CPT International 03/2016

www.giesserei-verlag.de 

September 

2016 

CASTING 

PLANT AND TECHNOLOGY 

INTERNATIONAL 

3 

Melt treatment improves 

quality, productivity and 

melting capacity

EDITORIAL K 

Made in Germany – 

a success story! 

Germany has a worldwide reputation for its great cars, its beer brewing artistry 

and its successful world-class football. German engineers and technology 

have also been considered pioneering since the industrial revolution in the 

19 th century – with the invention of the car, jet propulsion engines and nuclear 

fission, for example. While these inventions marked far-reaching technological 

upheavals, German engineers have also made their mark on developments 

in many other sectors. Such as in foundry technology where, for 

example, Dr. Adey first produced cast iron with spheroidal graphite in 1939, 

revolutionizing the foundry world. The German foundry industry is now considered 

the most productive worldwide, which is not least due to its state-ofthe-art 

plant technology and its innovative capability in areas such as sand 

preparation, core production, smelting operations and, last but not least, quality 

assurance and simulation technology. 

CASTING, PLANT & TECHNOLOGY takes these technologies out into the 

world: in this issue we focus on, among other things, core production technologies. 

We examine the production of cores at the Halberg Guss foundry from 

two different perspectives: first we consider the maintenance-free Fibromat 

rotary table for transporting parts (from P. 12) then we take a look at the fully 

automatic assembly of core packages by 25 Kuka robots (from P. 16)! 

Articles on quality assurance form another large section in this issue – from a 

sophisticated coating preparation plant (P. 20), through turbo-grinders for wind 

turbine castings (P. 24), to cryogenic deburring of non-ferrous parts (P. 28). 

German foundries produce top quality in all sizes, as can be seen from the 

Siempelkamp foundry in Krefeld: they recently produced the world’s longest 

casting made of cast iron with spheroidal graphite for a Czech company (from 

P. 30). Another article is dedicated to the production of castings for the energy 

transition (from P. 34). 

This issue is rounded out by a user report on the TimeLine-Guss ERP/PPS system 

in Dutch foundry BUVO Castings in Helmond (from P. 38), and the works 

report “Shaping the future with die-casting technology” about KSM Castings 

in Hildesheim – a successful example of Chinese-German industrial cooperation 

(from P. 40). 

Have a good read! 

Robert Piterek 

e-mail: robert.piterek@bdguss.de 

Casting Plant & Technology 3/2016 3

K FEATURES 

INTERVIEW 

Bosse, Manuel 

“Replacing equipment and simulation improves quality automatically” 6 

MOLDING MATERIAL 

Görke, Hanna Maria; Zille, Jörg Ulrich; Demary, Marc 

The impact of grain distribution on molding material parameters 8 

COREMAKING 

Schauder, Thorsten 

Rotary table transfer increases reliability in the core production of foundries 12 

Schwarzbach, Laura 

In perfect harmony 16 

Cover-Photo: 

Foseco Foundry Division 

Vesuvius GmbH 

Gelsenkirchener Str. 10 

46325 Borken 

Tel: + 49 2861 83-0 

Fax: + 49 2861 83-338 

fosecogermany@vesuvius.com 

www.foseco.com 

Casting at Foseco's technology center in Borken, Germany. 

Note: Please read our Foseco-article on page 20! 

QUALITY ASSURANCE 

Genzler, Christoph; Gruber, Mathias 

Customized CPP – Fulfilling demanding customer requirements 20 

Wenke, Heiko 

Light turbo-grinders for heavy wind-turbine castings 24 

Sinner, Ralf 

Cryogenic deburring of non ferrous die castings 28 

16 

30 

25 Kuka robots assemble crankcase core packages at Neue 

Halberg-Guss. The machines perform all assembly steps 

fully automatically and with utmost precision (Photo: Kuka) 

XXL foundry production: 23.5 m was the length of the crossbeam 

for a 2-column machining center for a Czech company – the longest 

casting made of ductile cast iron ever! (Photo: Siempelkamp)

CASTING 

3 | 2016 

PLANT AND TECHNOLOGY 

INTERNATIONAL 

CASTING TECHNOLOGY 

Weil, Mathias 

Longest casting made of ductile cast iron 30 

Rieck, Helmut 

Energy conversion with Siempelkamp cast components 34 

SOFTWARE 

Holzapfel, Matthias 

Additional performance through enhanced efficiency 38 

COMPANY 

Piterek, Robert 

Shaping the future with die casting 40 

K COLUMNS 

Editorial3 

News in brief 48 

Brochures56 

Fairs and congresses 58 

Preview of the next issue/Imprint 59 

 

40 

KSM Castings Group – with plants in Europe, the USA and China – has strengthened its competitive position as an automotive 

supplier with a major investment of 13 million euros at its Hildesheim site to increase the added value of its magnesium components 

(Photo: Andreas Bednareck)

K INTERVIEW 

“Replacing equipment and simulation 

improves quality automatically” 

Manuel Bosse is environmental and energy management expert of the BDG-Service GmbH in 

Düsseldorf, Germany. He played an instrumental role in EffSAFound 2 , a joint German-South 

African project dedicated to improve energy and resource efficiency in South African foundries 

Photo: BDG/Soschinski 

South African foundries have to cope 

with high scrap rates and their energy 

use is often very inefficient. What 

was your impression of the situation 

during your visits to South Africa and 

what has EffSAFound achieved in this 

respect? 

Until 2008, the foundries in South Africa 

had benefited very much from low 

energy prices. Between 2008 and 2011, 

the utility company Eskom raised the 

electricity price every year by 20 %. At 

the same time, the foundries were required 

to reduce electricity consumption 

by 10 %. The melting furnaces and 

molding equipment in the foundries 

are quite old. Power consumption had 

never been an issue. Furnaces used to 

be operated without closing the covers 

and the practice of ladle preheating was 

the exception and, if practiced at all, it 

was done by means of molten metal. 95 

% of the furnaces in South Africa are 

powered by electricity. All of a sudden, 

foundry operators were faced with the 

situation that they had to save energy. 

Since 2010, there has been a rise in investments 

in modern equipment. This 

perfectly coincided with our joint project, 

which was kicked off in May 2013. 

Energy and material efficiency were exactly 

our areas of focus. When foundries 

replace their obsolete equipment or 

start to simulate their processes, quality 

will improve automatically. Since 

2013/2014, also the issue of material 

efficiency has been moving in the focus 

of attention. It had been common 

practice to simply dump used foundry 

sands, but the foundries were faced 

with constantly increasing dumping 

costs. We made the foundry operators 

aware of the possibility of recycling the 

sands 30 or even 40 times. We did this 

by presenting suitable products and explaining 

that the efficient use of material 

and energy also provides economic 

advantages. The local foundries are 

very much under pressure: Since 2005, 

the number of foundries has shrunk 

from 270 to 170, due to cheap castings 

from China sold on the South African 

market. 

The skills of personnel in South African 

foundries leave much to be desired. 

Has EffSAFound been able to 

render support in this respect? 

According to a survey 70 % of the people 

working in South African foundries 

have never gone to school or only 

have basic education. This makes 

training and further education very 

difficult. One has to resort to illustrations 

and videos to train the people. 

Only 25% have a school-leaving certificate. 

Those are usually the supervisors. 

They do their best to train the 

workers, but it’s a hard job. And, finally, 

there is a 5% with a university graduation. 

Those hold the managing positions 

in the foundries. Since 2010, all 

institutions in South Africa related to 

the foundry industry have been joining 

forces to promote education in the 

foundries. For example, the University 

of Johannesburg has set up a programme 

dedicated to bringing more 

coloured and black people into management 

positions. For example, all 

engineers graduating from the University 

of Johannesburg have spent a 

semester at a foreign university, for instance 

in Freiberg, Germany, and more 

and more of them occupy leading positions 

in South African foundries. In 

order to train those 25 % of the workers 

with a school-leaving certificate, 

the German Society for International 

6 Casting Plant & Technology 3 /2016

FILTECH 

October 11 – 13, 2016 

Cologne – Germany 

The Filtration Event 

www.Filtech.de 

Targeted 

Solutions 

Core-setting line: The workers at Guestro Foundry, Benoni, South Africa, insert 

freshly produced cores into the 35-year-old molding plant (Photo: Palesa Riba) 

Cooperation (GIZ) has opened a training 

foundry near Johannesburg, where 

most of the foundries of the country 

are located. Every year between 20 and 

40 young people are trained there to be 

head melters, mouldmakers and machining 

specialists. By this approach, 

the Society has introduced the classical 

German model of dual apprenticeship 

in the country. We have supported this 

programme by providing teaching material 

and know-how. To reach those 

workers who have no school education 

at all, we have introduced a software 

programme which Heger Pro uses in 

quality management. We have translated 

to software to English and added 

the topic of energy management. 

In the staffrooms of the foundries, the 

software runs on a display. Thus the 

workers learn from pictures, for example, 

showing a furnace with an open 

cover versus one with a closed cover. 

The project ran from May 2013 until 

October 2015. GUT Giesserei Umwelt 

Technik GmbH, Freudenberg, Germany, 

specialists in chemically bonded 

sand systems and sand reclamation 

systems, will continue to provide 

training courses in Durban, Johannesburg 

and Cape Town, the three largest 

cities in South Africa, in order to 

spread the knowledge to those foundries 

which had not had the opportunity 

to participate in the project. In 

November, I will present the final report 

of the project updated with new 

information at a colloquium staged 

by the Metal Casting Technology Station 

at the University of Johannesburg. 

Last but not least, Ametex, the 

South African sales partner of Magma, 

will play an active role in ensuring that 

the knowhow transferred to the local 

foundries during our project will not 

get lost. 

for 

the 

Pre-Register 

for fast track entry 

www.filtech.de/ticket.jsp 

Casting 

Industry 

How is the cooperation between the 

German and South African foundry 

industries going to be continued, now 

as the project has ended? 

www.ask-chemicals.com 

Casting Plant & Technology 3 /2016 7 

Your Contact: Suzanne Abetz 

E-mail: info@filtech.de 

Phone: +49 (0)2132 93 57 60


Aerial view of Quarzwerke GmbH in Haltern with screening plant (on the right) (Photos and Graphics: Quarzwerke) 

Authors: Dr. Hanna Maria Görke, Dr. Jörg Ulrich Zilles, Marc Demary, Quarzwerke GmbH, Frechen 

The impact of grain distribution on 

molding material parameters 

 

duction. Optimized distribution curves offer advantages, since they impact the molding materi 

al’s gas permeability 

The significance of quartz sand from 

Haltern in Germany is indisputable 

in the foundry industry, yet this basic 

molding material’s potential for special 

applications is still underrated. 

In the ceramics and concrete industry, 

the modelling of packing density 

through the selection of grain size distribution 

is an important element in 

the development of high-performance 

materials. For foundry applications, 

however, the demands are very complex. 

These might require for example 

an improvement in strength values 

or a reduction in the use of binding 

agents, necessitate high uniformity in 

the distribution curve for automation, 

or entail particularly high demands in 

terms of surface quality or gas permeability. 

In any case, it must be taken into account 

that the change of one parameter 

impacts a number of other parameters, 

with implications for the molding 

material’s system. 

This is why several factors need to 

be taken into consideration when op- 


timising the sands, because the resulting 

properties can no longer be directly 

assessed. The statistical design 

of experiments (DoE) was used for an 

in-depth examination of the impact of 

different grain sizes on the outcome 

of molding material-relevant tests 

relating to strength, gas permeability, 

coarseness, bulk density and flow 

properties. 

In this multi-parameter system, it is 

vital to identify and model the right 

balance of application properties for 

a given application. Quartz sand from 

Haltern offers a solid material basis 

given its rounded grain shape and 

high purity. The results of these experiments 

in combination with the possibility 

of customising individual sieve 

fractions can be used for a targeted depiction 

of optimum distribution curve 

designs for special applications on an 

industrial scale. 

Figure 1: Impact of bulk density on gas permeability of quartz sand from Haltern 

Experimental background 

Depending on their grain size, the 

quartz sands were split into six grain 

fractions in the Haltern screening 

plant. These fractions were then combined 

according to specific mixing ratios 

and examined in view of the parameters 

relevant to casting. Design 

Expert, a DoE software, was used to 

define a relevant sand mixture that 

would cover the entire system of parameters. 

In addition, the software is also used 

to evaluate the results. The following 

grain fractions were selected as parameters: 

> 0.710 mm, 0.170 mm, 0.355 mm, 

0.250 mm, 0.180 mm and < 180 mm. 

A cold-box binding agent was used with 

a ratio ranging from 0.5 to 0.9 %. The 

resin and curing agent amount was kept 

at a constant mixing ratio of 1:1. The 

parameters grain distribution, packing 

density, degree of uniformity and flowing 

property were determined based on 

the loose sand. To examine gas permeability, 

test specimens were produced 

using the automatic core shooter Lut-c 

and the permeability measurement device 

LPOR-3e of Multiserw in combination 

with common cold-box binding 

agents. 

Results 

The acquired data were examined with 

regard to the major influencing factors 

on bending strength [1]. The evaluation 

indicates that strength values and 

the impact of the binding agent content 

increase in proportion to the fineness 

of the sand’s grain size. For the extreme 

case of a particularly coarse grain 

(AFS grain fineness number 20), no increase 

in strength concomitant with 

binding agent content can be observed 

within the examined range. For coarse 

sands, it can therefore be assumed that 

a binding agent concentration of 0.5 % 

already leads to the saturation of the 

particle surfaces. The picture is different 

when taking a look at the positional 

stability of the cores. Here, a correlation 

with the binder content, yet not 

the grain size, was observed. When relating 

gas permeability to the immediate 

strength level, the tendency of lower 

strength values at high gas permeability 

can be observed. This relation, however, 

is not linear. With a smart selection 

of the grain distribution, it is thus possible 

to positively impact both gas permeability 

and strength. [1] 

This article analyzes the data in relation 

to the major influencing factors 

for gas permeability. Bulk density 

of the particles is crucial for gas permeability. 

In a real batch, bulk density 

depends on grain size, grain form 

and grain distribution. Bulk density in 

turn has an impact on strength, surface 

quality, flowability, thermal conductivity 

and sand requirements – in 

addition to gas permeability. 

The test results can be used to exemplify 

these theoretical correlations 

with concrete data for quartz sand 

from Haltern. If bulk density is considered 

as a function of gas permeability 

of the different grain size distributions 

under scrutiny as indicated in 

Figure 1a, it becomes evident that different 

gas permeability values can be 

achieved for average bulk densities. 

The gas permeability extremes with 

values > 3000 m 2 /108 Pa occur in mixtures 

that consist almost entirely of the 

fraction > 0.710 mm, which is not used 

in this form in common foundry applications. 

For a clearer illustration of the grain 

distributions in the depicted mixtures, 

different properties were highlighted 

in different colours in the figures 1b 

to 1d. 

