Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 10

Contact: STEVE HARKER [email protected] As a post script to the above; the Darby family was involved with the Coalbrookdale foundry for over 200 years but in the 1920’s it was incorporated into a large foundry group. This set a trend with ownership passing from one group to another. In 2015 Coalbrookdale Aga was bought by another international group. By cruel irony what made Coalbrookdale good as a foundry location for Abraham Darby now counted against it. The coal seams being exhausted long ago and the picturesque but isolated location making it impossible to switch to electric melting. In November 2017, the new owners deemed the Coalbrookdale foundry uneconomical and it was closed down. As a protest the final shift hung their foundry boots on the foundry gates. Special note: Coalbrookdale photo by kind permission of Edward Lindsay FICME 20 I understand that it takes a couple of minutes to achieve an accurate and steady temperature reading but once this state is reached, the probe will give an accurate temperature reading as long as it is immersed in metal. Temperature readings can be logged for analysis. Acetarc has manufactured several ladles with the probe prep fitted and have also fitted probe preps on a number of existing ladles. Ladles have ranged in capacity from 2000 lb up to 40,0000 lb. So far all have been bottom pour type. Fitting a probe prep to an existing ladle, while not a problem, is obviously impractical for customers who are overseas. However incorporating a probe prep on a new ladle only adds a small amount to the ladle cost and effectively makes the ladle ready if a foundry wants to take up this option at a later date. If the foundry doesn’t initially want to fit a Heraeus probe, then the prep is simply capped off. Weir Minerals (UK) has introduced the Heraeus probe and are very pleased with the results. They say that they get a far more accurate measurement of the metal temperature, when compared to the standard pyrometer, which has allowed them to pour within tighter temperature tolerances, with all the associated advantages. The foundry has now moved from having the probe fitted to an initial test ladle to fitting them to all of their most frequently used ladles. They view the improved safety of the operator just as important as the improved accuracy of the temperature measurement.