RFM Boosts Productivity for Nissan Casting Plant - Pyrotek

September July 2012 2008 Volume Volume 6, Issue 2, 2 Issue 3RFM ® boosts productivity for NissanCasting PlantThe Nissan casting plant in Australia, located in the Melbournesuburb of Dandenong, Victoria, is an important longstandingcustomer for Pyrotek in the foundry sector.The casting plant, operated by Nissan Motor Co. (Aust.) Pty.Ltd., processes around 8000 t/yr of aluminium to producearound 2.5 million individual automotive components peryear. The plant exports most of its parts to Nissan factories inJapan, Thailand, Mexico and the USA.It operates eight high-pressure UBE diecasting machines,one low-pressure diecasting machine and several CNCmachining centres, manufacturing components mainly forNissan vehicles, including notably the new first zero emissionfive door family hatch electric car “Leaf” model.By late 2013, the Nissan casting plant is expected to beproducing 22,000 electric vehicle components per month,contributing to Nissan’s global leadership in zero emissionvehicle technology.The Nissan Casting Plant customer had traditionally usedcast iron autopour ladles in the high-pressure UBE castingmachines, which were proving to be problematic in terms oflost productivity through excessive downtime, maintenancerequirements, and short service life. These problems weregenerating a production bottleneck and Nissan invitedPyrotek to review their process and identify areas forimprovement.In close cooperation with Nissan personnel, a detailedprocess assessment was undertaken through the second halfof 2011 by Sales Engineer, Delia Avram, based at Pyrotek’sDandenong, Australia office.Customer painDelia noted that the cast iron autopour ladles in use requireddaily coating, and on every shift the casting machines had tobe stopped for intensive cleaning to remove skull buildup.These ladles also required changing on a weekly basis. Thesefactors together generated a significant loss of productivity.Following a careful survey of the process parameters inactual production trials, and considering the customer’srequirements to improve productivity and efficiency, Pyrotekproposed that in place of the cast iron ladles, an optimum®RFMsolution was to use RFM ® ladles coated with ZYP BoronNitride (BN) Releasecoat ® .Nissan accepted these proposals and in August 2011,Pyrotek supplied two RFM AutoPour ladles for trial. Oneladle was mounted on the 800 UBE casting machine withthe second on the 1250 UBE. Both casting stations were torun in parallel.Improved performanceIn September 2011, after a four-week campaign, maintenancewas carried out on both ladles, including cleaning of scull,coating with BN hardcoat and BN releasecoat blue. The linewas back in service the following day.In October 2011, after eight weeks, a second maintenancecycle was carried out, again on both ladles, with the samecoating treatments and return to service twenty-four hourslater.By December 12, 2011, after sixteen weeks the ladle on theUBE 800 machine was taken out of service because the RFMmaterial around the steel bracket had been badly damaged.By the end this campaign, 60,550 shots were recorded.By the next day, the UBE 1250 machine was out of service,with the RFM material showing damage around the steelband area, and under the pouring lip. The total sixteen-weekcampaign had produced 77,600 shots.Changing to RFM material has clearly resulted in improvedperformance for the customer by increasing productivity anddelivering cost savings.Customer SavingsAlthough it is not possible to compute exact cost savingsrealised for Nissan, these are estimated at betweenUSD$10,000–15,000 solely for the ladles. This does notinclude the cost savings due to the new coatings and thereduced downtime, which eliminated the need for a dailycoating operation, and weekly change-out of the cast ironladles.The Nissan casting plant campaign clearly highlightsthe improved performance of the RFM material and theproductivity increases that resulted. This led to an order forregular supply of these components.Pyrotek now supplies the Nissan casting plant with AutoPour

ladles in 8 kg (17.6 lb) and 13 kg (28.6 lb) capacities, in RFMmaterial and coated with ZYP Boron Nitride Releasecoat.These products are specially manufactured at Pyrotek’sBlansko facility in the Czech Republic.Pyrotek plans to begin trials with RFM launders for the dosingfurnaces: 1880 mm (74 inch) long for four of the customer’sfurnaces and 1600 mm (63 inch) long for their other furnace.RFM ladle with BN coatingLadle in operation