
offer foundries an easy entry from manual<br />
to automatic casting cleaning and<br />
to optimize processes for greater profitability.<br />
The new MAUS 600 is amodern<br />
standard 5-axis NC machine especially<br />
for small to medium lot sizes or linked<br />
solutions that sets new standards in<br />
automatic grinding”, says Rafael Dineiger,<br />
<strong>International</strong> Sales Manager in the<br />
Reichmann Casting Finishing division.<br />
The compact casting finishing center<br />
processes awide range of cast parts<br />
made of iron, steel, brass, copper or aluminum<br />
on avery small footprint. The<br />
machine can be transported on atruck or<br />
in acontainer and conveniently brought<br />
to the installation site by forklift.<br />
With the help of pre-installed function<br />
favorites, programming is<br />
extremely easy. Even complex machining<br />
programs can be created and set up<br />
directly in the work area in the shortest<br />
possible time without any prior knowledge.<br />
The Windows 10-based control<br />
can be operated intuitively for everyone<br />
and offers the best conditions for diagnosis,<br />
support and networking. With<br />
the modern, IIoT-capable user interface,<br />
data can becollected, evaluated and<br />
integrated in order to identify possible<br />
downtimes at an early stage and to<br />
plan ahead in atargeted manner. This<br />
increases productivity and lowers costs.<br />
In order not to waste asecond inthe<br />
set-up times for anew casting, the new<br />
MAUS 600 has astandardized device<br />
interface. In this way, the user can build<br />
asuitable fixture himself in avery short<br />
time. In this way, the machine can be<br />
used flexibly and economically for various<br />
cast parts, even in the smallest batch<br />
sizes. The machines with pallet changers<br />
automatically select the right machining<br />
program for different cast parts in<br />
mixed operation. Despite the pallet<br />
changer, the user only needs one fixture<br />
per casting, thus saving time and money.<br />
Various adapted spindle powers ensure<br />
high energy efficiency and reduced cycle<br />
times during machining.The MAUS 600<br />
product line consists of three machine<br />
variants. With the door variants, Reichmann<br />
has created anovelty that enables<br />
particularly ergonomic loading directly<br />
on the machine. Compared to the light<br />
barrier variant, this saves the operator<br />
having to step back and forth for loading<br />
and unloading. At the same time,<br />
the control panel is within easy reach<br />
for programming and operation.<br />
The new MAUS 600 offers maximum<br />
convenience for the user as standard.<br />
The front of the machines with adoor<br />
can beopened completely and offers<br />
good access for cleaning and service.<br />
The extra-large residue chip drawer<br />
reduces the cleaning intervals and can<br />
be conveniently emptied with aforklift<br />
or pallet truck. The centralized lubrication<br />
system minimizes maintenance<br />
work and ensures minimal downtimes.<br />
The light barrier solution offers optimal<br />
conditions and accessibility for crane or<br />
robot loading. This makes it easier to<br />
load heavy cast parts.<br />
www.casting-finishing.com<br />
www.maus.it<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 55
NEWS<br />
SPARK-OES METALS ANALYZER<br />
Launch of Q4 POLO for faster results<br />
US company Bruker from Billerica, Massachusetts,<br />
announces the launch of<br />
the new Q4 POLO, acompact Spark<br />
Optical Emission Spectrometer (OES)<br />
with convincing analytical performance<br />
for amultitude of applications across<br />
the metals industry. The Q4 POLO<br />
extends Bruker’s line ofbenchtop OES<br />
systems, combining high precision elemental<br />
analysis capabilities with low<br />
cost of ownership and small footprint.<br />
In addition to its convincing analytical<br />
performance for the large element<br />
range from lithium (Li) to bismuth (Bi),<br />
the Q4 POLO enables applications previously<br />
not addressable by such compact<br />
instruments:<br />
> precision, particularly on light elements<br />
> good performance in the analysis of<br />
cast iron<br />
> Reliable analysis of nitrogen at low<br />
ppm levels in low alloyed steels<br />
> Analysis of oxygen in copper<br />
Q4 POLO convinces by its long-term stability.<br />
The absence of thermal- and contamination-based<br />
drifts reduces the<br />
need for cleaning and recalibrations,<br />
leading to stable results around the<br />
clock. Bruker’s patented Automatic<br />