In figure 1b, the grain size is highlighted 

and shows that a low bulk density 

is achieved with fine sand (light 

Casting Plant & Technology 3 /2016 9


Figure 2: 

colour). In case of an average bulk density, 

gas permeability largely depends 

on the grain size. Extremely high gas 

permeability values are achieved with 

very coarse sand. 

Bulk densities and gas permeability 

values vary considerably in case of 

average grain size distributions. They 

depend on the composition of the distribution 

curve. In addition to the AFS 

grain fineness number, the degree of 

uniformity is relevant as well. Figure 1c 

illustrates the degree of uniformity of 

the mixtures with different colour gradients. 

It shows that higher bulk densities 

are achieved with a lower degree 

of uniformity. Mixtures with a high degree 

of uniformity achieve low to average 

bulk densities. Here, the grain size 

plays the decisive role. In figure 1d, the 

measured values for the sand mixtures 

are highlighted, 90 to 100 % of which 

consist of just one fraction. These mixtures 

come closest to the mono-grain 

distribution of real applications. 

The results show that for these mixtures 

with a very narrow grain distribution, 

both bulk density and gas permeability 

increase with the grain size. 

This deviation from the ideal theoretical 

packing density can be traced back 

to the fact that in a real bulk, the number 

of voids in a package increases with 

particle quantity [2]. This is why we observe 

an increase in bulk density with 

increasingly coarse grain. 

The increase in gas permeability 

with coarser grain can be explained 

with the so-called Bernoulli principle, 

an important equation in theoretical 

fluid dynamics. It indicates 

that a less linear flow in packages 

with smaller particles leads to a higher 

pressure loss and lower gas permeability, 

despite the lower packaging 

density. 

It is known that the packaging density 

of a sand filling impacts its flowability. 

Figure 2 is therefore an illustration 

of bulk density as a function of 

flowability. In figure 2a, the degree of 

uniformity is highlighted. This illustration 

shows clearly that flowability 

decreases as a function of bulk density 

and with a falling degree of uniformity. 

The colour gradient in figure 2b 

indicates the grain sizes for the recorded 

measured values. High flowability is 

achieved with a coarse grain and an extremely 

narrow grain distribution. 

Summary 

The demands made on the sand can 

differ largely. An improvement of one 

or several parameters through a change 

in the sand’s grain distribution always 

impacts other sand parameters. This is 

why it is important to be aware of and 

consider all the properties when optimizing 

the grain distribution. Based 

on the results of these comprehensive 

tests and given the high quality 

of sands from Haltern, it is possible to 

design optimized processes through a 

balanced interaction of all properties. 

The increase in gas permeability with 

coarse grain can be explained with Bernoulli’s 

principle, which states that the 

speed of a fluid increases exponentially 

with the flow diameter and that a higher 

fluid speed leads to lower dynamic 

pressure. 

www.quarzwerke.com 

References: 

www.cpt-international.com 


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K COREMAKING 

Author: Thorsten Schauder, Business Development, Business Unit Rotary Tables , Fibro GmbH, Weinsberg 

Rotary table transfer increases 

reliability in the core production of 

foundries 

While conveyor solutions in core shops are widespread, the Neue Halberg-Guss GmbH is going 

in a different direction: On a fully automatic core machine system for engine blocks, it is completely 

forgoing linear conveyor technology and instead using maintenance-free Fibromat rotary 

tables for the transport of the parts. Downtimes due to handling have since fallen to virtually 

zero since then. And other plants will soon follow 

Halberg Guss utilizes a total of eight Fibromat rotary tables in the fully automatic core machine system (Photos: Fibro) 

Since the fully automatic core machine 

system at the Saarbrücken site 

has gone into operation, it has literally 

been an “all round” success at Halberg 

Guss. With a previously unimagined 

and unique process stability, 3,000 

core packages for engine blocks leave 

the plant each day. Eight modularly designed 

Fibromat heavy-load positioning 

tables handle the transport of the 

cores and core packages on two lines arranged 

in parallel ( Figure above). No 

conventional belt conveyor technology 

is needed. “By using rotary tables for 

transferring the parts, we have been able 

to achieve a significantly higher process 

stability of the entire system when 

compared to the previous solutions”, 

explains the Head of the Core Shop, 

Christian Ast. “The Fibro rotary tables 

run so stably that our servicing team has 

not had to intervene once even after 18 

months of continuous operation”, adds 

Sebastien Becker, Segment Manager of 

12 Casting Plant & Technology 3/2016

Halberg Guss 

The Neue Halberg-Guss GmbH is one 

of the leading foundries in Europe for 

the development and production of 

engine blocks, cast iron cylinder heads 

and cast crankshafts. Its products 

range from sophisticated three-cylinder 

blocks for automobiles to large 

volume V8 aggregates for commercial 

vehicles. In addition to this are also 

spheroidal graphite iron bearing tunnels 

as well as aluminium bedplates. 

Due to the high level of competency 

and the close cooperation during 

the development of efficient, inexpensive, 

powerful drive units and other 

cast components, the company is a 

sought-after partner in the European 

automotive industry. The Saarbrücken 

site has a workforce of approx. 1,200. 

Figure 1: On the core-shooting system (left), the grains of sand are initially 

deburred and then transferred to the second station (right) 

the Core Shop and responsible for the 

running operation of the system. 

High precision and reliability 

even in dirty environments 

Before the investment, the team tested 

the positioning tables and the associated 

transfer principle in two smaller 

applications. The weaknesses of the 

conventional belt conveyor technology 

were clearly apparent: positioning 

inaccuracy, problems with transport 

or susceptibility to wear of the individual 

components, which the new solution 

had none of. “The rotary tables 

behaved absolutely reliably in the test 

system – and despite the very dusty environment, 

underscores Christian Ast. 

“They facilitate a significantly higher 

precision and process reliability than 

other transfer solutions, without increasing 

the procurement costs for the 

entire system.” And with the running 

costs as well, the rotary table transfer is 

the clear winner thanks to the extremely 

low susceptibility. As a result, the decision 

was an easy one to make. 

Immediately after the core shooter, 

a robot now positions the cores for deburring 

on the first Fibromat rotary table 

(Figure 1). On a second and larger 

Fibromat, the cores are then stacked, 

transferred as subpackage to the third 

Figure 2: A total of 26 robots are active in the system. During the mounting 

of the core packages, the Fibromat rotary tables ensure a high process reliability 

and precision 

rotary table station and packetized there 

to approx. 80 kg complete packages. 

The fourth station subsequently serves 

to feed the screwed together complete 

packages to the sizing process and to finally 

eject them from the system. 

Modular design facilitates efficient 

solutions 

The decision by Halberg Guss to use 

the heavy-load positioning tables from 

Fibro (Figure 2) for all stations was a 

perfectly consistent one. Since its pre- 


K COREMAKING 

Figure 3: The flat Fibromat rotary tables facilitate an optimal accessibility of 

the individual stations and are extremely easy to maintain 

Fibro GmbH 

Fibro is a pioneer among rotary table 

manufacturers and offers the 

world’s most extensive rotary table 

programme from a single source with 

more than 150 types of rotary tables. 

The rotary tables are used as swivelling 

or positioning axes and as workpiece 

carriers in highly productive machine 

tools, assembly and production 

systems. The greatest possible standardisation 

of the individual series 

also makes the company an interesting 

partner with regard to cost aspects. 

Numerous projects in various industries 

around the globe prove how strongly 

customers profit from the high solution 

competence and worldwide service 

network of the rotary table specialists 

from Weinsberg, Germany. 

mier roughly four years ago, the modular, 

and thus price-performance-optimized 

rotary table has been writing 

its exemplary success story ever since. 

Regardless of the type and number of 

motors, size of the centre borehole, 

roller bearing or stiffness-optimized 

cross roller bearings, media distributor, 

collector ring transfers, or absolute 

measuring systems needed, the 

maintenance-free quick-change artist 

offers such a high freedom of design 

that extensive and thus expensive and 

lengthy special solutions have become 

the exception rather than the rule (Figure 

3). 

Depending on the size, the repeat 

accuracy lies at around 10 arc seconds; 

with absolute measuring systems, 

this accuracy can be increased 

to 5 arc seconds. Since the gearbox 

is not self-locking, this prevents any 

damage to the mechanical system of 

the rotary table in the event of a sudden 

power failure or emergency stop. 

In addition, the table does not swing 

open during positioning, even with 

superstructures on the table top. The 

precision required by Halberg Guss in 

the decimal range are easily ensured. 

And absolutely no comparison to the 

fluctuation margins of conventional 

transfer systems in foundries. All seals 

are already covered as standard and 

thus ideally suited for use in challenging 

environments such as in foundries 

or welding in automobile body 

construction. 

A clear advantage is Fibromat’s flexible 

range of application. With pneumatic 

indexing, for example, up to 38 

divisions are possible. If a master-slave 

drive is alternatively utilized, any arbitrary 

position can be freely taught and 

tensioned using the motor brake without 

play by software with a master-slave 

drive. Even though Halberg Guss hardly 

exhausts this potential with the current 

pivoting movements of 90°, 180° 

and 270°, it still offers leeway for mod- 

Figure 4: The modularly designed Fibromat 

heavy-load positioning table 

is available in four sizes with tabletop 

diameters of 800 mm, 1,000 mm, 

1,250 mm and 1,600 mm 


ifying the process over time or for integrating 

new versions and products 

into the system. The heavy-load positioning 

tables (Figure 4) are available 

in four sizes, with tabletop diameters 

of 800 mm, 1,000 mm, 1,250 mm, 

and 1,600 mm. The smallest size allows 

setups up to 4,500 mm in diameter 

and transport loads up to 10,000 kg 

while the largest setup permits up to 

9,500 mm and 25,000 kg respectively. 

The central borehole measures between 

320 mm and 1,200 mm. Special connecting 

dimensions and customer-specific 

drilling templates can be implemented 

quickly and easily. 

Rotary table transfer will soon 

be the new standard 

From Sebastien Becker’s perspective, 

the system concept has proven itself 

outstandingly. “With only two employees 

per line and per shift, we are able 

Figure 5: Christian Ast (left) and Sebastien Becker (right) speaking with 

Thorsten Schauder (centre), responsible at Fibro Business Development. 

to completely finish the immediately 

ready-for-decantation core packages.” 

In comparison to a different system 

with conventional conveyor technology 

and five robots, the significantly 

larger rotary table system with 26 robots 

performs exceptionally well. This 

applies to both the pure system availability 

as well as for broken cores and 

bearing changes. It makes perfect sense 

that Christian Ast and Sebastien Becker 

are planning to apply the rotary table 

transfer concept to other systems. “We 

are assuming that this principle will establish 

itself as the new standard”, emphasize 

both specialists (Figure 5). 

 

Foundry sands 

 

 

99.5% SiO 2 

content 

excellent temperature resistance 

standard grain sizes and customized blends 

QUARZWERK 

BAUMS 

GmbH & Co. KG 

Letter Bruch 13 | 48653 Coesfeld | Fon 02546.93401-27 | Fax 02546.1733 

info@qwb-lette.de | www.quarzwerk-baums.de

The different types of robots harmonize like an orchestra (Photos: Kuka Roboter GmbH) 

Author: Laura Schwarzbach, Kuka Roboter GmbH, Augsburg 

In perfect harmony 

25 Kuka robots assemble crankcase core packages fully automatically at Neue Halberg-Guss 

With 2250 employees at sites in 

the German cities Saar brücken and 

Leipzig, Neue Halberg-Guss GmbH 

produces and develops cylinder crankcases, 

cylinder heads for industrial 

motors made of cast iron and cast 

crank shafts. The company is a European 

market leader and technological 

pioneer. The product range extends 

from delicate three-cylinder blocks 

for cars to large-volume V8 units for 

commercial vehicles. Other pro ducts 

include bearing tunnels made of ductile 

cast iron and bedplates made of 

aluminum. Customers include renowned 

automotive and commercial 

vehicle manufacturers such as Volkswagen, 

Daimler, BMW, Audi, MAN, 

Scania and Iveco. 

The company’s Saarbrücken plant 

was in search of an automated solution 

for the complete assembly of crankcase 

core packages. Neue Halberg-Guss decided 

to use a large number of Kuka robot 

in one system: 25 machines from 

the Augsburg-based robot and system 

builder perform all assembly steps fully 

automatically with utmost precision. 

The core packages are prepared in parallel 

by two systems – in other words, 

by a total of 50 robots. 

The Kuka robot orchestra 

“As a development partner with experience 

and expertise, we accompany 

our customers from product idea to 

series production readiness. Designing 

core packages in such a way that 

they can be assembled fully automatically 

poses a particular challenge,” explains 

Peter Koch, project manager at 

Neue Halberg-Guss. Here, robot-based 

automation offers the best solution in 

terms of flexibility, productivity and 

quality. For the assembly of crankcase 

core packages, a maximum of three 

different robot sizes were to be used. 

These had to be ideally suited to the 

special conditions in a foundry environment 

and also to allow a particularly 

space-saving and compact cell 

concept. Thanks to the company’s 

comprehensive robot portfolio, Kuka 

was able to offer the optimal solution 

for both the wide variety of work steps 

and the interaction of the individual 

robots. “The Kuka models we chose 


COREMAKING K 

were the KR 300 R2500 ultra F from 

the KR Quantec series as well as the KR 

Agilus small robot series and the KR 5 

arc,” explains Mr. Koch. At Neue Halberg-Guss, 

the 25 robots now work together 

like an orchestra in perfect harmony. 

A total of twelve KR 300 R2500 

ultra F, eleven KR 5 arc and two KR 6 

R900 sixx robots have been assembling 

crankcase core packages fully automatically 

since 2013 (Figure 1). 

Ideal interplay in the concert of 

assembly 

The first robots in the assembly process 

are the KR Quantec Foundry robots. 

They first remove the complete 

set of cores – consisting of water jacket, 

balance shafts, channel cores, water 

pump core, thermostat core, wheel 

core, crankcase cores and a sole core – 

from the core shooting machine and 

set these on turntables no. 1 and no. 2. 

These tables then rotate 180 degrees 

to the smaller KR 5 arc robots. During 

the subsequent part assembly and deburring 

“concert”, the flexible KR 5 arc 

and KR Agilus robots come into action 

– positioned overhead, side-mounted 

on a pedestal and upright. They 

deburr and assemble the thermostat 

core and drill holes in the water pump 

with the utmost precision – and then 

in the wheel and crankcase, in the water 

jacket core and in the crank and 

sole core. Once both turntables have 

turned back to the original position, 

three further Kuka robots from the KR 

Quantec series pick up the individual 

cores and set them down on turntable 

no. 3 for partial assembly. After another 

180-degree turn, two further KR 300 

robots set down the completely assembled 

package (Figure 2). The next robot 

removes the package and moves it 

below the stationary screw-fastening 

station. Following screw fastening, the 

six-axis robot sets it down on turntable 

no. 4, which then rotates the assembled 

package towards the washing 

cell. Once there, a KR 300 picks up the 

package and immerses it in the wash. 

