“We felt it was important to get
into one area to use the tools we have together,” Gerstmeier said. “Now we have just one area to store gates for remelt and one guy controlling the melt- ing process and quality of the metal.” Gerstmeier said viewing the shop- floor as a clean slate was necessary to move the melting area into one loca- tion and still provide good workflow. AFW moved its pattern storage to make the transition work. “One of the things we’d get stuck
on is where everything was already,” he said. “You have to look at it like a blank slate. Metal is the nucleus of what you are doing, and we needed to place it close to our production cells.” AFW was melting with two large
Stotek crucible furnaces and one Stotek stack melter. Te metal was prepped and degassed and chemis- try was checked within the furnaces before it was poured straight into the molds. A large part of the day, the furnace was sitting idle—holding the melt for production rather than melt- ing charge material. In 2010, AFW incorporated elec-
tric transfer ladles from Termtronix into its operation.
Before incorporating electric transfer ladles into its melting operation, AFW poured its molds directly from the furnace. Now the metalcaster autopours from transfer ladles.
“AFW’s aluminum shop is unique
in its innovative use of five large capacity solid state electric melting transport ladles,” said Bob Nealon, Termtronix Corp. “AFW is able to melt, prepare its metal, degas and hold high quality aluminum under ideal conditions and pour directly into its molds with no intermediate transfers.” Melt treatment is now conducted on the smaller ladle batches
rather than the larger furnaces. “We can monitor and hold the
temperature in the ladles,” Gerstmeier said. “We control the metal bath, degas and test for specific gas levels and chemistry. We are able to isolate that 1,200 lbs. of metal [for quality] while still melting in the larger furnaces.” According to Gerstmeier, the
upheaval in AFW’s old process flow was worth the effort to ultimately determine the most efficient way to melt metal and pour its molds. “You have to look past what is
already in your building,” he said. “Tink about if you were to start fresh today, where would it make the most sense to place your melt.”
Benton Foundry’s Thoughtful Approach
Logistics has been the driving
force behind capacity expansions at iron caster Benton Foundry, Benton, Pa., over the last three decades. As the green sand molder has increased its melting capacity to match increased molding capacity, each step has been conducted with work and material flow in mind.
ONLINE RESOURCE
Proper dust and fume collection is critical to maintaining a safe and healthy work environment in the melting department.
Visit
www.moderncasting.com for a melting must-haves crossword puzzle.
April 2012 MODERN CASTING | 19
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