Ambient Compensation (AAC) ensures<br />
that the optical system keeps its focus<br />
by eliminating thermal drift. The new<br />
ArgonShield prevents contamination of<br />
the optical window during measurements.<br />
The active sensing digital<br />
SmartSpark source further improves<br />
Q4 POLO –the little giant.<br />
analytical precision and long-term stability,<br />
enabling shorter measurement<br />
times. The coverage of the full elemental<br />
range is achieved by aunique electromagnetic<br />
light junction as core component<br />
of the MultiVision optics.<br />
The new Q4 POLO is the ready-toanalyze<br />
solution from day one, covering<br />
all relevant elements and wide concentration<br />
ranges. Each base metal package<br />
includes all dedicated alloy groups,<br />
calibrations, and standardization samples.<br />
At the same time, the Q4 POLO<br />
provides high uptime, low maintenance,<br />
and hassle-free operation.<br />
Dr. Peter Paplewski, Product Line Manager<br />
for Bruker’s OES analysis business,<br />
commented: “With its impressive analytical<br />
performance, stability, and compactness,<br />
the Q4 POLO is extending the<br />
capabilities of compact spark-OES. The<br />
Q4 POLO combines multiple innovations<br />
to reach performance levels not<br />
achieved before in compact metal analyzers.<br />
Reliable, high precision analysis is<br />
now available for every foundry and<br />
production floor. With its unique features,<br />
the Q4 POLO will help users to<br />
obtain compositional results faster,<br />
easier, and more cost-effectively than<br />
ever before.”<br />
www.bruker.com<br />
Photo: Bruker<br />
CAN-ENG FURNACES<br />
CUSTOM SYSTEMS FOR THE<br />
LIGHT WEIGHTING AUTOMOTIVE<br />
INDUSTRY OF THE FUTURE<br />
CAN-ENG Furnaces <strong>International</strong> Limited<br />
Specializes in Continuous Automotive Structural (HPDC)<br />
Component Heat Treatment and Hot Forming Systems<br />
Visit us at Stand 9-603,Exhibition Center Nuremberg |January 18 -20, 2022 to learnmore about:<br />
Continuous Heat Treatment, Basketless Heat Treatment (BHTS®) and Precision Air Quenching (PAQ) Systems<br />
for T2, T4, T5, T6, T7 Processes - Including Water, Polymer, Air, Mist and Hybrid Quenching Systems<br />
Explore CAN-ENG’s custom systems. Visit us at www.can-eng.com or email tdonofrio@can-eng.com or furnaces@can-eng.com
NEW DIGITAL TOOLS<br />
Unlocking quick-win cost savings for blast machine<br />
operators<br />
Blasting machine manufacturer Wheelabrator<br />
has launched new digital tools<br />
that were developed specifically to<br />
help customers reduce costs around<br />
three key areas of the blast process:<br />
abrasive consumption, energy use and<br />
maintenance and downtime.<br />
The tools were built using Norican’s<br />
Monitizer software and NoriGate hardware,<br />
both already proven on equipment<br />
at sister companies DISA and StrikoWestofen,<br />
which are available for<br />
many existing and all new Wheelabrator<br />
machines.<br />
Heinrich Dropmann, Senior Vice<br />
President Global Wheel at Wheelabrator,<br />
explains: “Digital technologies<br />
allow ustomake the blast process more<br />
transparent than ever before and optimize<br />
it accordingly. We’ve been working<br />
with aselect group of pilot customers<br />
to identify the applications that<br />
would make the biggest difference to<br />
their productivity and profitability and<br />
quickly zeroed in on these three.”<br />
Tests showed that tackling abrasive<br />
consumption alone, using digital analysis<br />
and monitoring, can unlock 200-250<br />
euros inannual savings per kilowatt<br />
blast power installed. For atypical<br />
hanger-type machine with four 11 kW<br />
blast wheels, this means up to 10,000<br />
euros saved per year. Over the course of<br />
Digital technology can unlock new potential for optimization in blast processes.<br />
20 years, savings generated by this one<br />
digital tool could pay for anew<br />
machine.<br />
Heinrich continues: “The digital<br />
tools we’ve developed enable customers<br />
to really pinpoint the parameters<br />
that are driving abrasive consumption,<br />
energy use and wear in their specific<br />
operational setting –and then do something<br />
about it. They can very quickly get<br />
amuch better handle on their blasting<br />
cost, without impacting the volume or<br />
quality of their outputs –oreven<br />
improving them.”<br />
The three tools can be deployed as<br />
standalone solutions or plugged into a<br />
wider Industry 4.0 system –beitfrom<br />
Norican, customer-built or from another<br />
