Driving down part turnaround time while improving high quality and reducing waste is being achieved at Weir Minerals Africa’s thrilling new Replicast Plant in Isando, Gauteng.
Umar Smith, plant manager at Weir Minerals Africa’s Isando facility, highlights that the innovative growth allows the company to supply more parts at a time – and extra shortly. This will assist in meeting growing buyer demand, whereas additionally decreasing rework and wastage.
“As part of our Project Vuka, this new plant allows us to forged multiple small components per batch somewhat than just one by one,” says Smith. “We can also cut back our knock-out times from days to just a few hours.”
The state-of-the-art facilities enable Weir Minerals Africa to cast high chrome elements weighing as a lot as 250 kg. There are two phases to the model new course of, he explains, which makes use of polystyrene to create moulds. The first phase is the polystyrene moulding process, which occurs after the polystyrene beads have been expanded. The second phase is the place the ramming, pouring and demoulding takes place.
In contrast to the standard moulding line – the place resin and catalyst are used to bind sand – the Replicast Plant uses silica sand of 30-35 AFS grade along with the polystyrene mould, he says. The system involves a vacuum bin, from which all of the air is eliminated to compress the sand.
“The absence of resin and catalyst – as well as having no clamping process – ends in much less scrap being produced, and subsequently brings operational financial savings,” he says. “The high quality of castings is also raised, with a better floor end and fewer defects.”
He notes that the geometrical stability of components is improved, as there’s much less fettling of the finished product thereby reducing dimensional variation between the same components. This in turn contributes to the reliability of the equipment utilizing those components. ที่วัดแรงดันน้ำ says the foundry may also realise significant environmental benefits as a end result of using no chemical compounds in the sand.
“This new plant aligns nicely with our corporate sustainability objectives, ensuring that our processes usually are not solely compliant however constantly scale back our environmental influence,” says Smith. “Our new moulding systems be sure that fewer gases are emitted during the casting process, and there are zero emissions of dangerous substances such as benzene.”
The new technology can be leading to much less frequent disposal of silica sand, and the sand itself is extra environmentally pleasant because it incorporates no resin or acid.
“A outstanding facet of creating this new plant was the truth that it was done with our local skills and largely in the course of the COVID-19 lockdowns,” he says. “Despite the novelty of this technology, and the logistical challenges created by the pandemic, it was successfully implemented on time and within budget.”
The plant contains greater than sixteen,000 individual components, and makes use of over 1,900 m of cabling, 300 m of water piping and fifty five tons of steel.
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