Driving down element turnaround time whereas enhancing high quality and lowering waste is being achieved at Weir Minerals Africa’s exciting new Replicast Plant in Isando, Gauteng.
Umar Smith, plant supervisor at Weir Minerals Africa’s Isando facility, highlights that the progressive growth permits the corporate to produce more elements at a time – and more rapidly. This will assist in meeting rising customer demand, while additionally lowering rework and wastage.
“As part of our Project Vuka, this new plant allows us to forged multiple small parts per batch rather than just one at a time,” says Smith. “We can even reduce our knock-out occasions from days to simply a couple of hours.”
The state-of-the-art facilities enable Weir Minerals Africa to forged high chrome components weighing as much as 250 kg. There are two phases to the brand new course of, 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 phase is the place 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 makes use of silica sand of 30-35 AFS grade along with the polystyrene mould, he says. เกจวัดแก๊ส involves a vacuum bin, from which all of the air is removed to compress the sand.
“The absence of resin and catalyst – in addition to having no clamping course of – leads to much less scrap being produced, and due to this fact brings operational savings,” he says. “The quality of castings can also be raised, with a greater surface end and fewer defects.”
He notes that the geometrical stability of elements 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 using these elements. He says the foundry will also realise vital environmental benefits because of using no chemical substances within the sand.
“This new plant aligns well with our company sustainability targets, guaranteeing that our processes aren’t only compliant however continuously scale back our environmental impression,” says Smith. “Our new moulding methods ensure that fewer gases are emitted in the course of the casting course of, and there are zero emissions of harmful substances such as benzene.”
The new know-how can additionally be leading to much less frequent disposal of silica sand, and the sand itself is more environmentally pleasant as it accommodates no resin or acid.
“A exceptional side of creating this new plant was the truth that it was accomplished with our local expertise and largely through the COVID-19 lockdowns,” he says. “Despite the novelty of this technology, and the logistical challenges created by the pandemic, it was successfully applied on time and inside price range.”
The plant includes more than 16,000 individual parts, and uses over 1,900 m of cabling, 300 m of water piping and 55 tons of steel.
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