supplier. The NoriGate data gateway is<br />
used to extract data from each machine<br />
–from the control system and from sensors<br />
–while the Monitizer software collects,<br />
visualizes, and analyses it in customizable<br />
dashboards.<br />
Heinrich explains the Wheelabrator<br />
approach: “This is not about collecting<br />
data for the sake of it. As experts on<br />
the blast process, we can select the<br />
right data points to track, so we can<br />
combine them meaningfully and in a<br />
way that gives us insights into what’s<br />
running at optimum and what isn’t. It<br />
gives customers the data they need to<br />
continuously improve the process and<br />
save some money along the way.”<br />
www.wheelabratorgroup.com/en-gb<br />
Photo: Wheelabrator<br />
ASK ANNOUNCES NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER<br />
Frank Goede succeeds Frank Coenen<br />
Foundry chemicals and consumables<br />
supplier ASK Chemicals Group from<br />
Hilden, Germany, will have with Frank<br />
Goede anew CEO in February 2022.<br />
Goede is an experienced business<br />
leader who is currently the CEO of<br />
Tokai Cobex GmbH, aglobal materials<br />
science company active in the manufacturing<br />
of carbon and graphite products.<br />
Frank Coenen has led ASK Chemicals<br />
Group since itwas acquired by global<br />
private equity firm Rhône in July 2014.<br />
Eytan Tigay and Lucas Flynn, Managing<br />
Directors of Rhône, stated, “We would<br />
like to express our sincere thanks to<br />
Frank Coenen. He propelled ASK Chemicals<br />
to significant growth, underpinned<br />
by his development and implementation<br />
of asuccessful strategic transformation<br />
program. In Frank Goede, we<br />
are delighted to have found an ideal<br />
successor to further ASK’s ongoing<br />
global growth and development.”<br />
In addition to serving as CEO of Tokai<br />
Cobex GmbH, Frank Goede has previously<br />
held senior positions with Riedhammer<br />
and SGL Carbon GmbH. He<br />
holds anengineering degree and was<br />
born and raised in Brazil. He has worked<br />
and lived in multiple countries before<br />
having his home base in Germany.<br />
www.ask-chemicals.com<br />
In future, Frank Goede will be at the helm of<br />
ASK Chemicals.<br />
Photo: ASK Chemicals<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 57
SUPPLIERS GUIDE<br />
©DVS Media GmbH<br />
Contact person: Vanessa Wollstein<br />
Aachener Straße 172 :+49 211 1591-152<br />
40223 Düsseldorf :+49 211 1591-150<br />
:vanessa.wollstein@dvs-media.info<br />
:www.keytocasting.com/<br />
1 Foundry Plants and Equipment<br />
17 SurfaceTreatment andDrying<br />
2<br />
Melting Plants and Equipment for Iron and<br />
Steel Castings and for Malleable Cast Iron<br />
18<br />
Plant,Transport, Stock, andHandling<br />
Engineering<br />
3 Melting Plants and Equipment for NFM<br />
4 Refractories Technology<br />
19 Pattern- andDiemaking<br />
20 ControlSystemsand Automation<br />
5<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8<br />
Non-metalRaw Materials and Auxiliaries for<br />
Melting Shop<br />
Metallic Charge Materials for Iron and Steel<br />
Castings and for Malleable Cast Iron<br />
Metallic Charge and Treatment Materials for<br />
Light and Heavy Metal Castings<br />
Plants and Machines for Moulding and<br />
Coremaking Processes<br />
21 TestingofMaterials<br />
22 Analysis Techniqueand Laboratory<br />
23 AirTechnique andEquipment<br />
24 Environmental Protection andDisposal<br />
9 Moulding Sands<br />
10 Sand Conditioning and Reclamation<br />
11 MouldingAuxiliaries<br />
12 Gating andFeeding<br />
13 Casting Machines andEquipment<br />
25 Accident Prevention andErgonomics<br />
26 OtherProducts forCasting Industry<br />
27 Consulting andService<br />
28 Castings<br />
29 By-Products<br />
14<br />
Discharging, Cleaning, FinishingofRaw<br />
Castings<br />
30 Data Processing Technology<br />
15 SurfaceTreatment<br />
16 Weldingand Cutting<br />
31 Foundries<br />
32 Additivemanufacturing /3-D printing<br />
58
03 Melting Plants and Equipment for NFM<br />
03.02 Melting and Holding Furnaces, Electrically<br />
Heated<br />
▼ Aluminium Melting Furnaces 630<br />
Refratechnik Steel GmbH<br />
Refratechnik Casting GmbH<br />
Am Seestern 5, 40547 Düsseldorf, Germany<br />
+49 211 5858-0<br />
E-Mail:<br />
steel@refra.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.refra.com<br />
▼ Insulating Products 1130<br />
08 Plants and Machines for Moulding and<br />
Coremaking Processes<br />
08.02 Moulding and Coremaking Machines<br />
▼ Multi-Stage Vacuum Process 3223<br />
LOIThermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
