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

G. Lost Foam Foundry-1
Plant Profile
Lost Foam Foundry-1 is a mid-sized facility, employing 100+ people and operating two shifts
per day. It produces aluminum engine blocks and heads for 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder engines
and ships approximately 12,000 tons of aluminum each year.
The facility was constructed in 2000, began producing in 2002, and was in full production by
2003. It is very spacious, clean, well-laid out, and highly automated. The foundry consists of four
cells or operating lines. It has three reverberatory, natural gas-fired, dry hearth furnaces, two of
which are in operation and the third remains stagnant because it is used as a back-up furnace.
The foundry melts its aluminum on site and delivers the molten alloy to each cell via a launder
system.
The foam patterns are constructed and steamed on site. They are dipped into a ceramic slurry
using a robotic arm and then hung to dry. The dried patterns are transferred to a box by a robotic
arm and placed on an engineered vibratory table which packs sand tightly around them.
Following sand packing, the pattern moves down a line to a pouring station where an automated
system pours molten metal into the down-sprue and a gating and riser system.
After pouring, the casting continues down the line where it is shaken out and a robotic arm
removes the single gate and riser. The sand is reclaimed from the shakeout system;
approximately 10% of it is disposed per year. The removed gates and risers fall into a collection
basket where they go back into the furnace to be re-melted. Once the casting has cooled, it is
inspected for quality. Because of the near net shape that lost foam provides, minimal machining
is required.
A year prior to this project, Lost Foam Facility-1 averaged an 8% internal scrap rate on the heads
and blocks it produced. This has since dropped to approximately 5%. Customer return at this
facility is 0.35%. Quality of the castings is highly monitored, and the facility can trace each
casting back to the time it was poured and to the batch in which it originated.
Onsite Assessment
The assessment of this facility followed the same format as the others, with a face-to-face
meeting in the morning followed by a tour of the facility. During the morning meeting, the plant
provided an overview of the Metal Casting R&D project results that it had implemented and the
benefits experienced from these projects. The assessment team provided plant personnel with an
overview of the suite of BestPractices tools and the services offered by the IACs. Plant
management was familiar with the AirMaster+ and MotorMaster+, but had no familiarity with
the IACs.
66