Driving down component turnaround time whereas improving high quality and decreasing waste is being achieved at Weir Minerals Africa’s exciting new Replicast Plant in Isando, Gauteng.
Umar Smith, plant manager at Weir Minerals Africa’s Isando facility, highlights that the progressive development permits the corporate to produce more parts at a time – and more quickly. เกจวัดแก๊สlpg will assist in meeting growing buyer demand, while additionally lowering rework and wastage.
“As a part of our Project Vuka, this new plant allows us to forged multiple small components per batch quite than just one by one,” says Smith. “We can even cut back our knock-out times from days to simply a couple of hours.”
The state-of-the-art amenities allow Weir Minerals Africa to cast excessive chrome elements weighing up to 250 kg. There are two phases to the new course of, he explains, which uses polystyrene to create moulds. The first phase is the polystyrene moulding course of, which happens after the polystyrene beads have been expanded. The second part is where the ramming, pouring and demoulding takes place.
In distinction to the normal moulding line – where resin and catalyst are used to bind sand – the Replicast Plant makes use of silica sand of 30-35 AFS grade together with the polystyrene mould, he says. The system involves a vacuum bin, from which all the air is eliminated to compress the sand.
“The absence of resin and catalyst – in addition to having no clamping process – leads to less scrap being produced, and due to this fact brings operational financial savings,” he says. “The quality of castings is also raised, with a better floor end and fewer defects.”
He notes that the geometrical stability of parts is improved, as there is much less fettling of the finished product thereby reducing dimensional variation between the identical elements. This in flip contributes to the reliability of the tools utilizing those parts. He says the foundry will also realise significant environmental benefits as a end result of using no chemicals within the sand.
“This new plant aligns nicely with our company sustainability objectives, ensuring that our processes aren’t solely compliant but repeatedly cut back our environmental impression,” says Smith. “Our new moulding systems make positive that fewer gases are emitted in the course of the casting course of, and there are zero emissions of dangerous substances similar to benzene.”
The new know-how is also resulting in less frequent disposal of silica sand, and the sand itself is extra environmentally friendly as it contains no resin or acid.
“A exceptional side of developing this new plant was the truth that it was accomplished with our native abilities and largely through the COVID-19 lockdowns,” he says. “Despite the novelty of this expertise, and the logistical challenges created by the pandemic, it was successfully applied on time and within finances.”
The plant consists of more than sixteen,000 individual parts, and makes use of over 1,900 m of cabling, 300 m of water piping and 55 tons of steel.
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