▼ Remelting Furnaces 700<br />
EIKA,S.COOP<br />
Urresolo 47, 48277 Etxebarria<br />
+34 946 16 77 32<br />
Internet:<br />
Spain<br />
E-Mail:<br />
aagirregomezkorta@isoleika.es<br />
Internet:<br />
www.isoleika.es<br />
▼ Micro Porous Insulating Materials 1220<br />
Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH<br />
35614 Asslar,Germany<br />
+49 6441 802-1190 7 +49 6441 802-1199<br />
E-Mail:<br />
andreas.wuerz@pfeiffer-vacuum.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.pfeiffer-vacuum.de<br />
09 Moulding Sands<br />
09.01 Basic Moulding Sands<br />
▼ Chromite Sands 3630<br />
LOIThermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
<strong>04</strong> Refractories Technology<br />
<strong>04</strong>.01 Plants, Equipment and Tools for Lining in Melting<br />
andCasting<br />
▼ Mixers and Chargers for RefractoryMixes 930<br />
EIKA,S.COOP<br />
Urresolo 47, 48277 Etxebarria<br />
+34 946 16 77 32<br />
Internet:<br />
Spain<br />
E-Mail:<br />
aagirregomezkorta@isoleika.es<br />
Internet:<br />
www.isoleika.es<br />
▼ Ladle RefractoryMixes 1240<br />
GTP Schäfer GmbH<br />
41515 Grevenbroich, Germany<br />
+49 2181 23394-0 7 +49 2181 23394-55<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@gtp-schaefer.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.gtp-schaefer.com<br />
▼ Ceramic Sands/Chamotte Sands 3645<br />
UELZENER Maschinen GmbH<br />
Stahlstr.26-28, 65428 Rüsselsheim, Germany<br />
+49 6142 177 68 0<br />
E-Mail:<br />
contact@uelzener-ums.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.uelzener-ums.de<br />
▼ Gunning for Relining of Cupolas 950<br />
UELZENER Maschinen GmbH<br />
Stahlstr.26-28, 65428 Rüsselsheim, Germany<br />
+49 6142 177 68 0<br />
E-Mail:<br />
contact@uelzener-ums.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.uelzener-ums.de<br />
<strong>04</strong>.<strong>04</strong> RefractoryBuilding<br />
▼ Maintenance of RefractoryLinings 1462<br />
GTP Schäfer GmbH<br />
41515 Grevenbroich, Germany<br />
+49 2181 23394-0 7 +49 2181 23394-55<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@gtp-schaefer.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.gtp-schaefer.com<br />
▼ Silica Sands 3720<br />
STROBEL QUARZSAND GmbH<br />
Freihungsand, 92271 Freihung, Germany<br />
+49 9646 9201-0 7 +49 9646 9201-701<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@strobel-quarzsand.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.strobel-quarzsand.de<br />
UELZENER Maschinen GmbH<br />
Stahlstr.26-28, 65428 Rüsselsheim, Germany<br />
+49 6142 177 68 0<br />
E-Mail:<br />
contact@uelzener-ums.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.uelzener-ums.de<br />
UELZENER Maschinen GmbH<br />
Stahlstr.26-28, 65428 Rüsselsheim, Germany<br />
+49 6142 177 68 0<br />
E-Mail:<br />
contact@uelzener-ums.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.uelzener-ums.de<br />
09.<strong>04</strong> Mould and Core Coating<br />
▼ Blackings, in general 4270<br />
<strong>04</strong>.02 RefractoryMaterials (Shaped and Non Shaped)<br />
▼ Refractories, in general 1<strong>04</strong>0<br />
05 Non-metal Raw Materials and Auxiliaries for<br />
Melting Shop<br />
05.<strong>04</strong> Carburization Agents<br />
▼ Coke Breeze, Coke-Dust 1680<br />
ARISTON Formstaub-WerkeGmbH &Co. KG<br />
Worringerstr.255, 45289 Essen, Germany<br />
+49 201 57761 7 +49 201 570648<br />
Internet:<br />
www.ariston-essen.de<br />
EIKA, S.COOP<br />
Urresolo 47, 48277 Etxebarria<br />
+34 946 16 77 32<br />
Internet:<br />
Spain<br />
E-Mail:<br />
aagirregomezkorta@isoleika.es<br />
Internet:<br />
www.isoleika.es<br />
ARISTON Formstaub-WerkeGmbH &Co. KG<br />
Worringerstr.255, 45289 Essen, Germany<br />
+49 201 57761 7 +49 201 570648<br />
Internet:<br />
www.ariston-essen.de<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 59
SUPPLIERS GUIDE<br />
09.06 Moulding Sands Testing<br />
▼ Moisture Testing Equipment for Moulding Sand 4410<br />
▼ Scales and Weighing Control 4590<br />
▼ Exothermic Mini-Feeders 5400<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str.50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
▼ Moulding Sand Testing Equipment, in general 4420<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str. 50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
10.<strong>04</strong> Sand Reconditioning<br />
▼ Sand Coolers 4720<br />
GTPSchäfer GmbH<br />
41515 Grevenbroich, Germany<br />
+49 2181 23394-0 7 +49 2181 23394-55<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@gtp-schaefer.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.gtp-schaefer.com<br />
