Driving down component turnaround time whereas enhancing quality and reducing waste is being achieved at Weir Minerals Africa’s thrilling new Replicast Plant in Isando, Gauteng.
Umar Smith, plant supervisor at Weir Minerals Africa’s Isando facility, highlights that the innovative growth allows the corporate to produce extra parts at a time – and extra rapidly. This will help in assembly rising buyer demand, while also reducing rework and wastage.
“As part of our Project Vuka, this new plant allows us to cast a quantity of small elements per batch somewhat than just one at a time,” says Smith. “We can even cut back our knock-out times from days to just a few hours.”
The state-of-the-art services enable Weir Minerals Africa to forged excessive chrome elements weighing as much as 250 kg. There are two phases to the model new process, he explains, which uses polystyrene to create moulds. The first phase is the polystyrene moulding process, which occurs after the polystyrene beads have been expanded. The second section is where the ramming, pouring and demoulding takes place.
In distinction to the standard moulding line – where resin and catalyst are used to bind sand – the Replicast Plant uses silica sand of 30-35 AFS grade together with the polystyrene mould, he says. The system includes a vacuum bin, from which all of the air is removed to compress the sand.
“The absence of resin and catalyst – as properly as having no clamping process – results in much less scrap being produced, and therefore brings operational savings,” he says. “The quality of castings can be raised, with a greater floor end and fewer defects.”
He notes that the geometrical stability of elements is improved, as there’s less fettling of the completed product thereby reducing dimensional variation between the identical elements. This in turn contributes to the reliability of the tools using these parts. He says the foundry will also realise important environmental advantages on account of utilizing no chemicals within the sand.
“ pressure gauge วัด แรง ดัน with our company sustainability objectives, ensuring that our processes aren’t solely compliant but continuously cut back our environmental impact,” says Smith. “Our new moulding techniques make positive that fewer gases are emitted through the casting process, and there are zero emissions of dangerous substances corresponding to benzene.”
The new expertise can additionally be leading to less frequent disposal of silica sand, and the sand itself is more environmentally pleasant as it contains no resin or acid.
“A exceptional side of developing this new plant was the reality that it was accomplished with our native abilities and largely during the COVID-19 lockdowns,” he says. “Despite the novelty of this technology, and the logistical challenges created by the pandemic, it was efficiently implemented on time and inside price range.”
The plant contains greater than sixteen,000 individual elements, and makes use of over 1,900 m of cabling, 300 m of water piping and 55 tons of metal.
Share