By pivoting and rotating the package, 

it ensures that the wash is applied 

evenly and then leaves the package to 

drip. Since the washing process takes 

90 s, and is thus longer than the entire 

Figure 1: 25 Kuka robots guarantee a fully automated and highly accurated 

assembly process at Neue Halberg-Guss. 

Figure 2: The robots work close together during the assembly process 

assembly of the core packages (60 s), 

two washing robots are used simultaneously 

so as to guarantee ideal cycle 

times (Figure 3). The washed package 

is then set back down on the turntable 

and once again rotated 90 degrees 

towards a manual inspection station. 

Following approval by the worker, the 

last robot in the ensemble picks up the 

core packages and sets them down on a 

rack with eight slots. Once all of these 

are filled with wet, washed core packages, 

the racks are transferred into the 

drying oven before finding their place 

among the finished products in the 

high-bay warehouse. 


K XXX 

Figure 3: Two Kuka 

KR 300 robots 

guarantee perfect 

cycle times in the 

refractory dressing 

Figure 4: Deburring, mounting, 

drilling, handling: The spectrum of 

tasks done by the robots is huge. 

Harmonious combination of 

robot types 

With the KR300 R2500 ultra F robots, 

Neue Halberg-Guss has opted for veritable 

foundry experts. The robots of 

the Quantec ultra product family are 

characterized by high payload capacity 

combined with maximum performance 

and the most streamlined design 

on the market. Their ideal area 

of use is the handling of heavy workpieces 

and high-accuracy machining. 

In the foundry design, the robots have 

an impact-resistant, corrosion-protected 

foundry wrist, which is resistant to 

both acids and alkalis. It is also protected 

against dust and dirt and able 

to withstand temperatures of up to 

180 °C for short periods. The KR 5 arc 

robot and the KR Agilus stand out in 

the assembly process thanks to their 

outstanding precision, flexibility and 

speed. At the same time, the robot variants 

from the small robot segment and 

the low payload range allow particularly 

space-saving installation in the compact 

cell concept. 

A further ensemble of eleven 

robots already in the planning 

stage 

“The robot-based system has led to 

a 50 % increase in both productivity 

and quality,” concludes Mr. Koch. Today, 

each system of this robot orchestra 

assembles around 400 core packages 

per shift. In addition, production 

costs have been significantly reduced. 

The robot-based automation solution 

also guarantees the Saarbrücken-based 

company a consistently high quality 

for the assembled crankcase core packages. 

The systems can assemble two 

different types of core packages without 

the need for a gripper change. All 

that is required is a special change of 

program. 

Neue Halberg-Guss GmbH and its employees 

are very pleased with the solution: 

“Thanks to the positive experience, 

we are planning a further system 

with a somewhat smaller ensemble of 

eleven Kuka robots,” states Mr. Koch, 

providing a glimpse into the future. The 

robots are to be used for unloading, deburring, 

assembling and washing here 

as well (Figure 4). 

www.kuka-robotics.com

www.sinto.com 

Automatic SEIATSU-ACE Moulding Machines and Plants 

Flaskless Moulding Machines and Plants 

Vacuum Moulding Machines and Plants 

Pouring Units, automatic and semi-automatic 

Modernization of existing plants 

Software for Foundries 

Service 

HEINRICH WAGNER SINTO Maschinenfabrik GmbH 

SINTOKOGIO GROUP 

Bahnhofstrasse 101 · 57334 Bad Laasphe, Germany 

Phone +49 2752 907-0 · Fax +49 2752 907-280 

www.wagner-sinto.de

K QUALITY ASSURANCE 

Authors: Christoph Genzler and Mathias Gruber, Foseco Foundry Division, Vesuvius GmbH, Borken 

Customized CPP – Fulfilling 

demanding customer requirements 

With the continued focus of foundries on producing more complex components and improving 

as-cast quality to minimize the requirement for re-work and eliminate scrap, the need for process 

control is becoming more and more important. As a significant contributor to the as-cast 

quality of castings, the use of coatings is in many applications essential, however without process 

control and consistency of application the significant benefits of applying the correct coating 

can easily be lost [1, 2] 

The Coating Preparation Plant contributes to increase the process safety in foundries (Photos and Graphics: Foseco) 

Previous technical articles [1, 3, 4] 

have described preferred methodologies 

for the control of coatings to deliver 

consistent layer thickness application. 

These articles prescribe the use 

of coating density as the key parameter 

relating to applied layer thickness on 

the basis that other variables such as 

temperature and the rheological properties 

of the coating can be kept constant. 

The relationship between density 

and applied layer thickness as a 

coating is diluted is shown in Figure 1. 

Further process control can be implemented 

through the use of automatic 

measurement of the coating on 

a continuous basis [3, 4] using a Coating 

Preparation Plant, with the density 

of the product kept constant through 

automated additions of either undiluted 

coating or dilutant (water or alcohol). 

This provides significant benefits 

over the traditional manual control 

methods where a product is sampled at 

spe cific time intervals and adjustments 

made if required and removes operator 

variance from the process. 


The need for process automation 

is even greater in foundries where robots 

apply the coating, such as Georg 

Fischer Foundry, Mettmann in Germany 

(+GF+) and Atlantis Foundries 

(pty) Ltd in Atlantis, South Africa [4], 

as there is less opportunity for modifying 

the application to accommodate 

variability of the product consistency. 

Implementation of automated 

coating control 

+GF+ Mettmann is a world class supplier 

of cast components to the automotive 

and commercial vehicle sector and 

prides itself on the quality and consistency 

of its products. One of the core 

competencies of +GF+ is “Added Value” 

through “the high level of automation 

in production and great flexibility 

with simultaneously high process 

reliability to guarantee efficiency in 

manufacturing and the quality of our 

solutions”. With these goals in mind 

+GF+ and Foseco undertook a project 

to modernize and improve the coating 

control and application process in 

their Mettmann foundry. 

The installation at +GF+ (Figure 2) incorporates 

a Coating Preparation Plant 

(CPP) being fed from an existing bulk 

storage tank that contains the undiluted 

coating delivered by bulk tanker. 

Figure 1: Relation between wet and dry coating layer and coating dilution 

The CPP unit measures the density 

of the prepared coating on a continuous 

basis and automatically makes addition 

of coating or dilutant to maintain 

the density at the defined level 

and homogenizes the coating so that 

it is ready for use. The preparation tank 

is then connected to a pipework “loop” 

system that allows the prepared coating 

to be pumped around the coreshop 

before being returned to the 

preparation tank for rehomogenization 

(Figure 2). 

The core-shop has eleven dip-tanks, 

each of which can draw coating from 

the supply loop when required. Overflow 

from the dip-tanks is also pumped 

back into the supply loop, where it 

passes through a set of filters to remove 

any sand or core debris, before 

being rehomogenized in the preparation 

tank, maintained at the correct 

density and subsequently recirculated 

within the supply loop. 

From a quality assurance perspective 

the CPP continually records the density 

of the supplied coating and the additions 

of both coating and water that 

have been made. 

Process approval 

As +GF+ supplies the automotive industry 

with highly demanding, safety 

Figure 2: Schematic of CPP with dip 

tank connected to bulk silo 



critical components which are highly 

specified, it was important to demonstrate 

the capability of the system and 

gain approval for the process change 

from +GF+’s customers. To demonstrate 

the consistency of the process 

control a set of tests were conducted 

over a four week period: 

»» 

The weight pick-up of coating was 

measured both before and after drying 

The wet and dry weight pick-up of the 

coating is respectively proportional to 

the wet and dry applied layer thickness 

of coating, and knowing the area 

Figure 3: Automated dipping of test 

pieces 

Figure 4: Quality assurance checks of wet layer coating thickness 

»» 

Transverse test bars were produced 

using a PUCB binder following a 

standardized procedure 

»» 

The uncoated weight of each test 

piece was recorded 

»» 

Sample coating was removed from 

the Coating Preparation Plant at 

regu lar intervals 

»» 

The density of the sampled coating 

was measured accurately using a calibrated 

pyknometer and recorded, as 

was the solids content of the sample. 

»» 

Coating was applied to the test pieces 

using an automated dipping device 

(Figure 3) which controlled 

both speed and dwell-time of the 

dipping operation 

of coverage and density of the coating 

allows the average layer thickness 

to be calculated. The result of this intense 

study over the four week period 

showed that: 

»» 

At a target density of 1.15 g/cm 3 the 

average CPP density was 1147g/cm 3 

»» 

The standard deviation for the dataset 

was only +/- 0.001g/cm 3 

»» 

The measured dry coating weight 

per core was on average 11.2 g with 

a standard deviation of only +/- 

0.25 g 

Overall this was assessed as extremely 

accurate and reproducible, with the 

variance in weight pick-up onto the 

cores indicating that the layer thickness 

was very consistent over the four 

week trial period as the CPP maintained 

the coating density within very 

tight control limits. 

The test method was designed to 

replicate the foundry process where 

the coating supplied at specific density 

is applied to the cores using automated 

robots that control both speed 

of dipping and dwell time within the 

coating. Subsequent quality checks 

within the foundry continue to validate 

the process, with the CPP maintaining 

a very consistent density of 

supplied coating and regular wet layer 

thickness checks (Figure 4) confirming 

consistent coating layer application. 

Process assurance 

For the control of water-based coating 

products it is essential to implement 

good housekeeping procedures 


to prevent contamination of the product 

resulting in bacterial attack and a 

degradation of the product rheology 

leading to a change in application 

properties. 

In order to avoid this risk, +GF+ 

has chosen the optional water disinfection 

system to be installed on the 

CPP. This system ensures that all incoming 

water used for dilution is disinfected 

and hence avoids 

any coating product deterioration 

due to bacterial infection 

over time. 

The advantage of the 

system installed is that it 

achieves this disinfection 

without the use of harsh 

chemical additives that may 

cause dermatological reactions 

if in contact with operators 

or adversely affect the 

rheological performance of 

the coating. 

continuous improvement and can be 

tailored to every customer requirement. 

Acknowledgement 

Thanks to +GF+ Mettmann Automotive, 

in particular Mr M.Busch for his 

invaluable and trustworthy cooperation. 

Our value 

adding solutions 

for your process 

www.foseco.com 

References 

www.cpt-international.com 

Customized CPP at 

Georg Fischer, 

Mettmann, Germany 

http://bit.ly/1LqhBw8 

Summary 

The benefits of the implementation 

of the CPP into 

the full casting process at 

+GF+ Mettmann can be concluded 

as: 

1. Continuously controlled 

coating application 

2. Repeatability of applied 

layer thickness 

3. Quality assurance and 

historical data availability 

4. Operator independent 

5. Cost savings through reduced 

scrap and re-work 

6. Maintaining core shop 

and foundry-processes at 

an optimized balance 

7. Improved working environment 

Considering the continuously 

growing demand for 

foundry process consistency, 

an acknowledgement of the 

need for a consistent coating 

due to its influence on 

casting quality is required. 

The CPP concept is now accepted 

as the way forward to 

achieving this goal. As with 

all technical equipment, the 

CPP design is subjected to 

Our services provide you with real added value. 

ASK Chemicals experts look forward to hearing from you: 

Phone: +49 211 71103-0 

E-Mail: addedvalue@ask-chemicals.com 

www.ask-chemicals.com


Up to 20 t of liquid iron pass from the pouring basin to the mold via the discharge system in just 120 s – to become 

rotor hubs, machine frames, stator end-bells or main shafts (Photo: Enercon) 

Author: Heiko Wenke, Atlas Copco Tools Central Europe GmbH, Essen 

Light turbo-grinders for heavy 

wind-turbine castings 

Production at Enercon, a leading manufacturer of wind turbines, has moved into top gear. The 

company processes castings weighing up to 16 t with a new type of turbine grinder at its GZO 

foundry in the East Frisian region of Germany’s Lower Saxony. The grinders are considerably 

lighter and much more robust than the devices previously used, and offer by far lower energy 

consumption than conventional equipment 

“Our wind turbines already save energy 

before they have generated their 

first kilowatt hour of electricity,” says 

Thomas Bliesner, Manager of Casting 

Finishing at the Enercon Group’s GZO 

foundry in East Frisia. “Because we use 

tools supplied by Atlas Copco – with 

much lower nominal air consumption 

than classic pneumatic tools – for 

machining the surfaces of large workpieces.” 

Although the casting specialists 

really do not need to worry about 


Enercon GmbH 

With the founding of the company in 1984, engineer 

Aloys Wobben initiated the economic / 

ecological success story of Enercon with a small 

team of engineers. The first wind turbines with 

a nominal output of 55 kW were the result. Initially 

equipped with gears, from 1992 there was 

a steady switchover to gearless plant technology. 

The use of fewer rotating components enabled an 

almost frictionless flow of energy with considerably 

lower mechanical stress, lower maintenance 

requirements, lower operating costs and longer 

service lives. 

The further development of all components offers 

customers technologically sophisticated products 

with an electrical output of up to about 8 MW. 

This is exemplified by, say, the new rotor blade 

geometry introduced in 2004 – which significantly 

increased profitability, reduced noise emission 

and reduced the loads affecting the wind turbine. 

In addition, all Enercon wind energy plants have 

a grid feed system that meets the latest grid connection 

requirements and can be integrated in all 

supply and distribution structures. 

Enercon, with its headquarters in Aurich in Lower 

Saxony, has been a worldwide leader in wind energy 

for well over 30 years. Enercon is the market 

leader in Germany and employs more than 13,000 

personnel. With about 27,000 installed wind energy 

plants in more than 30 countries, Enercon is 

also the third-largest producer in the world. Research 

& Development, Production and Sales are 

continuously being expanded. 

Deburring of a rotor hub with the GTG 25. The maneuverability of 

the turbo-grinder is increased by a MultiFlex swivel coupling. This ergonomic 

detail is a compressed air connection that turns through 

360° in two planes and follows the movements of the tool, reliev ing 

the operator of bending stresses in the air hose (Photos: Atlas Copco) 

www.enercon.de 

Thomas Bliesner is Manager of the Casting 

Finishing Department of Enercon’s GZO foundry 

in East Frisia and has subjected twenty angle 

grinders to an endurance test in his department 

the energy consumption of their works 

near Aurich because its entire electricity 

requirement is covered practically 

climate-neutrally from renewable 

sources of energy. But sustainability determines 

many of the processes at the 

works in the municipality of Südbrookmerland 

on principle, proven by certification 

of its energy management system 

with DIN EN ISO 50001 since 2014. 

“We have been casting all the large and 

important components for our Enercon 

generators since 2010, keeping the transport 

paths for production short. This 

provides ecological benefits, and our 

competence for these important components 

remains in-house,” Bliesner explains 

the company philosophy and goes 

on to describe the production portfolio: 

“Machine frames, stator end-bells, rotor 

hubs or main shafts with unit weights 

of up to 16 t are typical products.” The 

GZO, which has developed into one 

of Europe’s largest and most modern 

foundry operations, produces up to 70 

of these very large heavyweights every 

week in serial production. “With rising 

rotor blade diameters and increasingly 

powerful wind turbines, the already 

very large dimensions are growing even 

further,” Thomas Bliesner is certain, and 

even considers a doubling of dimensions 

and casting weights a realistic prospect. 