▼ Exothermic Feeder Sleeves 5420<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str.50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
10 Sand Conditioning and Reclamation<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str. 50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
12 Gating and Feeding<br />
GTPSchäfer GmbH<br />
41515 Grevenbroich, Germany<br />
+49 2181 23394-0 7 +49 2181 23394-55<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@gtp-schaefer.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.gtp-schaefer.com<br />
▼ Exothermic Feeding Compounds 5430<br />
10.01 Moulding Sand Conditioning<br />
▼ Aerators for Moulding Sand Ready-to-Use 4470<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str.50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
▼ Sand Preparation Plants and Machines 4480<br />
▼ Covering Agents 5320<br />
Refratechnik Steel GmbH<br />
Refratechnik Casting GmbH<br />
Am Seestern 5, 40547 Düsseldorf, Germany<br />
+49 211 5858-0<br />
E-Mail:<br />
steel@refra.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.refra.com<br />
▼ Breaker Cores 5340<br />
GTPSchäfer GmbH<br />
41515 Grevenbroich, Germany<br />
+49 2181 23394-0 7 +49 2181 23394-55<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@gtp-schaefer.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.gtp-schaefer.com<br />
13 Casting Machines and Equipment<br />
13.02 Die Casting and Accessories<br />
▼ Diecasting Lubricants 5670<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str.50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
▼ Mixers 4520<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str.50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
▼ Sand Mixers 4550<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str.50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
▼ Aerators 4560<br />
GTPSchäfer GmbH<br />
41515 Grevenbroich, Germany<br />
+49 2181 23394-0 7 +49 2181 23394-55<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@gtp-schaefer.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.gtp-schaefer.com<br />
▼ Exothermic Products 5360<br />
GTPSchäfer GmbH<br />
41515 Grevenbroich, Germany<br />
+49 2181 23394-0 7 +49 2181 23394-55<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@gtp-schaefer.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.gtp-schaefer.com<br />
▼ Insulating Sleeves 5375<br />
GTPSchäfer GmbH<br />
41515 Grevenbroich, Germany<br />
+49 2181 23394-0 7 +49 2181 23394-55<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@gtp-schaefer.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.gtp-schaefer.com<br />
Chem-Trend (Deutschland) GmbH<br />
Robert-Koch-Str.27, 22851 Norderstedt, Germany<br />
+49 40 52955-0 7 +49 40 52955-2111<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service@chemtrend.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.chemtrend.com<br />
▼ Diecasting Parting Agents 5680<br />
Chem-Trend (Deutschland) GmbH<br />
Robert-Koch-Str.27, 22851 Norderstedt, Germany<br />
+49 40 52955-0 7 +49 40 52955-2111<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service@chemtrend.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.chemtrend.com<br />
▼ Hydraulic Cylinders 5750<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str.50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
HYDROPNEU GmbH<br />
Sudetenstr.,73760 Ostfildern, Germany<br />
+49 711 342999-0 7 +49 711 342999-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@hydropneu.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.hydropneu.de<br />
60
▼ Piston Lubricants 5790<br />
▼ Ageing Furnaces 7401<br />
▼ Hearth Bogie Type Furnaces 7525<br />
Chem-Trend (Deutschland) GmbH<br />
Robert-Koch-Str.27, 22851 Norderstedt, Germany<br />
+49 40 52955-0 7 +49 40 52955-2111<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service@chemtrend.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.chemtrend.com<br />
▼ Parting Agents for Dies 5850<br />
LOI Thermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
▼ Annealing and Hardening Furnaces 7430<br />
LOI Thermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
18 Plant, Transport, Stock, and Handling<br />
Engineering<br />
Chem-Trend (Deutschland) GmbH<br />
Robert-Koch-Str.27, 22851 Norderstedt, Germany<br />
+49 40 52955-0 7 +49 40 52955-2111<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service@chemtrend.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.chemtrend.com<br />
▼ DryLubricants (Beads) 5865<br />
Chem-Trend (Deutschland) GmbH<br />
Robert-Koch-Str.27, 22851 Norderstedt, Germany<br />
+49 40 52955-0 7 +49 40 52955-2111<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service@chemtrend.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.chemtrend.com<br />
