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

common throughout this project, the facility was unaware of these tools and services and
expressed an interest both in pursuing an IAC assessment and in learning about the suite of
BestPractices tools.
After the morning meeting, the assessment team toured the facility with the foundry manager to
observe first hand the implemented Metal Casting R&D results and to make recommendations
on potential areas for additional improvement.
1. Implemented Best Practices
Plant Housekeeping
At Steel Foundry-2, the overall approach to efficiency and quality was impeccable. The plant
was extremely clean and orderly. For example, metal chips were neatly collected in the machine
shop. The foundry’s management believes that maintaining a clean and orderly plant will
translate into high-quality, cost-effective production. To that end, management made their
employees responsible for the upkeep of their own work areas. This promoted a sense of
ownership and pride for the employees and resulted in a safe and orderly workplace. The
difference between this facility and other facilities is that from the top down, each area of
operation was held to the same standard. One area of the shop did not supersede the other.
Shroud Pouring
Steel Foundry-2 currently implements the results of the University of Alabama-Birmingham
(UAB) Clean Steel Projects 1 through 5. Beginning in 1996, this foundry worked with experts
from SFSA and UAB to perform casting trials for the research project. The research examined
methods to remove oxygen during pouring with a mechanical ceramic shroud. Shroud pouring
had been used previously at other facilities to pour steel into tundishes during continuous casting
operations. This technology removes oxygen from the pouring stream in steel manufacture, so
researchers from UAB were exploring its application in steel casting. UAB selected a number of
castings on which to perform trials at Steel Foundry-2 to ensure that there was a significant
quantity to provide statistically valid results and that the castings were of a design that could be
poured with a shroud and that had a history of having oxide micro inclusions. Shroud pouring
tests began once the castings were selected. Researchers noted that the shroud-poured castings
were visually superior to those poured in the traditional way. Upon further inspection, they
determined that inclusions were reduced significantly. The average number of inclusions for
traditional gated castings is 10.8 per casting whereas the shroud-poured castings had 0.2
inclusions per casting. Furthermore, both the pourer and the crane operator found that lining up
to a shroud was easier than with a pouring cup. In fact, pouring time was reduced by 7 seconds
for each mold.
With these encouraging results, Steel Foundry-2 began to implement shroud pouring on its
production line and has since experienced an overall cost savings of 14.5% as a result. The
foundry implements shroud pouring on approximately half of the castings it produces. It has
realized savings on the number of heats per year and has found that tool life has increased in
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