Processing meter-high unmachined 

parts 

The departmental manager is well 

aware that the processing of the me- 



ter-high unmachined parts after shaking 

out from the sand mold is extremely 

stressful for the tools used. “The 

grinding machines, in particular, are 

seriously challenged here,” acknowledges 

Bliesner: “Our special spheroidal 

graphite cast iron is a particularly 

tough material that demands everything 

of the tools when removing 

the burrs and roughing the surfaces!” 

During three-shift operation on five 

days a week the angle grinders undergo 

net operating times of 15 - 18 h a 

day. 

Tido Moritz, the Deputy Manager 

of Casting Finishing, also emphasizes 

that the entire sector is undergoing 

a change from more hand-crafted traditional 

production to the use of industrial 

processes, and reports that 

during the five years since production 

started at the GZO the work’s capacity 

utilization has increased massively. 

“We have introduced additional 

shifts in order to meet the demand. 

The 90 personnel in our department 

work on a piecework basis and treat 

the tools very ‘robustly’.” The industrial 

angle grinders from Atlas Copco, 

Essen, Germany, for the large 230 mm 

diameter abrasives have already been 

in use for a long time and can take the 

rough treatment, but standard devices 

for the smaller roughing and cutting 

disk dimensions did not survive such 

heavy-duty use for long. 

“We had to adapt our tooling to 

the changed conditions. The many 

defects and failures among both the 

electric and pneumatic grinders disrupted 

production work,” Moritz 

describes. The pneumatic grinders 

with vane motors and the electrical 

high-frequency grinders ultimately 

only had service lives of at most eight 

to twelve weeks. After this period, at 

the latest, the extreme stresses meant 

that expensive repairs were needed 

– and often even scrapping. “All the 

machines were economic write-offs 

after just a few weeks and had only 

scrap value. We couldn’t accept this 

state of affairs anymore because, with 

a total of 250 tools in use, this represented 

a considerable time and cost 

factor.” We therefore tested various 

alternatives. 

The new generation of turbo-grinders exceeded the expectations of the Enercon 

foundry in East Frisia. Weighing just 2.1 kg, the GTG 25 provides 2.5 kW 

power output and is very popular among the employees because of its low 

level of vibrations during operation. 

GZO Department Manager Thomas Bliesner (left) and his Deputy Tido Moritz 

(center) are convinced by the results of the surface treatment. With them is 

Atlas Copco application consultant Christian Hofmann (right). 

The fettling shop as an extended 

workbench 

“At first, we couldn’t find any satisfactory 

solution,” say Bliesner and Moritz. 

“But the proposal from Atlas Copco 

Tools to give us the prototype of a new 

turbine grinding machine to test – and 

to accompany us during these trials – 

seemed very promising.” The developers 

at Atlas Copco were looking for a suitable 

testing site for the latest generation 

of their Geared Turbine Grinder (GTG) 

with gear reduction. They worked together 

as partners because the extraordinarily 

high demands of the foundry 

in East Frisia ideally matched the device, 

which weighs only 2.1 kg, and both the 

user and the supplier could profit from 

the trial. The easy-to-handle machine 

is suitable for abrasives with diameters 


When the going gets tough…: 4.5 kW GTG 40 turbine grinders have asserted 

themselves for heavy roughing and deburring work at the GZO. They are 

used with 230 and 180 mm abrasives. 

of 125 and 180 mm and exerts an output 

power of 2.5 kW on the disk. Its low 

overall height of just 59 mm above the 

spindle straightaway made the device 

eligible for use at Enercon for grinding 

work where space was limited, as well as 

in difficult-to-reach component corners 

and on edges. 

Employees no longer suffer 

from lame arms 

A total of twenty GTG-25 turbo-grinders 

were initially used at the GZO and 

were deliberately not treated gently. 

The Enercon users quickly reported 

their first positive feedback to the 

Essen-based suppliers. There was, of 

course, an acclimatization period with 

initial teething problems, but these 

only involved minor aspects and were 

quickly disposed of. “By and large, the 

little turbos worked remarkably well 

right from the start. Their performance 

was good and our test personnel didn’t 

want to give the versatile angle grinders 

back again,” Moritz describes the 

trial. “The machines are really fun to 

use. Even when working overhead I no 

longer get a lame arm,” says one worker. 

No wonder, because a GTG 25 only 

weighs half as much as a conventional 

grinder in this performance class. 

That comment about fun was meant 

very seriously, and was of major importance 

for those responsible at the 

GZO, stresses Bliesner: “The significance 

of ergonomy in our processes 

is as important as productivity!” That 

the GTG 25 can do both is due to the 

combination of its extremely strong 

drive and its effective vibration damping 

system. The lower vibration values 

are achieved by an automatic imbalance 

compensator (auto-balancer) 

that suppresses vibrations to a very low 

level of less than 3.8 m/s², measured in 

three axes. The noise emission value of 

76 dB (A) is also comparatively low. In 

addition to the excellent ergonomic 

properties, there is also the low nominal 

air consumption, considerably decreasing 

energy costs: in full-load operation 

just 12.8 l/s per kW – a level that 

is practically impossible for conventional 

pneumatic tools. 

Economical, powerful and userfriendly 

“Because downsizing is not entirely unproblematic, 

we were as curious as the 

producer about how such economical 

and compact high-performance tools 

would perform in the long term,” Bliesner 

and Moritz agree. Their endurance test 

showed that about 60 % more material 

was removed with the GTG 25 than 

with conventional grinders. This is why 

the two reckoned with a correspondingly 

high level of tool wear, as they were unfortunately 

accustomed to from the small 

grinders hitherto used. “Luckily, Atlas 

Copco disillusioned us in this regard! Although 

after 1,000 operating hours the 

turbos looked pretty ravaged externally, 

when they were completely taken to pieces 

and all the components thoroughly examined 

there was still no sign of internal 

wear and tear.” Bliesner and Moritz admit 

to having expected a much worse outcome. 

So they are all the more pleased to 

be able to carry out roughing and grinding 

work with the new GTG 25 tools considerably 

quicker, better and more cost-effectively 

than before. 

www.atlascopco.de 



Author: Ralf Sinner, Head of Sales, Mewo GmbH & Co KG, Olpe 

Cryogenic deburring of 

non ferrous die castings 

There are various established deburring processes for pressure die cast parts. They all have one 

thing in common: To a certain extend, they all lead to a change in the appearance of the as-cast 

surface, a shift of tight-tolerance dimensional accuracies, changes in the outside geometry as 

well as in the microstructure – and with that, in the most extreme case, this may even change 

the material properties of the treated part 

Example of application: zinc die casting 

with finished surface (Photos: Mewo) 

Thanks to technical innovations and 

highly complex, movable tooling arrangements, 

it is possible today to produce 

pressure die cast parts made of non 

ferrous (NF) metals for most different industries 

and applications. Such applications 

and constantly growing or even 

completely new requirements on dimensional 

accuracy, tolerances, surface 

conditions and reduced roughness call 

for finishing processes that safeguard a 

part’s quality, which often required a 

great technological effort to be achieved. 

Moreover, in series production 100 % reproducibility 

has become a standard requirement 

(Figures 1, 3 and 4). 

Mewo Maschinenfabrik, Olpe, Germany, 

which since 1948 has specialized 

in equipment for deburring processes, 

a few years ago accepted the 

challenge to develop a deburring solution 

specifically for the current requirements 

placed on NF-metals die 

castings on the basis of the company’s 

cryogenic blasting process, an established 

process for the treatment of 

elastomers and molded plastic parts. 

This application of the cryogenic blasting 

process is able to fulfill the requirements 

placed by customers on the full 

range of deburring processes – from 

prototype making through to fully automatic 

large series production. 

Cryogenic deburring is a process 

which involves freezing of the cast 

parts to a predefined range of below-zero 

temperatures by means of liquid nitrogen. 

The temperature is set according 

to the specific requirements of the 

parts on hand. The process extracts 

sensible heat from the castings, leading 

to embrittlement of the excess material 

flown out during the casting process. 

The cast part proper freezes only 

superficially, i.e. down to the root of 

the burr. The core of the casting is less 

affected by the low temperature and 

therefore retains its elasticity. When 

the cast parts are in this state of embrittlement 

induced by freezing, they 

are subjected to the blasting treatment. 

The treatment can be targeted on specific 

spots of the part or the entire part 

can be treated. Polycarbonatic material 

is used as blasting medium. Depending 

on the specific application 

and the requirements, different geometries 

and grain sizes from 0.15 to 

2.0 mm are used. During blasting, also 

the medium is constantly subjected to 

the low temperature, giving it the necessary 

abrasive resistance and impact 

strength for the process. Deburring is 

thus effected by knocking off the excess 

material and not by abrasion. 

In the PLC controlled deburring machines, 

the entire process takes place automatically 

(Figure 2). The process consists 

of various individual operations. 

First, the parts are cooled to the specifically 

defined target freezing temperature. 

Then, the actual blasting process 

takes place. Finally, media re sidues are 

removed from the cast parts and separated 

from broken burr material. Depending 

on the geometry, size and max-

Figure 2: Mewo Rotor TS 7.12 for batch 

deburring and inserts for holding devices 

Figure 1: Example of application: aluminium casting with article-specific 

holding device 

Figure 3: Example of application: 

batch deburring of zinc parts 

imum usable kinetic energy, the entire 

process takes 3 - 6 min on average. 

Just for parts with very delicate surfaces 

it is recommended that they should 

be dried after deburring in order to accelerate 

defreezing. This reduces the 

temperature gradient between the ambient 

air and the surface temperature 

avoiding fogging of the cast parts and 

subsequent staining caused by thaw or 

rust formation. Also for this case and for 

parts that have to meet extremely exacting 

cleanness requirements, Mewo 

offers an optional system specifically 

designed to clean and post-treat such 

parts, avoiding any unnecessary handling 

and shifting of filigree parts for 

downstream processes. An outstanding 

feature of this sophisticated variant of 

the Mewo technology is the fact that it 

is suitable for any parts in any conditions, 

i.e. as cast, after punching or after 

machining, and for any geometries, 

including thin-walled and crack-sensitive 

contours. The process provides extremely 

precise deburring and is 100 % 

Figure 4: Zinc castings – left: as cast, 

right: deburred 

reproducible. It is even suitable for surface-finished 

parts. Another advantage 

of the Mewo process over conventional 

processes is the fact that it does not affect 

in any way the surface, microstructure 

or appearance and feel of the part, 

nor the material properties or dimensions. 

Moreover, any risk of fire during 

equipment operation can be generally 

ruled out. Instead, all pre-existing tolerance 

values and dimensions, sharpedged 

contours or polished surfaces 

will be 100 % retained. Plus, due to the 

excellent deburring result achieved by 

the process, there will be no additional 

post-treatment. 

Depending on the geometry and 

material of the parts, the Mewo process 

achieves fine and ultra-fine deburring 

of up to 0.2 mm thickness and burr 

tolerances of up to 0.02 mm, with the 

minimum material thickness of the 

part being 0.5 mm. Renowned foundries 

use this process predominantly 

for parts made for the automotive and 

electronics industries, because the potential 

risk of “burrs getting loose”, 

which has been moving increasingly 

into focus, can be generally ruled out 

when using the Mewo process. Mewo 

Maschinenfabrik has an own service, 

development and training centre. 

There, interested customers may test 

the deburring process on their own 

products. 

www.mewo-machines.com 


K CASTING TECHNOLOGY 

Author: Mathias Weil, Siempelkamp Giesserei, Krefeld 

Longest casting made of ductile 

cast iron 

23.5 m – not a typo but a particular requirement which the customer TOS KUŘIM placed on 

Siempelkamp Giesserei. 23.5 m was to be the length of the crossbeam for a 2-column machining 

center which the Czech company intended to award as a contract. After an in-depth consultation 

on feasibility, Siempelkamp Giesserei applied for this project, which it was awarded over 

three competitors from Germany and abroad, winning the contract for the ”longest casting 

made of ductile cast iron ever“! 

The longest cast part of ductile iron that has ever been cast has been realized by the Siempelkamp Foundry in Krefeld. 

With this casting the company wrote history. (Photos: Siempelkamp) 

In June 2014 TOS KUŘIM, a member of 

the Czech ALTA Group, Pilsen, Czech 

Republic, submitted the inquiry for the 

king-size project. The particular challenge 

in such a contract: ”There are 

no manufacturing-specific tolerances 

for casting and patternmaking in 

this size category; technical standards 

no longer apply. Only the skills of the 

engineers and technicians, as well as 

TOS KUŘIM: Profile 

»» 

Founded in 1942 with the product spectrum 

of boring, polishing, turning, console 

milling and special purpose machines. 

»» 

A joint-stock company since 1992. 

Member of the ALTA Group since 2005. 

»» 

Location: Brno, second-largest city in 

the Czech Republic. 

»» 

Business segment: production of precise 

machine tools and machining centers, 

especially with mobile columns 

and portal machining centers for complex 

component parts. 

»» 

Fields of application: heavy machine 

engineering, po wer en gineering, aircraft 

industry, shipbuilding, railway engineering 


the patternmakers, molders and fettlers 

can make this project a success 

( Figures 1-4). The experience of our 

employees is the be-all and end-all in 

such a project,“ explains Mathias Weil, 

a Sales Representative at Siempelkamp 

Giesserei. 

23.5 m in length, with a unit 

weight in the raw casting of almost 

120,000 kg – only a few foundries in 

Europe are able to produce such a large 

component. 

Siempelkamp‘s reputation in this 

field is well-known in the Czech Republic. 

Therefore, one of the locations 

where the inquiry from the machine 

tool manufacturer was placed was 

Krefeld. 

One important criterion in the decisionmaking 

process for the order: 

Siempelkamp operates three machines 

which are considered to be the best 

reference for such a contract. For example, 

the Vertimaster VME 10 vertical 

turning, boring and milling machine 

at the Krefeld location is able to 

Figure 1: With a depth of 3.2 m and a length of 25 m the longest casting pit that 

was ever required for a project emerged in the Siempelkamp molding shop 

process components of up to 17 m in 

length. This large carousel machine 

made by Schiess, Aschersleben, Germany, 

with a 10 m faceplate and a 

16 m processing star has been a positive 

addition to the Siempelkamp 

machine park since 2012. Secondly, 

Siempelkamp in Krefeld operates two 

gantry-type CNC portal milling machines 

(Schiess VMG 6), which belong 

to the largest portal milling machines 

in the world. 

The large castings for these machines 

were cast at Siempelkamp Foundry – 

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Figure 2: Grinding and deburring of a casting in the fettl ing shop 

Figure 3: A cast with 140 t melt was required to realize this unique casting. Here it 

is raised in a hall with a crane, to lift it onto a waiting semi-trailer truck 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a good argument in favor of the machines. 

