Foundry plants

The mixing arm has a frame structure supporting two half shells, which form the mixing tube. These are split lengthways and are hinged at a single point behind the sand inlet. This opening arrangement gives easy access to the mixing shaft and blades for maintenance and cleaning. The mixing tube may be fitted with a removable wear lining. It has a mixer shaft with removable/interchangeable forged steel blades with tungsten carbide plates on every wear face.

In the mixers fitted with an articulated arm, the first arm consists of a structure which has a high speed transport belt. This enables the type of sand being fed, to be changed rapidly. Pneumatically controlled sand gates enable the sand supply to be controlled accurately. Simply pressing one button the system is able to change the type of sand, the rate of sand and choose different mixing of the sand.

Our renewed system allows us to inject immediately the binders in the mixing trough, without using a recycle-system circuit. The advantage of our circuit is that the pump will have a longer lifespan. The injectors have been designed with an air injection assist which guarantees an excellent degree of atomisation of the binder fluids and keeps the injectors clean. The metering pumps enable the feed rates to be varied according to the chemical system being used. They are controlled by individual variators or inverters, according to the application. They guarantee the required metering precision and assure repeatable results.

Fast Loop moulding and chemical hardening systems enable the best use to be made of the most modern binders, even those which harden very quickly. In Fast loop plants, the individual operations are carried out independently of one another. This means that the individual cycle time can be minimised, whilst conforming precisely to the time needed for the particular pattern in production. The plant layout is very flexible, this means that every plant can be adapted to the particular requirements of the customer’s production flow. The modular concept which we have applied, also means that there is excellent project adaptability to the foundry space available. The degree of automation can be varied widely to match it to the operating requirements.

The moulding system has 3 main areas: the mould preparation area, the moulding area and the mould stripping area. These areas are connected by transfer equipment, each of which operates independently in transferring the pattern plates to the nearest free sector for the next operation. It is possible to process 6 to 8 patterns with different dimensions at the same time. The system is completed by the auxiliary equipment for painting, for closing and by the moulding conveyors for the pouring and cooling lines, as well as by the shake-out area.

Motorized roller coneyors for moulding line, puoring line, cooling line.

Constituited by: main grid – special springs for support and vibration isolation– vibrator connected by shaft – material discharge.

The main grid is made by strong electro-welded steel. It easily breaks down moulds for castings’ recovery and also separates runners and risers for recycling. The upper surface of the grid may be flat, or spiked to assist in mould breakdown. It may also be sloped towards the casting recovery point to make casting removal easier.

Bolted grids can be supplied on request to easily replace component parts.

These are used when it is necessary to move the castings during shake-out. They enable castings to be discharged into carriers or removed with remote controlled manipulators. They have the same characteristics as standard machines and are available in several sizes.

These are different from the shake-out machines because they use vibratory motors instead of eccentrically loaded shafts. They are smaller machines and are more suited for “light” applications.

When the sand is very hot, a fluid bed sand cooler with a water cooled heat exchanger, is mounted under the shake-out machine. The heat exchanger water circulates to its own evaporative cooling tower. The cooled sand is conveyed pneumatically to the reclamation plant.

This mechanical foundry sand reclamation plant uses the grinding action between the sand grains to remove/reduce the resin film covering them.

These are simple operations, doing:

A) cleaning the sand grains; B) dust removal; C) final screening; D) cooling.

These four operations start at the shake-out and are completed in a vertical tower operating under suction through a sleeve filter. WSS sand reclamation plants can be used in any foundry for the reclamation of sands with any of the main chemical binders.

Constituited of main elements: gas plant – fluid bed calcination – cooling – extraction, process control. This simple and extremely efficient system guarantees: low operating costs, high quality reclaimed sand, low noxious emissions and a process always under control.

This system is particularly good for reclamation of the alkaline phenolic binders and for the furan, phenolic and polyurethane binders when the sand to metal ratio is unavoidably high.

Propulsor pneumatic transport, from 125 to 750 liters capacity, delivery up to 40 t/h. Completely automatic or manual operation to convey sand, bentonite, starch, cement and any type of dust from filters, with maximum temperatures up to 200° C. Operating with a reduced consumption of compressed air with pressure from 1 to 4.5 kg/cm2. Needs little maintenance. Tested according to PED standard. High quality components suitable for continuous operation in difficult environmental conditions.

The realization of pneumatic transportation is completed by: caplet valve – line booster – terminal box – electric panel – butterfly valve – slide gate valve – elbow sections – level probes – safety valves – felt sleeve filters - clapet valve – dome valve – silos

This simple device is used to manipulate and to rotate flasks of different dimensions along the trunnion axis. It greatly assists the operator in all flasks movements, it gives fast and safe operations. The manipulator hangs on a lifting device, usually a crane or a bridge crane. Two powered chains support and drive the unit moving independently along the main support beam. It is therefore easy to regulate the opening of the manipulator and to fit it to the different flask dimensions. The pocketed chain wheels are driven together by a splined driveshaft, along which they slide back an forth, creating a flask rotation.The electrical components to control the motors are positioned on board the manipulator for installation compactness. The operator controls the manipulator operations through a remote push-button panel, similar to those commonly used for the bridge cranes. As an alternative a radio control is available. There are different manipulator models, according to the required capacity and to the dimensions of the flasks to be handled.

It provides the clamping of moulds or flasks, according to the type of clamps fitted, for their lifting and rotation. The machine is used hanging on a lifting system. The clamp opening and closing are obtained by a hydraulic cylinder, whose clamping strength is adjustable, while a reducer hydraulic motor unit provides the clamp rotation in both directions.

All electric and hydraulic devices are assembled on board of the machine, requiring only a primary electric supply. The controls are gathered in a single easy to use push button panel. An optional movement device of the hanging hook is available to compensate possible imbalances due to the mould shape. The particular shape of the clamps and the compensating system guarantee a safe clamping also in case of electric supply cut off.

Robotics cells for moulds and flasks with max weight of 350-400 kg, allows different stages of the production cycle to be carried out in extremely reduced spaces. The robot, with a suitable gripper, manipulates falsks and moulds, positioning them in total autonomy in a hardening area, a painting area or in a drying and mould assembly area. At the end, the robot is managing the closing and the positioning on the casting line.

Tipically composed of a trellis structure for the product locartions and a stacker for the operation of picking and depositing the loading units. The vertical warehouse can be used either as a storage warehouse (plates, model, etc.) or as a cooling station or both at the same time.

WSS deburring systems, with single or multiple robot, have high flexibility and compactness. Depending on the processing requirements and/or the dimensions and the weight of the casting, the solutions are realized with the robot wrist tools and tool change stations, or solutions with workpiece handling and single fixed tool units. The cells can integrate various types of tools and processes including grinding (belt and disk), drilling, milling, rotary and alternate filing, punching, contouring etc. Loading and unloading operations can be managed with various solutions based on the customer's needs. Solutions with rotary table or conveyor belt and vision system are among the most common.

This program enables the overall productive process and individual machines to be precisely controlled. An easily used man/machine interface enables the working of the whole plant to be reviewed and process variables to be input/monitored. The individual machines’ performance can be checked directly and the production parameters adjusted. These management systems give a high degree of automation, speed the production processes and minimise faults.

Production data are stored in a database, which enables event analysis and data comparisons to help the production effectiveness.

The main software caracteristics are: Dynamic synoptic display ( the main process can herefore be examined in real-time ); Diagnostics function (enables machine states to be checked); Pattern tracking (dynamic display of the patterns in production on the plant); Pattern Database (holds all the data which identify each pattern together with the parameters for its production).