CPT International 04/2015

K AUTOMATION
man operator. The four powerful transport
vehicles hover at snail’s pace between
the molding shop, casting shop,
cooling area and shake-out stations, the
logistical epicentres of the Kurtz foundry.
The only critical point is that the systems
are very sensitive to dust and dirt.
That is why the sweeper is almost constantly
in operation.
Perfectly clocked flow
pro duction
In 2007 an internal working group had
been set up to develop what has turned
out to be an entirely new material flow
concept. “We had a clearly defined target:
a clocked flow production in our
hand-molding foundry similar to the
Toyota principle known from the automotive
industry,” explains CEO Rainer
Kurtz.
The Kurtz team took the challenge
and accomplished the task. From an
ambitious project evolved a genuinely
smart foundry. Let’s take a quick look
back: Initially, there had been the plausible
objective of removing the flasks
after pouring from the casting shop as
quickly as possible in order to get them
out of the way. Preventing congestion
in the casting shop was the prime task.
Gradually the concept of a flexible
process chain evolved based on a production
scheme controlled by SAP, on
shop floor parcelling and on an unmanned
and unbound transportation
system, which would provide the possibility
of combining manual manufacturing
steps with automated logistics
in a most convenient way. A look at
the “tidy” cooling area in the back gives
the visitor an idea of how this works in
practice, in the rough foundry environment.
Slowly and extremely cautiously,
LENA is moving sideways underneath a
transport pallet on which a cooled flask
is waiting to be removed. “The vehicles
always know their exact positions,” explains
Graziano Sammati, Managing
Director of the iron foundry Kurtz Eisenguss
GmbH & Co. KG. Sammati tells
us that he had been ambitious to leave
beaten tracks in this project to create
something entirely new. TINA and
her “girlfriends” possess automomous
knowledge. Based on the programmed
SAP data, they decide for themselves
where to go next. The use of advanced
communication and sensor technology
allows them to move about without the
risk of colliding and act in a collective
manner. The transporters built by WFT
hover about 10 cm above the floor. They
are automatically readjusted every few
meters. The four unmanned transporters
stick to clearly defined courses. All
courses end at defined, numbered positions.
It is a highly elaborate system. A
status chart is displayed on the central
master computer.
The fact that this foundry, which is
probably one of most modern handmolding
foundries in the world,
could be commissioned in early
March this year – just 13 months after
ground-breaking – is last but not
least owed to the perfect planning by
the Kurtz Ersa project team. The team
also included in-house IT experts. For
about eight years, management and
staff at Kurtz Ersa had been discussing
the question of how the hand-molding
foundry of the 21st century could look
like. Questions related to the future
of the Hasloch production site were
dealt with within the framework of the
Hammer Innovation Program, abbreviated
as HIP. The bottom line drawn
from all those considerations had been
that the mechanical engineering industry
in Germany does have a future.
Therefore, there should also be good
prospects for a hand-molding foundry
based in Germany provided it produced
efficiently and was able to operate
in a highly flexible manner. “The
key to success is to organize internal
processes and procedures in such a
way that they can cope with the challenges
of the future,” explains Rainer
Kurtz. And then he starts telling us
about his Smart Foundry and how it
came about. He is very satisfied with
the results achieved so far. “Everything
has progressed according to schedule,”
he summarizes the achievements.
It takes some time to fully grasp the
complexity and the entire scope of the
While LENA is still smoothly moving underneath the transport pallet with
inch-perfect precision, 5 m away, MARIE is already hovering off to the
cooling bay with the next filled flask
Rainer Kurtz is proud of his team’s
achievements. In his opinion, innovations,
such as the Smart Foundry, are
the drivers of progress
34 Casting Plant & Technology 4/2015