Component length + component 

weight = trust in Siempel kamp 

expertise 

The company‘s experience with corresponding 

large dimensions was the deciding 

factor in issuing Siempelkamp 

with the contract for the record casting. 

”In this order of magnitude there 

is a lot that is uncharted territory. At 

first it was important to present the 

customer with what we considered to 

be the important specifications and 

recom mendations. This was followed 

by a lively dialog, ultimately the finalization 

process and therefore the okay 

from our customer to follow our recommendations,“ 

reports Mathias Weil. 

Receipt of the order was followed by 

numerous working steps before it was 

time for the core tasks – molding and 

casting. The pattern was planned accurately 

down to the last detail – in this 

case a combination pattern, as TOS 

KUIM also intends to be able to mold 

an 18 m version. Here, the customer 

and foundry remained in close contact 

in accordance with the foundry‘s philosophy 

of ”Modern engineering technology 

meets experience with solid 

craftsmanship“. What are the specific 

requirements of the customer? How is 

the casting installed on the machine? 

What stresses does it have to be able to 

withstand in which areas? These were 

questions which were tabled in the dialog 

with the customer in order to implement 

the casting techniques and model 

concept in the best possible manner. 

At the same time as the model planning, 

the foundry team assessed the initial 

solidification simulation results so 


that it could then optimize the model 

concept on this basis. With a component 

whose engineering technology is 

so complex, the residual stress is also 

analyzed and evaluated. The results 

of this calculation highlight any weak 

points and the caster can still carry out 

design optimizations in cooperation 

with the customer and patternmaker. 

An important requirement: The deformation 

of the cast part during the 

cooling process alone amounts to 

35 mm. This has to be taken into consideration 

during the patternmaking 

and mold making processes. 

Figure 4: 23.5 m long, 120 t weight – 

only a few foundries in Europe are able 

to produce such a large component. 

Largest component – largest pit 

If a casting is as large as this, the boundary 

conditions during production also 

have to be right. In the Siempelkamp 

molding shop this required the creation 

of a pit which was 3.2 m deep 

and 25 m long – the longest pit that 

was ever dug for a project! The sand bed 

alone on which the model is molded 

is 400 mm thick and extremely compacted 

in order to extensively avoid deformations 

during the cooling process. 

Such a molding process takes three 

weeks. Over 30 different core shapes 

have to be positioned with millimeter 

accuracy; only then is 140,000 kg 

of molten iron cast at 1350 °C. Within 

70 s the iron has to spread out from 

below in the long mold and rise uniformly 

so that the mold does not collapse 

before it is completely filled due 

to the heat produced. For two weeks 

the crossbeam then cooled down in 

the pit to 300 °C – only then was it 

possible to determine whether the 

casting process had been successful. 

The three-week long fettling and inspection 

process of the longest but 

also very delicate component was the 

next challenge. ”The tests showed that 

the quality required by our customer 

had been reached, so that the component 

could be primed before being 

sent on its way to the Czech Republic,“ 

says Mathias Weil. Thanks to the outstanding 

cooperation of all of the departments 

involved and the customer 

this was a successful project! 

www.siempelkamp.com 

ISTANBUL-TURKEY 

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Ready for acceptance testing: the top and bottom section (right) of a compressor housing set (Photos: Siempelkamp) 

Author: Helmut Rieck, Siempelkamp Giesserei, Krefeld 

Energy conversion with 

Siempelkamp cast components 

What started 45 years ago with the production of compressor housings from gray cast iron has 

developed into a special range of products and services at Siempelkamp Giesserei GmbH: turbines 

and compressors with cast iron components made by Siempelkamp are a familiar brand in 

the energy industry, thanks to large casting competence, super-high precision and specialization. 

A new feature, however, is that for the first time the foundry is now supplying a product mix 

covering the entire spectrum of required components 

Housings for large continuous-flow 

machines by Siempelkamp, Krefeld, 

Germany, are currently in great demand. 

Even after the rapid development 

of the energy transition, it can be 

seen that fossil fuel-fired power plants 

will retain their central significance for 

global energy supplies. Industrial turbines 

are required here for steam and 

gas power plants, as well as for combined 

cycle power plants. 

Large-scale compressors for manufacturing 

synthetic fuels are playing an 

ever greater role in the energy industry. 

In rapidly growing national economies 

with rising energy requirements, 

the focus is on gaining independence 

from oil imports, e.g. with the aid of 

air separation and coal liquefaction. In 

Chinese “coal-to-liquid” (CTL) plants, 

synthetic fuels and other hydrocarbons 

are created from the extensive 

coal deposits present in many regions. 

The Siempelkamp Giesserei has also 

consistently accompanied the development 

of the largest steam turbines. 

Housing sets have been built with upper 

and lower sections weighing an 

enormous 120,000 kg per housing; 

those dimensions were achieved over 

five years ago in Krefeld, Germany, and 

have yet to be beaten. 

Modern combined cycle power 

plants likewise require relatively 

large components for gas turbines. 

For around a year now, the foundry 

has been supplying this rapidly developing 

market with new components, 

which are currently assuming starting 


positions for series production. As a result 

of the design, the maximum unit 

weight is 25,000 kg. 

In the field of large-scale compressors 

for synthetic fuel extraction, a 

new demand arose two years ago for 

correspondingly large-scale systems. 

The foundry was able to meet this demand, 

manufacturing and delivering 

four housing sets (upper and lower sections), 

each weighing 70,000 kg. 

“Follow-up orders are in sight, and 

we are already working on plans to 

significantly exceed the current maximum 

weights for steam turbines, just 

in case demand becomes acute,” says 

Helmut Rieck, looking to the future. He 

is the one responsible at Siempelkamp 

Giesserei for component sales. 

Whether for electricity generation, 

locomotive manufacturing, shipbuilding, 

or aerospace, all the developments 

of industrialization went 

along with clever designs for steam or 

gas turbines (see box). Since the 1970s, 

Siempelkamp has been manufacturing 

large-scale components for the applications 

of today, and its ability to combine 

king-size casting capabilities with 

super-high precision has earned it pole 

position in the market. 

The very first models were the compressor 

housings for gas and steam turbines 

in gray cast iron, which Siempelkamp 

always supplied as individual 

components. Today, large-scale components 

for steam turbines occupy an 

important position in the portfolio of 

the foundry. 

Steam turbine components: 

high-performance and solid 

Modern steam turbines deliver an output 

of up to 1,600 MW, dividing the 

steam flow between separate subsidiary 

turbines that share a single shaft. 

The blade lengths in the low-pressure 

sections of such machines exceed 

2,000 mm, and during operation the 

blade tips can reach speeds of up to 

500 m/s. This is one and a half times 

the speed of sound! 

Figure 1: Cast components for continuous-flow 

machines today make up 

an important percentage of the 

Siempelkamp 

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Figure 3: Ready for transport: Large casting on a truck 

Figure 2: Fettling of a housing for an 

underwater turbine 

In order to cope with these high internal 

pressures, the steam turbines 

require solid housing sections. As the 

expert, this is where the Siempelkamp 

Giesserei comes into play. “We have recently 

realized housing set weights of 

120 metric tons, and thus support our 

customers with components that are 

ideally suited to their requirements for 

solidity,” explains Helmut Rieck. 

A magic word among the requirements 

is “efficiency”: particularly in 

steam and gas turbine power plants 

with outputs of over 100 MW, the operators 

aim to achieve efficiency levels 

of over 60 %. The higher this level, the 

lower the energy consumption and environmental 

pollution. 

The design of the inner and outer 

housings of the turbines makes a decisive 

contribution to optimizing the efficiency. 

This is where Siempelkamp‘s 

competence in designing super-heavy 

and large-scale cast components in 

nodular cast iron pays off. This is how 

the foundry has positioned itself at 

the front of the market. “Compared 

to welded designs, nodular cast iron 

is characterized by improved damping 

and exceptional mechanical properties 

during continuous operation. Nodular 

cast iron castings also display superior 

damping properties when compared to 

cast steel,” says Helmut Rieck. 

Compressor components: heavyweights 

for pressure generation 

Compressor components for centrifugal 

and screw compressors are 

also manufactured by Siempelkamp 

Giesserei. These are among the largest 

cast components, which can weigh 

from 10,000 to 25,000 kg. 

These components are required e.g. 

for axial compressors, continuous-flow 

machines in which the air flows in an 

axial direction (Figure 1), through an alternating 

series of rotating and stationary 

blades. The air is first accelerated and 

then compressed. The blade channels 

form diffusor-like extended channels. 

Here the kinetic energy generated by the 

rotational motion of the air is decelerated 

and converted into pressure energy. 

These axial compressors are continuously 

increasing in size for use in coal 

liquefaction. Systems with a throughput 

of 1.4 million m 3 /h of air have been 

built. Siempelkamp is keeping up with 

this development process. “In 2013 

alone, we were able to fulfill the requirements 

of our customers by manufacturing 

four housing sets with a total 

weight of 70,000 kg each. Further 

increases in performance are planned,” 

says Helmut Rieck. 

Gas turbine components: high 

performance, lower weight 

Siempelkamp is also staying on the ball 

when it comes to components for gas 

turbines. These turbines demand high 

machine performance, low weight and 

dimensions, and quick-starting capabilities. 

It is not least for these reasons 

that they are used in modern combined 

cycle power plants. 

Owing to the steadily increasing 

power plant sizes, corresponding stationary 

gas turbines have been developed. 

Siempelkamp has been active in 

this market for the last year with components 

of up to 25,000 kg. It is not 

currently anticipated that there will 

be demand for yet larger components 

in the near future. The most powerful 

stationary machine currently delivers 

an output of 375 MW. 

Three product facets – three 

examples of Siempelkamp commitment 

to continuous-flow 

machines 

Whether for gas and steam turbines or 

for compressors, when it comes to the 

requirements for and sustainability of 

its products, over the years the Siempelkamp 

Giesserei has remained up-todate 

at all times. The ompany has also 

kept in step with the changing focus 

of demand resulting from the special 

market situation (Figure 2). 

“In the 1980s the gas turbines were 

on top, and in the 1990s it was the 


steam turbines. From 2007 to 2010, 

under conditions of booming demand, 

we seriesmanufactured large steam turbine 

housings for the first time,” describes 

Helmut Rieck. This demand 

has eased off substantially. In 2014, inquiries 

received by Siempelkamp have 

predominantly been for individual job 

manufacturing of compressor housings 

and compressor spirals, and for series 

manufacturing of components for 

screw compressors. Individual manufacturing 

jobs for steam turbines and 

series manufacturing for large-scale 

compressors are also taking on an important 

role among the incoming orders 

for the first half of the year. 

With all this changing demand, to 

this day there has always been one 

constant: the good reputation of the 

Siempelkamp Giesserei and its team 

when it comes to serving the complex 

requirement spectrum of the market 

Gas and steam turbines: Premieres 

1791: First patent registration for a gas turbine 

1883: Gustav de Laval invents the impulse steam turbine 

1884: Patent for the steam turbine of British inventor Charles Parsons. Parsons‘ turbine 

was more complex in design than that of Laval, but achieved better efficiency, 

and was more easily adapted to increasing steam pressure and output. 

It was used for electricity generation and in marine drive systems. 

1911: The first turbine with a noteworthy degree of efficiency is built 

1938: First stationary gas turbine 

1939: The first jet aircraft takes to the air 

2011: Irsching 4 combined cycle power plant: coupling of gas and steam turbines 

with an efficiency of 60.75% 

(Figure 3), e.g. high precision and tolerance 

requirements, in some cases 

with extreme surface requirements. 

The work of the molders, fettlers and 

inspection personnel is also subject to 

strict quality criteria. 

In general, demand is tending to 

move towards individual job manufacturing, 

while series production requirements 

are concentrated on centrifugal 

and screw compressors. “High 

requirements, less series production,” 

will be the motto with which Siempelkamp 

positions itself in this special 

market in future. 

www.siempelkamp.com 

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K SOFTWARE 

Author: Matthias Holzapfel, Villingen-Schwenningen 

Additional performance through 

enhanced efficiency 

Implementation of the industry solution TimeLine at BUVO Castings BV 

The foundry manufactures products in large quantities on a production area 

of around 11,000 m 2 (Photos: BUVO Castings BV) 

The Aluminum high-pressure foundry 

BUVO Castings BV, Helmond, The 

Netherlands, has set itself the goal to 

permanent be one of the top foundries 

in Europe. For this, a fundamental 

prerequisite is the ongoing modernization 

and optimization of the manufacturing 

process. Within this framework, 

in order to improve the data processing 

system, the aged own-developed isolated-solution 

EDV has been replaced with 

the ERP/PPS-system TimeLine, “perfectly 

streamlined to the needs of a foundry. 

This way we managed not only to integrate 

business management, logistics 

and casting specific business processes 

inter-divisional into one system but 

also reduce the workflow and increase 

existing capacity through more transparency 

and efficiency“, so Twan van 

den Elzen, Financial Manager at BUVO 

Castings. 

BUVO Castings BV was founded 1980 

and is an aluminum high-pressure 

foundry specialized on casting and mechanical 

processing of products to be 

used in various domains. Furthermore, 

the company comes with its own tool 

manufacture. 

The foundry includes a 11,000 m 2 

production area, 250 employees and 

16 high-class casting machines (clamping 

forces of 250 to 1,000 t) in order to 

mass-produce lot sizes from 5,000 up 

to more than 5,000,000 products per 

year (unit weights between 10 g and 

15 kg). The international clientele includes 

renowned companies in the 

areas automotive, gas, office equipment, 

telecommunications and medicine. 

Redundancy through standalone-solutions 

for the own 

developed software system 

Since its founding, BUVO Castings BV 

has attached great importance to continuous 

investment in state-of-the-art technology 

and manufacturing processes. 

Managing Director Jos Smeets: “A 

high degree of automation is of major 

significance as to ensure a market-driven 

development and manufacturing of 

technically high-grade aluminum die 

cast parts. Thereby, commercial, manufacturing 

and logistics tasks, from 

the conception – including the tools 

– to the processed respectively assembled 

end product, represent an immense 

challenge“. Therefore, in order 

to support business processes, an 

own DOS-software system has been 

developed and maintained by a BUVO 

employee and „it has proven to work 

satisfactorily for years but then increasingly 

revealed weak points“, Financial 

Manager Twan van den Elzen added. 

First, the initially homogeneous EDV 

changed more and more to a heterogeneous 

system made of isolated solutions 

with detrimental consequences 

as interface problems or redundancies; 

on the other hand, due to the missing 

integration, important information 

were not available to all departments. 

Moreover, as a result of the respective 

employee having left the company, 

maintenance or further development 

were threatened by a complete standstill; 

over time, the more demanding 

requirements of customers such as EDI 

or delivery call-off sealed the final end 

of this solution. 

“TimeLine speaks our language!“ 

In the spring of 2013 a shortlist of various 

ERP/PPS-Solutions providers has 

been processed – thereby some systems 

impressed with regard to their business 

functionality, others with regard 

to the mapping of process-related requirements. 

