Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 6

As a supplier of foundry equipment, we are constantly approached by customers to provide a means of increasing capacity and capability for their molding and reclamation systems. In order to be most cost-effective, it is often desired to use existing pieces of equipment that the customer may already have in their facility. With many pieces of foundry equipment and the abuse that they are required to endure, we often find that the mechanical aspects of the machine were designed so heavy duty that they are still in good working order, but that the controls have long since fallen from the technological cutting edge. With proper planning and research, it is possible to take an existing piece of equipment and upgrade the controls to allow it to meet the newly established production requirements. A couple examples are: Case Study #1 A foundry in Indiana has existing mixers that were plagued with resin flow inconsistencies. In addition to this, they were struggling with manpower, scheduling, and general oversight of processes that are also operator controlled such as multiple resin storage locations, running out of resin while molding, and inability to swap resin supplies in a quick timeframe. Our solution: • Remove the existing control panels and pumping systems from the existing mixers • Install new mixer control packages with pumping system and mass flow resin monitoring systems on each mixer • Install a Bulk Resin Distribution System that would allow resin to be stored in a single location and the resin to be pumped in small batches to a daytank at the final point of use Case Study #2 A foundry in Wisconsin had an issue with operators making molds from sand at resin levels that did not meet customer requirements and also an excessive amount of waste sand being struck off the pattern after filling. Our solution: • Remove the existing control panel and pumping systems from the mixer • Install a new control panel and pumping system on the mixer with RFID recipe and batching technology In this case, the controls were upgraded so that the customer fitted an RFID tag onto each pattern. The system would provide functionality for RFID tag control for each core/mold box, recipe system, a production queue and control of the existing mixer. Prior to production start, the setup person would select the required core parts to be manufactured from a list on the HMI Touchscreen to setup a production queue. The production queue could list up to 8 parts to be manufactured on the existing loop. The pattern recipe system would include a setup screen for management of mixer settings including fill time, resin level, compaction force, and compaction time per core/mold part number. The recipe settings were all able to be monitored during production from the HMI touchscreen. RICH McNEELY National Sales Manager PALMER MANUFACTURING & SUPPLY, INC. ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS: 1. Considerations prior to upgrading equipment or systems controls 2. The importance of an Operational Description SYSTEMS INTEGRATION 14 HOWTOUPGRADE EQUIPMENT & SYSTEMS CONTROLS