Automatic coating preparation in automotive foundry
YEAR
2018
COMPANY
Afc Redon La Fonte Ardennaise (France)
EQUIPMENT INSTALLED IN THIS FOUNDRY
Itaca Hybrid, 2 x Itaca Vision, 2 x Itaca Stream Dual , Itaca Scale, 4 x Arena Dip tanks, Arena CPP.
Targets
Automatic coating preparation without operators
Coating consistency
Further Improvements
Lower cost for the coating
Smaller stock
Lower manpower cost
Some significant data
-60%
Cost saving for the coating
-20%
Manpower cost saving
-60%
Coating containers in stock
The Customer
Founded in 1947, l’Armoricaine de Fonderie le Châtelet (AFC) was one of the first foundries to obtain a license for the production of spheroidal graphite castings.
Vertical moulding was introduced in 1989 and electric furnaces were introduced in 2002 to enable the production of safety-critical parts. Joining La Fonte Ardennaise group in 2006, AFC is a complementary asset in terms of capacity and skills.
IN 2013 and 2014, AFC REDON, as first step, has replaced the existing 4 dip tanks at constant level with new ones produces by Proservicetech.
The main purpose was to filter the coating and to eliminate the sedimentation, for a more consistent features of their water-based coating.
The dip tanks have been designed to be easily movable from one core shooter to another one.
As next development, in 2018, the foundry asked to Proservicetech to develop a taylor made CPP Coating Preparation Plant to feed by gravity the dip tank with water – based coating automatically prepared without the need of operators.
Achievements
- Perfect consistency of the coating within set and strict ranges of acceptability.
- 50-60% coating cost reduction (from 10-12 containers/month to 4 containers/month). Before CPP the coating was delivered “ready to use”. Thanks to the CPP, they have minimized the quantity of water in the container as the water is automatically dosed by the Coating Preparation Plant CPP. The cost savings are mainly related to the cost reduction for transport and of the return of the empty containers and their cleaning.
- Stock of containers from 10-12 containers to 4 containers.
- Easy to clean and user-friendly
- No operators in touch with the coating
- -20% manpower savings, before used to control and prepare manually the coating.