Twan van den Elzen: “With 

TimeLine we have certainly found a soft- 


ware that convinced us both in terms of 

commercial department and manufacturing 

technology and particularly in 

terms of explicit oriented functionality 

on foundry specific requirements“. 

About ten years ago, out of a founder 

circle of seven foundries and the 

Gebauer GmbH in Solingen, Germany, 

emerged TimeLine, an industry solution 

for sand-, mold- and casting foundries, 

that also covers in addition to the business 

management respectively production 

related functions of an ERP/PPS 

system all casting specific requirements 

such as cast calculation (with metal 

prices calculation, melting costs and 

variant costing), graphical planning, 

co-product orders (for the proper management 

of mixed pattern plates), tool 

and pattern management, management 

of metal and energy price increase surcharge 

(MTZ/ETZ), external production, 

melting process management or quality 

assurance – “TimeLine consultants comprehend 

what pressure die-casting is 

about and simply speak our language”, 

continued the Financial Manager. 

The acquisition and in parallel running 

adjustments of the old master 

data including production-, customers-, 

suppliers-, items- or purchase 

items data, as well as the training of 

the key-users were followed by the going 

live of TimeLine on a total of 50 

TimeLine working stations according 

to plan and schedule in March 2014. 

Overview with responsibility 

“We used the great industry functionality 

of TimeLine already in the introduction 

phase as an occasion to analyze and 

study, eventually even modify numerous 

organizational procedures in our company 

“, explained Twan van den Elzen. 

The workflow at BUVO Castings is being 

dominated nowadays by a project plan, 

defined by diverse milestones that can 

be complemented with free text. These 

milestones are linked with all sorts of 

data, among others with toolmaking respectively 

with external suppliers. 

The degree of automation is an important factor in modern production 

Additional performance throu- 

 

TimeLine 

The implementation of TimeLine at 

BUVO Castings lead after a short runtime 

to noticeable improvements: processes 

can be integrated inter-divisional 

and hereby handled much more 

quickly with increased process and 

data security; the implementation of 

foundry specific requirements in Time- 

Line enables a more efficient work in 

the production area, liberating capacities. 

“Standstill means a step backwards. 

Therefore, our old EDV isolated-solution-software 

could nowadays 

no longer respond efficiently and effectively 

to the stringently demands 

of a fast, complex and global market. 

With TimeLine we do have found a stable 

solution, which permits demands 

to be fulfilled easily, transparent and effectively“, 

so Jos Smeets. Twan van den 

Elzen drawing positive conclusions: 

“Whether production planning, order 

tracking, costing depth or comprehensive 

results: today, TimeLine represents 

the administrative core of the entire 

company – consistently, transparent 

and integrated in one system. This way 

we can easily react promptly and flexibly 

to constantly changing customer 

requirements and price developments 

for raw materials and energy” 

www.timeline.info 


After die casting, the magnesium components are rough- and precision-machined, undergo high-pressure deburring, 

are washed, checked for tightness and finally laser-marked (Photos: Andreas Bednareck) 

Author: Robert Piterek, German Foundry Association, Düsseldorf 

Shaping the future with die casting 

KSM Castings Group – with plants in Europe, the USA and China – has strengthened its competitive 

position as an automotive supplier with a major investment of 13 million euros at its 

Hildesheim site to increase the added value of its magnesium components. In recent years, the 

foundry group has repositioned itself with innovative material development, flexible recruiting 

methods, and consistent investments in modern light construction with a global reach 

The new machine park for machining 

magnesium components stretches out, 

bright and clean, across the 1,400 m² 

plant hall, whose walls are lined with 

long pipes. A model industrial scenario 

with the typical background noise 

of mechanical processing: screeching 

milling sounds, whirring robot joints, 

the humming of motors and the occasional 

wail of sirens. Busy KUKA robots 

get on with their work behind safety 

fences: the metal colleagues place 

transmission housings in twin-spindle 

turning machines that process two 

housings simultaneously, before the 

robots load them onto conveyor belts 

that take them to the blasting plant or 

the washing line. 

Large-scale production for 

Daimler 

The automotive foundry KSM Castings 

in Hildesheim, Germany, has expanded 

its machine park with three inspection 

plants and six robotic machining 

centers. The investments in the hall 

and equipment were spurred by KSM 

customer Daimler, which will in future 

be supplied annually with 340,000 finished 

9-gear automatic transmission 

housings made of magnesium. Does 

this major project represent a trend 

towards greater use of this light metal 

among automotive producers? “No,” 

states Dr. Klaus Greven, Manager of 

Technological Development at KSM 

Castings Group. “Only Daimler gets 

its transmission housings made from 

magnesium, our other large automotive 

customers such as ZF will continue 

to use aluminum. Dr. Greven 

adds: “The use of magnesium is ex- 


tremely demanding. Firstly there is 

the very high level of contact corrosion 

when the material touches other 

metals, such as iron. Then there is 

the lower rigidity compared to aluminum, 

and the substantially lower creep 

resistance at high temperatures. In addition, 

there are increased risks at the 

foundry regarding safety at work and 

fire prevention.” And he continues: 

“This is all reflected in the costs!” The 

physicist is therefore convinced that 

magnesium components will remain a 

niche product. The magnesium transmission 

housings for Daimler are made 

from the alloy AS-31 with 3 % aluminum 

and 1 % silicon. “This enables us 

to improve the magnesium’s low level 

of creep resistance,” according to the 

head of development. 

An industrial robot places a finished magnesium housing on a conveyor belt 

to the washing line 

Unbroken trend towards light 

construction 

Despite all the disadvantages regarding 

the material and the process, in view 

of a weight advantage of 33 % compared 

to aluminum and an unbroken 

trend towards light construction, 

the material’s potential is attractive 

and KSM Castings has the appropriate 

process and material expertise: the 

Hildesheim team gained their first experience 

when they started low-pres- 

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K COMPANY 

Finished transmission housings: KSM Castings achieves maximum value creation with comprehensive post-processing 

sure sand casting with magnesium. 

About ten years ago, the then ThyssenKrupp 

Fahrzeugguss GmbH began 

die casting magnesium on a small machine. 

“These were magnesium steering 

parts for ThyssenKrupp Presta, and 

we were able to build up a lot of internal 

expertise and gain qualified personnel 

who were familiar with, among 

other things, the topics of magnesium 

melts and protective gas,” Dr. Greven 

remembers. The production process 

was further optimized in subsequent 

years. During this time, KSM Castings 

was first taken over by private equity 

company Cognetas and finally, in 

2011, by Chinese investor CITIC Dicastal 

Wheel Manufacturing Co. Ltd., 

Qinhuangdao, China. With eight 

sites in Germany, the Czech Republic, 

China and the USA and 3,291 employees, 

the KSM Castings Group is 

now globally positioned and achieved 

sales of 520 million euros in 2015. 

Hildesheim, with 1,030 employees 

and sales of 182 million euros, is the 

heavyweight of the Group. Its main 

customers are VW, Daimler, Audi, ZF 

Friedrichshafen, Magna, Great Wall 

and FAW. 

A financially strong investor 

CITIC Diecastal, the new owner of 

the Group, is the world’s largest aluminum 

wheel rim producer. Together 

with KSM Castings it is one of the 

world’s 100 largest automotive suppliers. 

30 to 40 million aluminum wheel 

rims leave CITIC Diecastal’s conveyor 

belts every year – more than at any other 

serial caster. To compare: the camshaft 

carrier line is one of the largest 

series at Hildesheim, with 1.3 million 

components a year. The involvement 

of this strategic investor has brought 

a variety of advantages: “This partnership 

offers great financial stability 

without the new owner interfering too 

much in our daily business,” explains 

Dr. Greven. “CITIC is not interested in 

the basics of the casting process, they 

already master these themselves. It is 

more about our production system and 

our way of producing components, in 

other words about quality,” Then he 

goes into more detail, continuing: 

“This is a win-win situation in my 

opinion. CITIC is interested in our expertise 

and we have the advantage of 

being able to offer our customers global 

solutions. It is thus possible to offer 

VW wheel carriers from China that are 

produced using the same processes and 

with the same alloys and properties as 

those produced in Germany. Not many 

foundries can offer that!” 

Dr. Greven, who has worked at KSM 

since 2005, believes that the greatest 

growth potential is anyway in China, 

though KSM Castings also built a new 

plant in Shelby in the US state of North 

Carolina in 2014 in order to profit from 

the light-construction potential on the 

American market. “This strategy also 

safeguards jobs here in Germany,” he 

stresses. 

A complicated process 

Change of scene to a magnesium melt 

operation: dressed in a matt silver protective 

suit, magnesium melter André 

Höltermann (who trained as a foundry 

mechanic at KSM Castings) opens a 

hatch on the melting furnace. He is illuminated 

by a cone of searing white 

light and, with practiced movements, 

he starts deslagging the 2.3 metric ton 

furnace. In order to prevent contamination 

of the melt through contact 

with air, a trough filled with argon protective 

gas runs from the melting plant 


KSM has increased its manufacturing capacity among 

other things by six machining centers with robots 

chining 

cells

Metalworker Raphael Sanchez works on bearing frames 

for Volkswagen’s 1.6 and 2.0 liter diesel engines 

Melter André Höltermann deslags the magnesium melting 

furnace. Cleanliness and organization are top priorities when 

working with magnesium 

to a 440 kg dosing furnace on the 2,700 

metric ton cold-chamber die-casting 

machine. Long distances are avoided 

because of the risk of fire when the 

hot metal exits the melting plant – so 

the melting furnace and the die-casting 

plant are located near one another. 

Aluminum die-casting – with which 

KSM Castings in Hildesheim generates 

the lion’s share of its sales – involves 

considerably less trouble: a fork-lift 

truck is used to transport the melt from 

the melting furnace to the holding furnace 

at the die-casting plant, where the 

mold is shot. Contact with air and special 

safety measures play no major role 

with this comparatively straightforward 

material. 

“The casting processes for aluminum 

and magnesium are identical 

– simply die casting. On the technical 

side, however, one needs to know 

that the solidification morphology of 

magnesium is different to that of aluminum 

and this has to be taken into 

account during process development,” 

Dr. Greven describes process differences. 

Over the years, KSM Castings has 

worked out a production process for 

magnesium die casting that uses protective 

gas but no vacuum. “The devil, 

of course, is in the detail. Venting 

ducts are particularly important when 

die-casting without a vacuum. This 

is the only way to ensure that the air 

present in the mold can escape quickly 

enough,” reveals the graduate from 

RWTH Aachen. The aim of the degassing 

is magnesium die casting that is as 

free of pores as possible. 

Design freedom is trumps 

The proportion of magnesium components 

is comparatively low compared 

to the total capacity of the plant 

(30,000 metric tons in Hildesheim, 

70,000 m.t. throughout the entire 

Group), as can be seen from the number 

of magnesium die-casting machines: 

only two of the 28 machines 

from producers Idra, Italpresse and 

Bühler are designed for casting magnesium. 

One more has just gone into operation 

in exchange for an aluminum 

die-casting machine: an investment of 

6.5 million euros. 

Head of technolgy development, 

Dr. Greven, is convinced of the growth 

prospects of light construction, particularly 

with aluminum. He is also confident 

when it comes to casting as the 

production process: he expects growth 

regarding both body and chassis components. 

He therefore believes that 

casting is also a production process 

with a future, because of the increasing 

use of design software to optimize 

topologies: “The programs remove material 

from wherever it is not needed, 

resulting in so-called bionic structures 

that can often only be made by casting” 

– competitive advantage from design 

freedom! 

The components produced by aluminum 

die casting at KSM Castings 

can be assigned to four product families: 

»» 

Engine, i.e. components of the engine 

periphery such as cylinder head 

covers or camshaft carriers. 

»» 

Powertrain, including transmission 

housings as well as parts inside the 

gearbox. 

»» 

Chassis, bodywork – produced in 

both the gravity die casting process 

as well as using the die-casting process, 

and 

»» 

Steering, parts for the steering and 

pedal systems that include, for example, 

pedal bracket systems. Audi 

is the largest customer here. The Ingolstadt-based 

company has not, 

like many others, jumped on the 

train for hybrid or plastic parts but 

continues to use proven aluminum 

components. 

Aluminum castings also undergo 

wide-ranging machining in order to 


The holding furnace of an aluminum die-casting cell is refilled: when different 

casting cells need the same alloy, several cells can be refilled with just one 

fork-lift truck journey 

The 20-year-old trainee tool mechanic 

Marcel Bodenburg milling a component 

in the training workshop 

We look forward 

to seeing you! 

03.10.-07.10.2016 

Brünn 

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Anzeige_CPT_85x128mm_2C_L1.indd 1 26.07.2016 09:28:04

K COMPANY 

maximize value creation, for example 

on the camshaft carrier line through 

which 1.3 million aluminum parts pass 

every year. One special aspect there is 

a portal robot that – like the overhead 

railways in Wuppertal or at Düsseldorf 

Airport – travels backwards and 

forwards on both sides of a suspended 

track and fills the machines with components, 

like something straight out of 

a science fiction film! 

Versatile foundry processes – 

innovative alloys 

The variety of the global player’s casting 

processes – exploiting the potentials 

of the materials – is particularly attractive 

for automotive customers: heat 

treated and weldable castings are produced 

using its patented CVC die-casting 

vacuum process. During development 

work on a chassis frame for BMW, 

the casting process has developed in recent 

years in such a way that it is suitable 

for serial production and, simultaneously, 

delivers very high-quality 

castings. During vacuum die casting 

the air is almost entirely sucked out of 

the mold so that no more pores can be 

generated in the solidifying casting. 

The Counter Pressure Casting (CPC) 

process is used for highly stressed 

components, such as chassis parts. 

“This production process is similar to 

low-pressure casting. It is like a bottle 

of fizzy mineral water. When it is under 

pressure it does not lose any carbon 

dioxide, but it bubbles up when 

one opens the bottle. The air in the 

mold behaves similarly,” compares 

Dr. Greven. While this process offers 

very good mechanical properties with 

higher yield strengths of 260 megapascals 

and an elongation at fracture of 

more than 8 %, the developers at KSM 

in Dr. Klaus Greven’s team were not satisfied: 

at stake was, and is, competition 

with iron casting and aluminum forgings. 

“We wanted to get away from the 

all-singing, all-dancing, all-rounder 

AlSi7Mg and develop an alloy specially 

for this process”. 

They succeeded with the new alloy 

Tensal. Compared to AlSi7Mg it has 

slightly less silicon (3 %), a bit more 

magnesium and an additional bit 

of chromium for hardening. A yield 

A tree of hands with 952 hand imprints from KSM employees. Next to it, 

a robot sculpture made of aluminum castings produced at the works 

strength of 300 - 320 megapascals, tensile 

strength of 360 - 370 megapascals 

and an elongation at fracture of 6 % 

speaks for itself – and has not gone unnoticed 

by the big OEMs: “We were 

able to establish a new level and acquire 

new serial orders from Audi and 

another OEM,” the head of development 

says, not without pride. 

