A renowned foundry in Germany decided in favour of a new plant from ConviTec GmbH. Both companies can look back on a long-standing and very successful cooperation. The equipment previously delivered to another location of the foundry has been operated most reliably for many years. This was also a reason why the company ConviTec was again entrusted with this project.
As part of a substantial expansion of the foundry, a new concept of cast treatment was developed. A casting cooler was built, which is designed more compactly and at the same time significantly reduces the energy consumption in comparison with the state-of-the-art. This was only possible because ConviTec used two new cooling air systems based on innovative flow engineering in order to operate the casting cooler without additional cooling air. Consequently, the foundry could avoid further investment and additional costs for the operation of a dedusting unit.
The installed plant consists of a shake-out station, a downstream sorting feeder, a casting cooler and a sorting feeder for sorting casts. In the first section of the plant, the hot cast is separated from the sand by a VARIO shake-out feeder. The shake-out parameters are automatically selected according to the moulding box. After that, a manipulator sorts out specific casts from the following conveyor belt. The remaining cast is then transported further. The casting cooler reliably ensures careful cooling of the cast. This casting cooler is one of the biggest coolers that has ever been installed in Europe and was customer-specifically developed and built for this application. The ventilators used are controlled by means of frequency converters. For this installation, this conventional method of cast cooling represents a “state-of-the-art” solution that shows its full capacity here. The acoustic limits could be achieved through an appropriately designed noise protection housing. After the casting cooler, the cast and return material are separated and sorted by hand or by another manipulator. This plant solution of a fully automatic cast cooling system convinces through substantially reduced energy consumption, a much better utilization of space, a shorter cooling time and a reduced amount of exhaust air compared to the usual offers on the market.
ConviTec’s scope of delivery also includes the new electric switch and control system which is in line with the modern requirements of future-proof equipment. In this respect, special attention was paid to needs-oriented energy consumption and modern communication technology.
This project is an excellent example of a complete solution for planning, manufacture, assembly and start-up and clearly shows ConviTec’s competence in foundry.
Figure 1: Cast transport