▼ Multi-StageVacuum Process 5876<br />
LOI Thermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
▼ Solution Annealing Furnaces 7455<br />
LOI Thermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
▼ Annealing Furnaces 7490<br />
18.01 Continuous Conveyors and Accessories<br />
▼ VibratoryMotors 7980<br />
FRIEDRICH Schwingtechnik GmbH<br />
Am Höfgen 24, 42781 Haan, Germany<br />
+49 2129 3790-0 7 +49 2129 3790-37<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@friedrich-schwingtechnik.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.friedrich-schwingtechnik.de<br />
20 Control Systems and Automation<br />
20.01 Control and Adjustment Systems<br />
▼ Automation and Control for Sand Preparation 9030<br />
Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH<br />
35614 Asslar,Germany<br />
+49 6441 802-1190 7 +49 6441 802-1199<br />
E-Mail:<br />
andreas.wuerz@pfeiffer-vacuum.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.pfeiffer-vacuum.de<br />
17 Surface Treatment and Drying<br />
LOI Thermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
▼ Quenching and Tempering Furnaces 7510<br />
Maschinenfabrik GustavEirichGmbH &CoKG<br />
Walldürner Str.50, 74736 Hardheim, Germany<br />
Internet:<br />
www.eirich.de<br />
20.02 Measuring and Control Instruments<br />
▼ Immersion Thermo Couples 9230<br />
▼ Heat Treatment and Drying 7398<br />
Gebr.Löcher Glüherei GmbH<br />
Mühlenseifen 2, 57271 Hilchenbach, Germany<br />
+49 2733 8968-0 7 +49 2733 8968-10<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loecher-glueherei.de<br />
LOI Thermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
▼ HeatTreating Furnaces 7520<br />
MINKON GmbH<br />
Heinrich-Hertz-Str.30-32, 40699 Erkrath, Germany<br />
+49 211 209908-0 7 +49 211 209908-90<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@minkon.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.minkon.de<br />
▼ Laser Measurement Techniques 9310<br />
17.01 Plants and Furnaces<br />
▼ Tempering Furnaces 7400<br />
LOIThermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
LOI Thermoprocess GmbH<br />
45141 Essen/Germany<br />
+49 201 1891-1<br />
E-Mail:<br />
service-loi@tenova.com<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loi.tenova.com<br />
POLYTEC GmbH<br />
76337 Waldbronn, Germany<br />
+49 7243 6<strong>04</strong>-0 7 +49 7243 69944<br />
E-Mail:<br />
Lm@polytec.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.polytec.de<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 61
SUPPLIERS GUIDE<br />
▼ Positioning Control 9345<br />
▼ Simulation Software 9522<br />
27 Consulting and Service<br />
▼ Machining 11292<br />
POLYTEC GmbH<br />
76337 Waldbronn, Germany<br />
+49 7243 6<strong>04</strong>-0 7 +49 7243 69944<br />
E-Mail:<br />
Lm@polytec.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.polytec.de<br />
▼ Temperature Measurement 9380<br />
MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH<br />
Kackertstr.11, 52072 Aachen, Germany<br />
+49 241 88901-0 7 +49 241 88901-60<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@magmasoft.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.magmasoft.com<br />
22 Analysis Technique and LaboratoryEquipment<br />
▼ Sampling Systems 9970<br />
Behringer GmbH<br />
Maschinenfabrik und Eisengiesserei<br />
Postfach:<br />
1153, 74910 Kirchardt, Germany<br />
+49 7266 207-0 7 +49 7266 207-500<br />
Internet:<br />
www.behringer.net<br />
▼ Simulation Services 11310<br />
MINKON GmbH<br />
Heinrich-Hertz-Str.30-32, 40699 Erkrath, Germany<br />
+49 211 209908-0 7 +49 211 209908-90<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@minkon.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.minkon.de<br />
▼ ThermalAnalysis Equipment 9400<br />
MINKON GmbH<br />
Heinrich-Hertz-Str.30-32, 40699 Erkrath, Germany<br />
+49 211 209908-0 7 +49 211 209908-90<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@minkon.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.minkon.de<br />
24 Environmental Protection and Disposal<br />
MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH<br />
Kackertstr.11, 52072 Aachen, Germany<br />
+49 241 88901-0 7 +49 241 88901-60<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@magmasoft.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.magmasoft.com<br />
▼ HeatTreatment 11345<br />
MINKON GmbH<br />
Heinrich-Hertz-Str.30-32, 40699 Erkrath, Germany<br />
+49 211 209908-0 7 +49 211 209908-90<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@minkon.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.minkon.de<br />
▼ Thermo Couples 9410<br />