Whereby KSM Castings anyway cannot 

complain of insufficient capacity 

utilization: There were more than 40 

new starts at the site during the last 

36 months. Regular investments have 

been made for this purpose: 4 million 

euros for the new Tensal product for 

Audi and 4 million for a new secondary 

treatment line in the CPC foundry 

are the next ones on the agenda. 

Specialists sought! 

The numerous casting processes and 

different materials not only require a 

lot of expertise, but also qualified specialist 

personnel. “Despite an expected 

increase in productivity we may 

not be able to implement all our expansion 

plans. The limiting factor is a 

lack of specialists,” announced Franz 

Friedrich Butz, CEO of the KSM Castings 

Group, in a press release in late 

September 2015. “The shortage of specialists 

in the company involves metallurgists 

with foundry expertise, in 

particular, and extends throughout 

all the plants and up to Shelby in the 

USA,” emphasizes Lothar Mutzen, HR 

Manager at the Hildesheim site, who 

has been at KSM Castings for 14 years. 

Whereby, given demographic developments, 

long-term planning is particularly 

important. “Old hands must be replaced 

in good time,” he stresses. For 

this reason, Hildesheim collaborates 

particularly closely with the universities 

in Magdeburg, Hanover, Clausthal 

and Aachen. Newcomers can exploit 

the entire repertoire of career starts in 

cooperation with the universities: dual 

study programs, grants, as well as Bachelor 

and Master theses in companies. 

“We recently took over one employee, 

who studied in Magdeburg with a KSM 

grant,” Mutzen quotes an example. 

The company also places great value 

on developing management trainees: 

“We have employees who have started 

here as apprentices and ultimately become 

Managing Directors.” KSM Castings 

has come up with various ideas for 

training specialists: they thus offer further 

education to master craftsmen and 

-women and to technicians, as well as 

offering work for extra-occupational 

courses. The good company pension 

and the ‘support fund’ (which offers 

employees and their dependents financial 

assistance for medical expenses 

such as spectacles and dental prostheses 

for a low income-dependent 

monthly contribution) are particularly 

attractive. “One must, however, see 


this on an individual level: money is 

important for one person while another 

appreciates flexible working hours,” 

reports the economist from his practical 

career experience. At present, the 

company is looking for about 20 trainees 

from all areas: foundry and industrial 

mechanics, industrial electricians, 

mechatronic engineers, tool mechanics, 

industrial clerks and IT specialists. 

Then there are the specialists who are 

prepared to undertake an overseas stay 

in the plants in the USA or China. Mutzen 

has already had an idea for China: 

KSM will train six to ten Chinese graduates 

with German university degrees 

and send them to China – in keeping 

with the Chinese-German partnership 

that now characterizes the company. 

Future-oriented products and 

processes for a globalized world 

Training Managers Jörg Gustke and 

Bernhard Twickler are in charge of the 

plants’ training workshop: the technical 

patternmakers Marya Schmidt 

and Melissa Wolpers are woodworking 

a model while, next to them, the 

20-year-old trainee tool mechanic 

Marcel Bodenburg machines a component 

with a universal milling machine 

and a group of trainees gets to 

work. The almost 70-year-old plant has 

a long training tradition of which the 

robot sculptures on the plants grounds 

– made of castings welded together 

(the final works of former trainees) – 

act as a reminder. 

The two full-time trainers currently 

have 50 trainees under their wings 

– every year another 12 - 14 new ones 

are added – as well as four foundry mechanics 

and two technical patternmakers. 

Twickler confirms that the 

number of applicants has fallen in recent 

years. “But we do a lot, with advertisements 

for specialists at GIFA and at 

the Ideas Expo in Hanover, as well as 

with invitations for school classes to 

visit the plants, and our participation 

in Applicants’ Night.” Bern hard Twickler 

has already worked at KSM Castings 

for 36 years, ten of them as a trainer. 

The trainees are satisfied with their 

work because they enjoy it and because 

of the company’s good reputation in 

and around Hildesheim, as well as because 

they have the feeling that they 

are needed here. A poster on one of 

the hall walls at the plant shows a cable 

railway supported by a KSM structural 

component, which also supports 

a man hanging above a precipice: advertising 

for the high quality of KSM 

products. The company’s trainees have 

no reason to fear the precipice: they are 

placing their futures in the hands of a 

company that exploits future-oriented 

products and processes for a globalized 

world – and appreciates the value 

of well-trained personnel! 

www.ksmcastings.com 

ONLINE AUCTION 

of GIETERIJ DRUNEN B.V. 

5151 RP Drunen (The Netherlands) 

Foundry Machines 

ALUMINIUM 

3 INDUCTION MELTING FURNACES “Inductotherm” 

VIP PT 250 CR Dual-Trak (2009), cap. 12,5 t and 2x “Junker”, 

cap. 25 t; casting ladles, cap. 1-10 ton; VIBRATORY SHAKE- 

OUT PLANT “Axmann”, cap 20 ton/h; 6 SAND MIXERS incl. 

“IMF” T36/20-S; sand regeneration plant “Stordy”; filter units; 

450 CASTING FORMS, size 800 x 800 mm up to 3600 x 

3600 mm; coquille forms, stackable bins, lifting chains, hoist 

beams, casting form inverters, counter weights, heater, sand 

dump silos; chip cleaning system “Mayfran”; metal working 

incl. milling machine, lathes, saws; laboratory/test equipment 

incl. spectrometer “Ametek” Spectromaxx, sanding machines, 

2 test melting ovens “Smit-A.C.E.C.”, “Westeneng”; tractor, 

heavy material transport trailers, skid steer loader “Bobcat”, etc.; 

CLOSING: Tuesday 20 SEPTEMBER 

Viewing: Friday 16 September from 10.00 till 16.00 hrs 

REGISTER AND BID NOW at 

www.TroostwijkAuctions.com 

GREY IRON 

LOST WAX 

ITALIAN SOLUTIONS 

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O.M.LER 2000 s.r.l. 

Strada Montà della Radice, 15/A 12042 Bra (CN) ITALY 

www.omler2000.com 


K NEWS 

YXLON 

Defect evaluation for 

die castings 

As a new option, Yxlon, Hamburg, 

Germany, now also provides the ASTM 

E2973 digital reference images for aluminum 

and magnesium die castings 

in its imaging software Image2500 

and Image3500 of X-ray inspection 

systems including Y.MU2000-D and 

MU60 AE. The reference images, which 

so far have only been available as an 

image catalog for radiographic inspections 

with film, can now be deployed 

in digital radioscopy for defect evaluation 

of aluminum and magnesium alloys 

in die castings via a second review 

monitor. 

Digital reference images ASTM 

E2422 (aluminum), ASTM E2660 

(steel), ASTM E2699 (titanium) and 

ASTM E2869 (magnesium) have already 

been available with Yxlon X-ray 

system since 2012, an important enhancement 

has now been realized with 

ASTM E2973 for aluminum and magnesium 

die castings in order to support 

flaw classifications for these parts and 

document inspection decisions according 

to industry specifications. 

Y.MU2000-D by Yxlon can now be used for defect evaluation of aluminum and 

magnesium alloys in die castings via a second review monitor (Photo: Yxlon) 

Although digital X-ray inspection is 

faster, more reliable, less expensive and 

more environmentally acceptable due 

to the elimination of chemicals compared 

with film, some industries still 

hesitate to embrace it. The digital 

ASTM reference images are an effective 

basis for film replacement, and users 

quickly appreciate the benefits of the 

easy and safe image storage as well as 

the simple digital data exchange. 

www.yxlon.com 

VOXELJET 

Latin American cooperation 

with OEM specialist for automotive 

cast parts 

After the joint venture in China and 

the establishment of subsidiaries in India, 

voxeljet, Friedberg, Germany, has 

now set its sights on the Mexican market. 

To this end, the leading provider 

of large-format 3-D printers and on-demand 

services has entered into a cooperation 

with ART in Mexico. 

Mexico, the world’s seventh-largest 

car manufacturer, is an important and 

growing OEM market for cast parts in 

the automotive industry. But in addition 

to automotive, global player 

voxel jet has also turned its focus on the 

Mexican machine building, transportation 

industry and energy industry. It 

is expected that these sectors will experience 

enormous growth in the Latin 

American market in the next few years. 

To secure market share in the automotive 

sector, 3-D print specialist 

voxel jet acquired a strong partner in 

Mexico, the automation company Art 

Abastecedora Industrial S. de R.L. de 

C.V. (ART). During the last few decades, 

ART successfully placed brands such as 

Automatic Feed Co. and Mayfran International 

on the Mexican automation 

market. The company provides hightech 

solutions for automation companies, 

and counts the “Big Three” in the 

automotive industry (Ford, General 

Motors and Chrysler) as well the VW 

Group & Nissan, among its suppliers. 

“With its extensive experience in the 

automotive sector and its collaboration 

with global leaders, ART is the 

ideal business partner for the Latin 

American market. As an automation 

expert, the company contributes comprehensive 

competence for marketing 

our products in Mexico in the future,” 

is how Christian Träger, Sales Director 

at voxeljet, explains the idea behind 

the cooperation. “Our industrial 3-D 

printing systems are front and center 

in our collaboration with ART. By using 

3-D printers from voxeljet, large 

foundries can optimize their production 

processes for molds and models.” 

Foundries that produce for the automotive 

industry use these molds and 

models in the rapid prototyping process 

for prototype building and rapid 

manufacturing, hence in small series 

production. The advantage offered by 

3-D printing technology is obvious: 

Production processes become faster, 

more cost-effective and more precise. 

The Mexican foundries profit from 

voxeljet’s large-format industrial 3-D 

printers, since complex cast parts can 

now be acquired directly through ART. 


With a continuous build volume of 4 x 2 x 1 m, the VX4000 from voxeljet is 

the world’s largest industrial printer. The huge build space provides sufficient 

room for the rapid production of very large individual molds, but can also be 

used for the efficient production of small series – also a promising feature for 

the Mexican market (Photo: voxeljet) 

Foundries and car makers around the 

world value the German quality standards 

of the voxeljet 3-D printers, 

which increase flexibility and efficiency, 

and accelerate production processes 

– a prerequisite for keeping up in a 

hotly contested global market. 

Through its cooperation with voxeljet, 

ART will add industrial 3-D printing 

to its product portfolio in the automotive 

segment. ART was founded in 

Mexico City in 1988, and initially 

made a name for itself by providing 

die-cutting and installation services 

for the automotive industry. Now the 

company offers an extensive product 

portfolio of machines, accessories and 

CRANFIELD FOUNDRY 

Europe’s newest iron foundry 

to be opened in 2017 

On the 26th of July 2016, Cranfield 

Foundry held the Ground-breaking 

ceremony in Probishtip, Macedonia, 

to mark the start of the construction 

of a modern foundry. It is forecasted 

that the production will begin in 2017. 

In the presence of Macedonia’s 

Prime-Minister, Deputy Prime-Minister, 

Minister of Foreign Investment, 

the Mayor of the city of Probishtip 

and other distinguished guests, the 

automation systems for the automotive 

sector. The company covers Mexico, 

through the main four industrial 

regions with headquarters at México 

City. Effective immediately, the Mexican 

expert for automation solutions 

will also be in charge of marketing the 

voxeljet 3-D printing systems and associated 

services. 

“We are pleased to develop the market 

for industrial 3-D printing in Mexico 

together with voxeljet, while at the 

same time addressing the considerable 

market demand”, adds Rafael Martínez 

Velásquez, President of ART. 

www.voxeljet.de 

shareholders and the CEO of Cranfield 

Foundry have laid the first corner-stone 

of the 8,000 m 2 foundry. 

This project was initiated in 2014. The 

first steps were to build a team and find 

quality partners to ensure successful 

execution of this greenfield investment. 

Designed by Gemco Engineers B.V., 

Eindhofen, The Netherlands, the turnkey 

solution provider for Cranfield 

Foundry with over 30 years of experience 

in the foundry industry, this factory will 

be able to produce grey iron castings of 

EN-GJL 150-350 and other related grades; 

as well as ductile iron castings of EN-GJS 

350-800 and other related grades. 

Pneumatic conveying 

technology 

For dry, free-flowing, 

abrasive and abrasion 

-sensitive material 

Core sand preparation 

technology 

For organic and inorganic 

processes, turn-key systems 

including sand, binder 

and additive dosing 

and core sand distribution 

Reclamation 

technology 

Reclamation systems for 

no-bake sand and core sand, 

CLUSTREG for inorganically 

bonded core sands 

KLEIN Anlagenbau AG 

Konrad-Adenauer-Straße 200 

57572 Niederfischbach 

Fon +49 2734 501 301 

Fax +49 2734 501 327 

info@klein-ag.de 

www.klein-ag.de 


K NEWS 

The foundry equipment will come from 

some of the most well-known brands in 

the industry: DISA Industries A/S, Taastrup, 

Denmark, and ABP Inductions Systems 

GmbH, Dortmund, Germany, will 

provide the key components of the foundry 

which will be used to produce a wide 

range of products such as fittings, valves, 

decorative and other custom-made quality 

castings to serve customers in diverse 

industries such as automotive, agriculture, 

railway, construction, oil and refinery. 

Dariusz Dziuba, the CEO of Cranfield 

Foundry, in his speech during the 

ground-breaking ceremony said: “Today 

is a significant milestone towards 

achieving Cranfield Foundry’s aim and 

that is to service customers from 

high-volume businesses in the Middle 

East and Europe by delivering on time, 

competitively priced, quality castings.” 

www.cfoundry.com/eng 

Emil Dimitriev, Prime-Minister of 

Macedonia, at the ground-breaking 

ceremony (Photo: Cranfield Foundry) 

WHEELABRATOR 

New heavy-duty blast wheel 

cuts costs and blasts better 

Surface preparation expert Wheelabrator, 

who belongs to the Norican 

Group, Taastrup, Denmark, has officially 

launched its new blast wheel for 

heavy-duty applications: Comet HD. 

The new wheel achieves a clearly defined, 

even blast pattern and higher 

peak blast intensities at reduced abrasive 

flow rates, thereby reducing abrasive 

consumption while improving cycle 

times and first-time pass rates. 

With Comet HD, Wheelabrator has 

optimized the journey of the abrasive 

from the ground up, using advanced 

testing and imaging technology to 

identify and eliminate all instances of 

waste in the blast process. 

The R&D team deliberately chose a 

broad definition of “waste”, to include 

things like loss of energy of each abrasive 

particle, unnecessary wear, overconsumption 

of power or blast media, 

uneven hotspot or uncontrolled blast 

pattern, as well as time spent on overly 

complicated maintenance or time lost 

due to incorrect machine set-ups. 

The result is a blast wheel that 

achieves more with less, is easy to assemble, 

service and upgrade, is impossible 

to configure incorrectly on re-assembly, 

wears less, and blasts fast and 

with precision. All this adds up to measurable 

and considerable cost savings. 

