Implementation of Metal Casting Best Practices - EERE - U.S. ...

1. Introduction
1.1 Background, Objectives, and Scope
The U.S. Department of Energy-Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
(DOE-EERE), Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) funds the Metal Casting research and
development (R&D) portfolio through a cost-sharing partnership with the Cast Metals Coalition
(CMC). CMC was formed by the metal casting technical societies to promote R&D needed by
the industry and is composed of the American Foundry Society (AFS), the North American Die
Casting Association (NADCA), and the Steel Founders’ Society of America (SFSA). ITP also
provides metal casters with comprehensive industrial energy assessments at no cost through its
Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs), which focus on implementation of near-term
energy-saving best practices. Through ITP’s Metal Casting portfolio of research projects and
IAC assessments, the U.S. metal casting industry has an opportunity to increase its profitability
and productivity while simultaneously reducing energy consumption. The ITP Metal Casting
portfolio has funded in excess of $50 million in research with an additional $60+ million in
industrial cost sharing, and the IACs have performed over 300 plant-wide assessments for the
industry to date.
These beneficial R&D partnerships have produced results that can increase metal casters’ bottom
lines, thus enhancing their ability to succeed in today’s highly competitive global market.
However, the technologies and opportunities developed have been found to be underutilized by
the metal casting industry overall. 11 This is due to a reluctance to make facility and process
changes for fear that they could disrupt production and have a negative effect on already small
profit margins. Within the metal casting industry, plant personnel are more concerned with
productivity and metallurgical quality than with energy savings. Thus, the industry has not taken
full advantage of the variety of low-cost metal casting best practice software tools (i.e. design
solidification software) available to help reduce energy consumption, even though application of
these tools can also enhance productivity. Apparently, the industry has yet to comprehend fully
how energy conservation can correlate with and enhance productivity and profitability.
This project addressed the disconnection between R&D tools and their industry acceptance by
accomplishing the following objectives:
• Identify and quantify the extent to which the results of the Metal Casting R&D portfolio
and the IAC recommendations have been implemented to date by metal casting facilities;
• Assess the impact that the research and recommendations, once implemented, have had
on facility profitability;
• Determine the factors responsible for the lack of implementation of ITP research and
IAC-recommended best practices in cases where implementation had not occurred; and
• Provide a comprehensive introduction to the suite of free ITP BestPractices software
tools offered by the ITP BestPractices subprogram that can be used to assess metal
casting process heating operations (melting, holding, and heat treatment), compressed air
systems, and motor systems for potential energy-saving opportunities.
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