“Many of their parts are hand


tools, so they need an as-cast prod- uct that is perfect and must have the premier molding system out there,” he said. “Tey continuously reinvent themselves. Tat’s what makes their molding department unique.” According to Mayton, reinventing a


facility is not always easy. “We’re still working to get it just


right,” he said. LaFay said Rochester Metal Prod-


ucts, Rochester, Ind., which produces high volume automotive parts on both Hunter and Disa green sand lines, tweaks its sand mix as often as anyone in the industry. Tat’s critical for a company in a highly competitive market segment. “[Operations manager] Mike Slay-


don is one of those individuals that always wants the newest and latest and greatest,” LaFay said. “If there is a new additive, he wants to be on the leading edge. Even if his system is running well, he says ‘if it ain’t broke, break it.’” Several years ago, Rochester began incorporating causticized lignite into its sand system; now it’s moving into an entirely new technol- ogy for its Hunter molding line. “[Slaydon] is the same in the core


room,” LaFay said. “He just switched in one of the shops to [a new binder system] because he was looking for better performance criteria.”


New Technologies For Harrison Steel Castings Co.,


Attica, Ind., and Vice President Geoff Curtis, consistency is the name of the game for optimizing the molding and coremaking processes. “Te production and efficiency


with which we are able to make molds is equally important to final quality,” he said. “It’s the things we do in our system to make the same environment over and over again and how we main- tain our patterns and handle our cores.” When the company, which pro-


duces carbon and low/medium alloy steel castings in the nobake process, installed a thermal sand reclamation unit in 2003, it had to be certain its consistency wasn’t affected. Curtis said consistency actually improved. “New sand goes through expan-


sion in the mold,” he said. “Tat is a variable that needs to be dealt with. But once you have used it and it has gone through the expansion, you don’t have that movement of the sand grains [when it is reused].” Harrison Steel uses both mechani-


cal and thermal reclamation. Te thermal unit currently feeds only one of its molding lines, but the company is considering installing one on its second line in order to maintain consistency. Te effective use of reclamation


technology makes Harrison Steel one of the best in the country at molding and coremaking, according to LaFay. “Teir reclamation system is state


of the art,” he said. “Everything right now is about recovery and reclamation. Tey are the best in the U.S.” In addition to the process benefits,


the reclamation system at Harrison Steel reduces the amount of new sand the company must buy for its auto- mated and floor molding lines. “Tat is where I see a lot of the


growth in the industry,” LaFay said. “Tere is a shortage of raw materials.”


Quality and Cleanliness Whether you are a sand shop or a


permanent mold facility, one aspect of world-class metalcasters is common across the board—quality control and a clean work environment. Vondriska said making high quality products is one of the things that distinguishes


Urschel Laboratories, Valparaiso, Ind. “When they installed a nobake


system [in 2007], they researched it well,” he said. “It is efficient, the flow of the molds through the plant is good, it’s laid out well, and it’s a clean and nice looking system.” Te company spent $4.5 million


to install the new nobake line, which replaced its older green sand system. Urschel produces food cutting machin- ery and wanted equipment that would increase its speed and flexibility and give it the ability to make quality stainless steel parts for its in-house product line. “We didn’t build the nobake line to


save money, we did it to save custom- ers,” said Rick Urschel, vice president of operations. “Te process here is almost priceless. We didn’t have any other solu- tion, and if we did, it wasn’t a good one.” To find the solution it needed,


Urschel sought the opinion of a number of other metalcasters work- ing with stainless steel. It was also able to rent equipment to optimize its molding material. Today, Urschel uses the new line to make frequent pattern and metal changes, and the sand mixer installed with the system is capable of dispensing different recipes to each mold with the push of a button. Jarek Olszak, Laempe+Reich Corp.,


Trussville, Ala., agreed with Vondriska that cleanliness and facility layout are keys to maintaining best-in-class molding operations.


Urschel Laboratories values quality and flexibility over low cost production in its nobake plant. April 2012 MODERN CASTING | 23


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