CASTING INNOVATIONS
Up-To-Date Data Boosts Quality Assurance Neenah Foundry, a subsidiary of
Neenah Enterprises, Neenah, Wis., melts and processes 1,200 tons of iron a day. Producing that kind of vol- ume, the facility depends heavily on its quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) processes, specifically MeltLab thermal analysis and the Graphic Statistical Process Control (GSPC) system. MeltLab Systems, Winchester, Va., provides software to control many facility processes, with the GSPC system collecting, sharing and mining data while communicating test results to computers throughout the facility in real time. “I believe MeltLab is the best ther-
mal analysis software on the market right now for determining CE, carbon and silicon,” said Mike Riabov, former director of metallurgy and technical services. “It can give you the carbon equivalent in about 20 seconds.” Neenah first installed MeltLab
Neenah Foundry uses MeltLab analysis software and GSPC to share data across various departments.
and GSPC in its Plant 1 in 1989, and then expanded to include Plants 2 and 3 in the ’90s.
“Prior to GSPC, when it came to
sharing results, we basically had noth- ing,” said Frank Headington, corporate vice president of technology. “Once we added the GSPC system, it sped time up. As soon as the spectrometer samples are run and the spectrometer operator looks at it and hits send, it’s immediately processed. It shows up at all the melt centers. “Te lead man can see the cupola data and holding furnace data and see what the last analyses were, so he can use that recipe for the next treatment. Te GSPC led to better decision- making—better and timelier.” Neenah recently upgraded its
GSPC system to allow the facility’s two melt centers, five holding furnaces and five metal processing centers to communicate in real time. “GSPC has an excellent database,”
Headington said. “In addition to the chemistry, which is the primary ad- vantage of all this, all our metallurgical data, test bars and mechanical proper- ties are fed into the system as well.” Te MeltLab and GSPC sys-
tems can be customized to meet a metalcasting facility’s specific needs. Information can be collected from a number of locations, including spectrometers, sand controllers/mull- ers, Brinell stations, sand labs and melt
deck info centers. Visit
www.meltlab.com for more information.
50 | MODERN CASTING August 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68