MINKON GmbH<br />
Heinrich-Hertz-Str.30-32, 40699 Erkrath, Germany<br />
+49 211 209908-0 7 +49 211 209908-90<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@minkon.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.minkon.de<br />
20.03 Data Acquisition and Processing<br />
▼ Numerical Solidification Analysis and Process<br />
Simulation 9500<br />
MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH<br />
Kackertstr.11, 52072 Aachen, Germany<br />
+49 241 88901-0 7 +49 241 88901-60<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@magmasoft.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.magmasoft.com<br />
▼ Numerical Solidification Simulation and Process<br />
Optimization 9502<br />
▼ Waste Disposal, Repreparation, and Utilization 24.03<br />
Remondis Production GmbH -LEGRAN<br />
Brunnenstraße 138 ,44536 Lünen<br />
+49 2306 106 8831<br />
Internet:<br />
Germany<br />
E-Mail:<br />
yannik.droste@remondis.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.legran.de<br />
26 Other Products for Casting Industry<br />
26.02 Industrial Commodities<br />
▼ Joints,Asbestos-free 11120<br />
MINKON GmbH<br />
Heinrich-Hertz-Str.30-32, 40699 Erkrath, Germany<br />
+49 211 209908-0 7 +49 211 209908-90<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@minkon.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.minkon.de<br />
▼ Sealing and Insulating Products up to 1260 øC 11125<br />
Gebr.Löcher Glüherei GmbH<br />
Mühlenseifen 2, 57271 Hilchenbach, Germany<br />
+49 2733 8968-0 7 +49 2733 8968-10<br />
Internet:<br />
www.loecher-glueherei.de<br />
28 Castings<br />
▼ Aluminium Pressure Diecasting 11390<br />
Schött Druckguß GmbH<br />
Aluminium Die Casting<br />
Postfach:<br />
2766, 58687 Menden, Germany<br />
+49 2373 1608-0 7 +49 2373 1608-110<br />
E-Mail:<br />
vertrieb@schoett-druckguss.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.schoett-druckguss.de<br />
▼ Rolled Wire 11489<br />
Behringer GmbH<br />
Maschinenfabrik und Eisengiesserei<br />
Postfach:<br />
1153, 74910 Kirchardt, Germany<br />
+49 7266 207-0 7 +49 7266 207-500<br />
Internet:<br />
www.behringer.net<br />
▼ Spheroidal Iron 11540<br />
MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH<br />
Kackertstr.11, 52072 Aachen, Germany<br />
+49 241 88901-0 7 +49 241 88901-60<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@magmasoft.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.magmasoft.com<br />
MINKON GmbH<br />
Heinrich-Hertz-Str.30-32, 40699 Erkrath, Germany<br />
+49 211 209908-0 7 +49 211 209908-90<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@minkon.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.minkon.de<br />
Behringer GmbH<br />
Maschinenfabrik und Eisengiesserei<br />
Postfach:<br />
1153, 74910 Kirchardt, Germany<br />
+49 7266 207-0 7 +49 7266 207-500<br />
Internet:<br />
www.behringer.net<br />
62
30 Data Processing Technology<br />
31 Foundries<br />
▼ Mold Filling and Solidification Simulation 11700<br />
31.01 Iron, Steel, and Malleable-Iron Foundries<br />
▼ Iron Foudries 11855<br />
MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH<br />
Kackertstr.11, 52072 Aachen, Germany<br />
+49 241 88901-0 7 +49 241 88901-60<br />
E-Mail:<br />
info@magmasoft.de<br />
Internet:<br />
www.magmasoft.com<br />
Behringer GmbH<br />
Maschinenfabrik und Eisengiesserei<br />
Postfach:<br />
1153, 74910 Kirchardt, Germany<br />
+49 7266 207-0 7 +49 7266 207-500<br />
Internet:<br />
www.behringer.net<br />
Internet:<br />
IndextoCompanies<br />
Company Product Company Product<br />
ARISTON Formstaub-Werke 1680, 4270<br />
GmbH &Co. KG<br />
BEHRINGER GmbH 11292, 11489, 11540, 11855<br />
Maschinenfabrik&Eisengießerei<br />
Chem Trend (Deutschland) GmbH 5670, 5680, 5790, 5850, 5865<br />
Maschinenfabrik 4410, 4420, 4470, 4480, 4520,<br />
Gustav Eirich GmbH u. Co KG 4550, 4560, 4590, 4720, 9030<br />
Friedrich Schwingtechnik GmbH 7980<br />
GTP Schäfer<br />
Giesstechnische Produkte GmbH 5400, 5420, 5430<br />
HYDROPNEU GmbH 5750<br />
EIKA, S.COOP 1<strong>04</strong>0, 1130, 1220<br />
LOI Thermprocess GmbH 630, 700, 7400, 7401, 7430,<br />
7455, 7490, 7510, 7520, 7525<br />
MAGMA Gießereitechnologie GmbH 9500, 9502, 9522, 11310, 11700<br />
MINKON GmbH 9230, 9380, 9400, 9410, 9970,<br />
Geschäftsleitung 11120, 11125<br />
Pfeiffer Vacuum GmbH 3223, 5876<br />
Polytec GmbH 9310, 9345<br />
Refratechnik Steel GmbH 1<strong>04</strong>0, 5320<br />
Schött-Druckguß GmbH 11390<br />
Strobel Quarzsand GmbH 3720<br />
Uelzener Maschinen GmbH 930, 950, 1240, 1462<br />
REMONDIS Production GmbH 24<br />
Gebr.Löcher Glüherei 3630, 3645, 5340, 5360, 5375,<br />
GmbH 7398, 11345<br />
