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ALUMINIUM CASTING
Foundry technology transferred as India’s industry advances
Since its founding in 1900 the Disa name has
become synonymous with foundry moulding
sand plant and core solutions, as well as full
support services. Today, the Denmark-based
Disa Group is the world’s leading complete
foundry supplier of these process technologies,
and continuously develops enhanced solutions
in terms of quality, capacity and flexibility
particularly for vertical and horizontal
moulding.
The company’s carefully balanced product
range is complemented by the well-known
‘Wheelabrator’ shot blast equipment, ideal for
a wide variety of processes and applications.
Disa offers an extensive range of products
and services for optimised process solutions
in the production of green sand non-ferrous
castings using vertical or horizontal moulding
machines, with or without flasks.
Disa’s continuous development of equipment
innovations and customer solutions has
been paralleled by business expansions around
the world. With technology centres, factories,
sales and service offices on three continents
and an extensive agent network, the company
serves foundries globally with leading edge
technology and support to drive down cost
per casting and improve overall production
performance and efficiency.
Fast growing foundry sector
One of the group’s overseas companies is centred
at the heart of one of the world’s fast
developing foundry arenas, India. Disa India
Ltd is headquartered in Bangalore, in the
southern Karnataka State, often referred to as
the country’s ‘silicon city’. This firm is a leading
foundry machinery manufacturer in India
offering proven and globally endorsed process
technology.
Disa India was initially established in 1984
for manufacturing modern foundry equipment.
The company
now supplies
complete
Disamatic vertical green sand moulding machine
Disa automatic core shooting equipment
foundry systems by integrating the Disa range
of moulding machines and sand mixers with
dedicated combinations of sand plant equipment,
surface treatment machines, environmental
control systems and conveying gear. It
serves customers across the country with three
sales offices, two manufacturing plants and an
R&D centre in Bangalore to provide the latest
equipment technology solutions.
Reflecting the continued development of
the national foundry sector, Disa India is currently
expanding capacity at its state of the art
manufacturing facilities at Tumkur and Hosakote
near Bangalore, as part of a strategy to
step up localisation of equipment supply to
meet growing demand.
The state of Karnataka has important national
foundry clusters such as in the Belgaum
area, which initially flourished to serve the
needs of India’s developing automobile industry
centred at Pune. Many of these foundries
produce to international standards and enjoy
a thriving export trade.
The Indian foundry industry overall, including
many high precision, high volume and
economical light alloy castings producers, now
serves a wide variety of end-use applications
for both domestic and export markets. The
main applications include: automotive, such
as engines and transmissions (31%); pumps
and valves (21%); electric
motors (10%); agricultural
equipment, such
as tractors (7%); food
processing (5%), and a
wide range of other diverse
industries making
up the balance (26%).
This development of
the national foundry sector is evidenced in a
recent study conducted by the World Foundry
Organisation (WFO). Analyses revealed that
while casting production worldwide increased
by 13.7% (91.4m tonnes) in 2010, India posted
a growth of 22%, based primarily on new
projects and increased national demand.
India is the second largest producer of
foundry-based castings – behind China as the
market leader with 43% (39.6m tonnes) of the
total world output – and looks likely to maintain
its annual growth rate trajectory of 15%
or more. There are more than 5,000 foundry
units in India, having an installed capacity of
around 7.5 million tpy. The majority, some
95%, of the foundry units in India falls under
the category of small-scale industry, constituting
an important direct employment sector for
around half a million people. India has major
competitive advantage over the foundry industries
in the developed countries, notably
for example with total labour costs and energy
accounting for just 12-15% each, and with
moulding sand locally available.
Technology transfer
The Indian government has encouraged technology
transfer through joint ventures with
foreign companies and has cooperated with
the United Nations Industrial Development
Organization for developing many foundry
clusters. The foundry industry in India sees
that it has an edge over China for producing
complex machined and precision castings to
international quality standards.
The Institute of Indian Foundrymen has
plans to support the strengthening and development
of various foundry clusters around the
Images: Disa
42 ALUMINIUM · 11/2012