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adding a new molding line, even if it’s not on the agenda yet. “When you start getting upwards of 130 molds per hour or more, your manual pouring operator would be getting tired,” Conrad said. For job shops, many automated molding machines are designed specifically for hand ladling, as it has been thought to be hard to economi- cally justify autopouring. “In some situations, hands are tied in making an economical system based on mold handling,” Pflug said. “Weight and contraptions over the top of the mold don’t lend themselves well to automation.” Calculating the return on invest-


ment will depend on the level of automation used, the value that the added quality gives to the castings, and production rate. Incorporating automation and control in pouring can reduce scrap, labor and energy costs, which will have to be weighed against the cost of the equipment. Kozman said metalcasting facilities should check for local energy grants where utilities offer incentives to save kw usage in return for money to invest in the capital improvements. “Most people change lights, but


energy is the biggest cost a foundry or diecaster has,” he said. “Improving your furnace and pouring can result in huge energy savings.” Kozman said a lot of variables go


into calculating ROI, but many com- panies see payback on an autoladle and furnace inside of 12 months. Conrad offers two main aspects


of a pouring operation to study when contemplating automation: safety record and overpours. “Te first and foremost thing to


consider is you are taking the opera- tor out of a dangerous situation,” Conrad said. “Ten I’d tell people to calculate how much metal their best pourer is leaving at the top of the mold at pouring.” Tat calculation should help deter- mine the cost feasibility of investing in automating pouring. If the case is made for autopouring, the facil- ity’s best pourer will be integral in programming the automated ladle for a perfect pour every time.


Dosing furnaces as shown above can be used to feed molds directly and can be used in green sand facilities (left) and permanent mold and diecasting plants.


In many cases, autopouring will not be an economic or logistic fit for job shop facilities. But, Pflug noted a few low-cost options do exist for those jobbing facilities who have a need for higher quality castings or the desire to eliminate the hazardous job of manual pouring. “A job shop may not have high speed or volume production but still wants to increase the accuracy of pouring, reduce costs and remove people from a hazardous area of the foundry,” Pflug said. “If they just are getting into automating, they might incorporate a ladle that is driven, where the operator stands back and interacts with the control. It does not fully automate the process, but it is something a job shop can do with a low impact on cost.” Green sand molding manufactur-


ers also are starting to work with furnace and pouring system designers to incorporate automation. “In many cases, it makes sense


to change the pouring when the molding line also is changing,” Pflug said. “Moving forward, we see better opportunities for people starting with new molding machines.” In high production facilities and


markets, demand for better control is evident as structural castings become more common. “Suspension parts and subframes are more and more common in aluminum,” Brown said. “Structural castings are difficult to make without tight control, and that is the direction the U.S. metalcasting facilities are going.”


The pace of automation in pour-


ing in competing countries, such as China, is another indicator of a growing demand for higher quality castings. “It comes down to repeatability,


control and scrap,” Conrad said. “We are selling units overseas like crazy, especially because of the need for quality parts.” While the pouring methods have


not changed dramatically over the years, the technology to process information and relay it back to the equipment has improved, leading to better methods for control. “A manufacturer of safety critical


components can use visual cameras to log pours, overpours, short pours and temperature,” Pflug said. “Tis is something that was more of a lab tool in the past but now can be used in production. We are working with molding manufacturers to put the whole thing into a package to better control the process.” An influx of international com- panies purchasing and building new casting facilities in North America has brought with them their own countries’ preferences for running production, as well. “Te way they are approaching this


is to do everything they can to elimi- nate labor, including in the pouring area,” Kozman said. “I’m an advocate of this industry going out and seeing the rest of the world and how they operate. More can be done to cut down labor in order to build the U.S. casting industry.”


February 2015 MODERN CASTING | 37


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