Click here for the product list:<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 63
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64
INTERNATIONAL FAIRS AND CONGRESSES<br />
Fairs and Congresses<br />
Euroguss 2022<br />
January, 18-20, 2022, Nuremberg, Germany<br />
www.euroguss.de/en<br />
GIFA Southeast Asia 2022<br />
February, 9-11, 2022, Bangkok, Thailand<br />
www.gifa-southeastasia.com/<br />
LightCon<br />
June, 1-2, 2022 Hannover, Germany<br />
www.lightcon.info/en<br />
6. Conference „Steels in Cars and Trucks”<br />
June, 19-23, 2022, Milano, Italy<br />
www.sct-2022.com<br />
CastForge<br />
June, 21-23, 2022, Stuttgart, Germany<br />
www.messe-stuttgart.de/castforge/en<br />
Zinc Die Casting Conference –Europe<br />
October, 5-7, 2022, Koblenz, Germany<br />
www.zinc.org/2020-zinc-die-casting-conference-europe<br />
Advertisers‘ Index<br />
AAGM Aalener Gießereimaschinen GmbH,<br />
Bopfingen/Germany<br />
Inside Back Cover<br />
AGTOS Gesellschaft für technische Oberflächensysteme<br />
mbH, Emsdetten/Germany 25<br />
Bühler AG, Uzwil/Switzerland 19<br />
Can-Eng. Furnaces <strong>International</strong> Ltd.,<br />
Niagara Falls/Canada 56<br />
DISA Industries A/S,Taastrup/Denmark 23<br />
Hannover-Messe Ankiros Fuarcilik A.S.,<br />
Ankara/Turkey 53<br />
Indian Foundry Congress, Kolkata/India 29<br />
Jasper Gesellschaft für Energiewirtschaft<br />
und Kybernetik mbH, Geseke/Germany Back Cover<br />
NürnbergMesse GmbH, Nuremberg/Germany Title, 21<br />
O.M.LER S.r.l., Bra (CN)/Italy 39<br />
Quaker Houghton,<br />
Coventry/Great Britain<br />
Inside Front Cover<br />
Regloplas, St. Gallen/Switzerland 49<br />
voxeljet AG, Friedberg/Germany 43<br />
CASTING PLANT &TECHNOLOGY 4/<strong>2021</strong> 65
PREVIEW/IMPRINT<br />
Heititec Oy, anew company from<br />
Finland, produces new parts within<br />
aweek. Story about the processes<br />
and philosophy of work in this<br />
foundry.<br />
Photo: voxeljet<br />
Preview of the next issue<br />
Selection oftopics:<br />
Anew all modern foundry in Finnland<br />
The story is about the all new foundry Hetitec Oy, one of the quickest und most modern foundrys in Europe. Hetitec is well<br />
known for its printed-casting-technology which is able to produce, finish and deliver parts within aweek. The story includes an<br />
example of this quick work.<br />
Improvement of core making equipment though analysis of the core making process<br />
Core-making process research was carried out and concludes that shortening the standby time of the core sand (referred to as<br />
uncured mixture of sand and binder) can reduce the fluctuation of the sand core quality. Controlling sand temperature is most<br />
important. The layout and functions of the equipment are rearranged by developing an integrated core-making unit—MiCC.<br />
An startup-example of traditionell sandcast<br />
Ventano is anew Germanbrand with just 20 employees. They produce door fittingsfor oldbuildings frombrass, made in traditionell<br />
sandcast –whichisademanding and increasing market in Germany.Indianworkers still havethe skills and so Ventano produces in India.<br />
Imprint<br />
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German Foundry Association<br />
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66
AAGM Aalener<br />
Gießereimaschinen GmbH<br />
> Durchlaufwirbelmischer > Regenerierungsanlagen<br />
für kaltharzgebundene Formsande > Formanlagen<br />
Durchlaufwirbelmischer 8-30t/h, Doppelgelenk<br />
Technische Daten des Durchlaufwirbelmischer<br />
Ausführung:<br />
Doppelgelenk<br />
Geometrie: Hintere Transportschnecke 3,5m<br />
Wirbelmischer 2,3m<br />
Leistung:<br />
8-30t/h<br />
Auslaufhöhe: 1,73m<br />
Medien:<br />
Furanharz (2 Komponenten), 2 Sandsorten<br />
Zubehör:<br />
Vollautom. Durchflußregelung Bindemittel,<br />
Temperaturabhängige Härterdosierung,<br />
Dosierdrucküberwachung Bindemittel,<br />
Auffangwannen mit integriertem Tagesbehälter<br />
www.aagm.de<br />
Gewerbehof 28<br />
D-73441 Bopfingen<br />
Tel.: +49 7362 956037-0<br />
Fax: +49 7362 956037-10<br />
Email: info@aagm.de
Your Partner for:<br />
Melting<br />
Casting<br />
Homogenising<br />
Drying<br />
Burner Systems<br />
Regenerators<br />
Illustrations:<br />
Steel Kettle Furnace<br />
Water Cooling (small picture)<br />
ZK Know-How<br />
by Jasper GmbH<br />
Setting The Standards For Highest<br />
Efficiency In Thermal Processing<br />
JASPER<br />
Gesellschaft für Energiewirtschaft<br />
und<br />
Kybernetik mbH<br />
Bönninghauser Str. 10<br />
59590 Geseke<br />
Germany<br />
Phone: +49 2942 9747 0<br />
Website: www.jasper-gmbh.de<br />
E-Mail: info@jasper-gmbh.de