Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 5

Contact: John Hall jhall@cmhmfg.com of the subset of projects subject to the constraint(s). • Automation in Permanent Mold Foundries The aluminum foundry indus- try could be poised for growth worldwide. With the massive shift in the automobile industry from iron to aluminum and other light alloys, for both ecological and eco- nomic reasons, foundries should be investing heavily in new machin- ery and automation. Traditional casting methods do not have the flexibility needed to cast wheels, engine/transmission components, structural components, and more complex parts with thinner walls. Robotics can play an important role in improving quality, consistency, and improving profits. Foundries are a complex and demanding environment towork in. The automation of specialized tasks requires detailedprocess know-how and the right hardware to handle castings and cores with power and precision. Such tasks include: • Core shooting/machine tending • Core assembling/gluing • Core cleaning • Core handling and placement • Die casting machine tending • Investment casting, dipping, and handling • Ingot handling/furnace tending • Ladling • Deburring/deflashing/degating • Premachining • Machine center tending • Inspection/x-ray/leak testing Labor saving is not the only advan- tage in robotic ladling. Automated ladling can reduce a metal caster’s material cost in two ways. • By creating products with greater metal integrity, less metal will be needed to be reworked, reducing wasted throughput time. • Robotics minimize the amount of spilled metal, by being able to pour more consistently than individuals who may tire as a grueling day wears on. For example, if a manufacturer pours 100 lbs. of metal an hour spilling 10% over the course of an eight hour shift, and operations run 24 hours/day, 365 days/year, a manufacturer can lose over 40 tons of metal per year – wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of metal.2 The following illustration is an example of an unmanned cylinder heat casting cell. Unmanned cells are more difficult to operate than manned cells because the most flexible and intelligent element has been removed, the human worker. Unmannedmust be able to operate without the human thinking and sensory system with zero defects. The cell must have the intelligence to make decisions and deal with variations that are common in the foundry. The cell consists of: • Two eight station rotary tables with cylinder head casting machines • One holding furnace • One pouring robot common to both tables • One core setting robot common to both tables • Two extraction robots • Two cooling tunnels • Two knockout machines • Two riser saws • Two casting exit conveyors 16