Examples of savings: 

»» 

Comet HD achieves over 5 % higher 

peak blast intensities at 7 % less abrasive 

flow, when compared to a proven, 

current HD blast wheel design, 

resulting in at least a 7 % saving in 

abrasive (a typical foundry may use 

around 100t of abrasive per year); 

»» 

In the same set-up, the abrasive breakdown 

rate is reduced by up to 24 %; 

»» 

Tested against an existing wheel design 

on a foundry application, 

Comet HD 

achieved a similar blast 

result within a blast cycle 

time that was almost 

a fifth (17 %) shorter, 

and at an abrasive flow 

reduced by 8 %. 

»» 

Taken together, the 

above equates to a potential 

total abrasive 

saving of up to 29 %. 

» Comet HD’s semi-curved 

blades with special wear 

tip last around a third longer 

than previous blade 

types, reducing maintenance 

and part costs and 

increasing machine uptime; 

»» 

Thanks to its clever design, 

Comet HD is uniquely accessible 

for maintenance, reducing maintenance 

time by around 30 %, freeing up 

headroom for additional production. 

»» 

First shown as a prototype at GIFA 

2015, Comet HD is available globally, 

both in metric and imperial. It can 

be retrofitted on existing Wheelabrator 

or non-Wheelabrator equipment. 

Characteristics of Comet blast wheel: 

»» 

single-directional design for optimized 

performance 

»» 

asymmetrical housing for better 

blast pattern position 

»» 

smaller footprint to suit almost any 

existing wheelblast machine 

»» 

front-face access to wheel assembly 

and ‘hot parts’ via 4-point quick release 

»» 

precision bolted housing construction, 

for improved fit and alignment 

»» 

simplified, easy-to-change five-part 

Wheelabrator’s new heavy-duty blast wheel Comet 

HD (Photo: Wheelabrator) 

liner system – end liners ‘snap fit’ 

without fasteners 

»» 

optimized control cage with machined 

areas, acceleration ramp and 

special wear tip 

»» 

self-securing double taper fit blade 

lock-up system 

»» 

blades optimized for best abrasive 

pick-up point, strategically strengthened 

to reduce wear 

»» 

“Precision Lok” and centring plate for 

repeatably correct blast wheel set-up 

Clifford Parr, President & COO at 

Wheelabrator Plus, said: “With Comet 


HD, we are a redefining what constitutes 

a great blast wheel. It’s one that tackles 

all the concerns around blast machines 

that our customers have told us about: 

operational costs (how much abrasive is 

used and how often do I have to change 

wear parts?), machine and part durability 

(how often does a machine need 

maintenance or repairs, how long will 

it last?) and performance (how long 

does it take the machine to process a 

part, will it achieve the desired result in 

one go?). We’ve taken an R&D approach 

that results not just in a million precise 

impacts on a part surface, but in one big 

impact on our customers’ bottom line.” 

www.wheelabratorgroup.com 

CONVITEC 

Four furnace chargers and a 

fully automatic charging plant 

In the summer of 2015, ConviTec 

GmbH, Offenbach, Germany, delivered, 

installed and commissioned 

four furnace chargers, each equipped 

with weighing device, and a fully automatic 

charging plant, also including 

weighing device, for a Turkish customer. 

The four furnace chargers, having a 

capacity of 16 t each, are based on a 

drive frame each with 4 load cells. 

Their evaluation is carried out by Siemens 

control, incl. SIWAREX, which is 

integrated in the charging vehicle. Siemens 

IWLAN ensures signal exchange 

with the main control cabinet of the 

charging plant. 

The scope of delivery of the charging 

plant comprizes a group of 6 bunkers 

with ultrasound filling level sensors, 

having a magnetic feeder and discharge 

flap each. Underneath there 

are two mobile weighing devices with 

containers for the charging batch. Two 

precision laser distance sensors with 

The four furnace chargers, having a capacity of 16 t each, are based on a 

drive frame each with 4 load cells (Photo: Convitec) 

SSI interface ensure precise positioning 

under the bunkers. 

The scope of delivery also includes 

two charging cranes, which fill two 

charging troughs each and the 6 bunkers 

automatically. The drives of the 

cranes, not only for the stroke but also 

for longitudinal travel, are operated by 

means of a frequency converter. Two 

precision laser distance sensors with 

SSI interface ensure precise longitudinal 

positioning. An absolute encoder 

with SSI interface integrated in the 

crane control ensures the exact stroke. 

Three PCs for recipe preselection, incl. 

log printer, provide control, monitoring 

and documentation of the respective 

batch. 

The Turkish customer manufactured 

the steel construction incl. 6 bunkers 

for the charging plant according to 

ConviTec production drawings on his 

own account. 

The plant works fully automatically 

after preselection and start-up of the 

recipe. 

www.convitec.net 

Your partner for best cast-results. 

• Gießfilter 

• Casting filters 

• Filtres de coulée 

• Filtro Modelo 

Fon.+49-7261-9727-0 

Fax.+49-7261-9727-29 

info@asti-filter.de 

www.asti-filter.de 


NEWS 

HERTWICH ENGINEERING 

Order for a single chamber 

melting and casting furnace 

Austria Metall AG (AMAG) has placed 

an order with Hertwich Engineering, 

both Braunau, Austria, to supply 

a melting/casting furnace with a capacity 

of 55,000 t of aluminum per 

year including a charging machine. 

Commissioning of the new furnace is 

scheduled for mid 2017. 

The aluminum industry assumes 

that worldwide consumption of rolled 

aluminum products will grow by 70 % 

over the next ten years. With this dynamic 

growth in demand, AMAG started 

an ambitious enlargement program 

in 2012 with an initial volume of 220 

million euros. In 2016, the company is 

additionally starting a new rolling 

plant project (strategy project “AMAG 

2020”), with which the capacity should 

be boosted to more than 300,000 t per 

year by 2017. The furnace ordered is 

part of this enlargement program. 

With the increase of rolling production, 

the quantity of production scrap 

also rises, which needs to be remelted. 

The furnace is designed for this task. 

The tiltable melting and casting furnace 

is a joint development by AMAG 

and Hertwich. The first unit of this 

type has been taken into operation by 

AMAG in 2013. With a holding capacity 

of 70 t this furnace was already of 

impressive size. The current furnace 

unit now ordered, with a liquid metal 

volume of 110+ t, once again greatly 

exceeds the size of the existing unit. 

The single-chamber furnace used for 

melting is able to also take over the 

function of a casting furnace, if necessary. 

For heating, two pairs of regenerative 

burners are installed above the 

melting bath level. With a specific maximum 

gas consumption of 500 kWh for 

each ton of aluminum the plant satisfies 

the strictest requirements, both in 

economic terms and also in terms of 

environmental impact. To ensure clean 

Aluminum melting and casting furnace (70 t) at AMAG, Ranshofen 

(Photo: AMAG) 

combustion an oxygen regulation system 

and separate regulating systems for 

natural gas and combustion air are provided. 

An electromagnetic pump ensures 

thorough metal circulation, constantly 

high melting performance and 

homogeneous temperature distribution 

in the furnace. 

The scope of supply also includes a 

rail-guided, pusher-type charging machine 

(capacity: 25 t), with which the 

furnace can be charged efficiently in 

only a few charging cycles. 

www.amag.at 

GUESTRO 

SA-Foundry counts on 

German foundry technology 

Any foundry that has origins dating 

back to the 1940´s and is still operating 

under the same company name 

is a rare occurrence in South African 

(SA) foundry industry. Guestro Casting 

and Machining is one of a few. 

Guestro belongs to Naledi Inhlanganiso 

(Pty) Ltd and is a manufacturing 

group established in 2013 focusing its 

operations on iron and steel manufacturing 

for the rail, mining, energy and 

automotive market sectors. The main 

operations are located in Ekurhuleni, 

Gauteng Province, South Africa. 

Guestro Casting and Machining is a 

foundry casting 150 to 200 t of ferrous 

and non-ferrous metals daily. 

Continuous improvement and process 

optimization is also indispensable 

for Guestro in order to continue its 

successful company history. This is 

why they ordered two IFM 7 

multi-function furnaces with 

Twin-Power systems by ABP Induction 

Systems GmbH, headquartered in 

Dortmund, Germany, in 2014. This 

order also included two charging machines 

type FC 12 T by Cyrus GmbH 

Schwingtechnik, Recklinghausen, 

Germany, which serve to feed the furnace 

semi-automatically. 

The mobile chargers are fed by means 

of the existing charging bay crane with 

a charge make-up of black scrap or casting 

returns. The black scrap has a bulk 

density of 1.1 t/m³. The charging machine 

comes with a capacity of 11 m³, 

which corresponds to a load-carrying 

capacity of 12 t. The machinery supplied 

by Cyrus also stands out with its 

high user friendliness. The central control 

aisle allows both systems to be controlled 

by just one operator. This ensures 

maximum utilization. 

Guestro not only attaches importance 

to user friendliness but also to functional 

reliability. Here Cyrus has further optimized 

important safety-critical details 

with its latest generation of machines. 


The operator-friendly machine array as well as system functions were simulated and 

tested during factory commissioning at Cyrus in Recklinghausen (Photo: Cyrus) 

Due to an even higher quality choice 

of material, the sandwich bottom floor 

of the charging bunker is substantially 

lower-noise when in operation than 

comparable machine generations before. 

Furthermore, a footswitch is employed. 

By activating this switch the 

machine travel is interrupted immediately 

in order to avoid any obstructions 

caused by foreign objects and to protect 

persons in the area of the charging 

floor. Moreover, a retainer flap prevents 

unintentional material leakage. 

This and other measures increase 

both ease of use and operating safety 

substantially. Commenting in this Holger 

Ververs, Head of Planning and Applications 

Technology at Cyrus GmbH 

Schwingtechnik, says: “The installation 

of two more of Cyrus’ charging machines 

in South Africa makes us proud 

and underscores that the added value 

our machines bring, our expert knowhow 

in this field and our quality are all 

appreciated.” 

www.cyrus-germany.com/en 

Technical Features: 

Charge material: Scrap / Grey Iron 

Charge volume: 11m³ 

Charging output: 12 tons 

Max. piece weight: 100 kg 

Ambient temperature: -20 to +40°C 

Drive power: 2 x 2.7 kW (vibrating 

trough), 1 x 1.5 kW (travel drive) 

Temperature Control. 

Smart. Reliable. 

RESOURCE EFFICIENCY IN EUROPE 

 

less 

Many European countries are realizing 

the economic benefits of making 

more efficient use of material resources 

like metals, fossil fuels and 

minerals. But more action is needed 

to underpin this trend in resource efficiency 

with stronger policies on energy, 

material resources, waste management 

and on circular economy. These 

are the findings from a new European 

Environment Agency (EEA) assessment. 

The EEA report “More from less – material 

resource efficiency in Europe”, 

takes an in-depth look at national approaches 

and policies on resource efficiency 

and explores similarities and differences 

in related policies, strategies and 

targets. The report builds on a survey, in 

which 32 of the 39 EEA member and cooperating 

countries took part. Countries 

provided detailed information on their 

resource efficiency polices and examples 

of good practice initiatives. 

The main objective of the report is to 

encourage countries to share information 

Individual solution & 

optimised performance 

Get more out of your production 

facilities right from the start - with 

temperature control units from 

REGLOPLAS. They are matched 

to your requirements and compatible 

with your components and processes. 


www.regloplas.com

K NEWS 

Production of aluminum die-castings in the new Audi die-casting foundry in 

Münchsmünster, Germany. The new foundry for structural components is one 

of the world’s most advanced. Energy and resource efficiency played a major 

role in the planning stage of the foundry (Photo: Klaus Bolz) 

and their experiences in the development 

of resource efficiency policies. The work 

contributes to broadening know-how on 

resource efficiency and the circular economy 

and increases understanding of policy 

approaches in these areas. 

Between 2000 and 2014, resource use 

in the European Union as a whole fell 

both in absolute terms (down by 12 %) 

and per person (from 15.5 to 13.1 t per 

person), according to the survey. The 

economic benefit of improving resource 

efficiency is the most important 

driver in many countries, indicating 

that the logic of doing more with less 

has been widely embraced. The most 

recurrent drivers to improve efficiency 

were the desire to increase competitiveness, 

to secure the supply of raw 

materials and energy and reduce dependence 

on imports, and to lower 

pressures on the environment. 

The report stresses that the key challenge 

will be to ensure that the recent 

gains in efficiency are sustained, and 

that the situation does not revert to the 

long-term pattern of economic growth 

accompanied by increasing resource 

use. The survey also concludes that 

there is room for improvement in policy 

design and implementation, as well 

as significant potential benefit in the 

exchange of good practice, since big differences 

between countries still exist. 

The report and the accompanying 32 

individual country profiles were produced 

together with the Agency’s network 

of member and cooperating countries, 

known as Eionet and the European 

Topic Centre on Waste and Materials in 

a Green Economy (ETC/WMGE). 

Key Findings: 

»» 

Only three countries, Austria, Finland 

and Germany, adopted dedicated 

national strategies for material 

resource efficiency. Two further countries 

have dedicated strategies at a regional 

level, in Flanders (Belgium), 

and Scotland (United Kingdom). 

»» 

Most of the improvements in resource 

productivity occurred between 

2007 and 2014, although not 

necessarily as a result of a comprehensive 

policy intervention. The 

gains were mostly due to the sharp 

decline in construction activity as 

a result of the economic crisis that 

started in 2007-2008, which led to 

huge falls in material use, but had 

rather limited impact on gross domestic 

product. 

»» 

A majority of countries (26) identified 

certain waste streams and secondary 

materials as the most common 

group of priority materials. Key 

waste streams are plastic and packaging 

(17 countries), construction and 

demolition waste (16 countries), and 

food waste (15 countries). Energy 

sources, like fossil fuels and including 

renewables, were mentioned by 

18 countries as priority resources. 

»» 

Manufacturing was singled out most 

frequently as the key economic sector 

for improving material resource 

efficiency, followed by agriculture 

and forestry, construction, and waste 

management. 

»» 

The service sector – currently accounting 

for some 70-75 % of GDP in most 

European countries – is potentially 

significant with respect to material 

use and the resource efficiency of the 

economy. However, very few countries 

mentioned service-oriented sectors 

among their priorities for improving 

material resource efficiency. 

»» 

Nine countries have adopted targets 

for national material resource efficiency: 

Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, 

Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Portugal 

and Slovenia. In most cases, these targets 

are based on gross domestic product 

relative to domestic material consumption 

(GDP/DMC) – the EU’s lead 

resource productivity indicator. 

»» 

Germany, the Netherlands, and the 

region of Flanders (Belgium) reported 

having a dedicated circular economy 

strategy, which aims to create a production 

and consumption system that 

generates little waste and keeps materials 

in use for as long as possible. Several 

countries acknowledge the need 

to move away from the current linear 

economic model and stated that the 

circular economy and closing material 

loops are already policy priorities. The 

majority of reported policy initiatives 

related to the circular economy focus 

on waste management, with only a 

few examples going beyond increasing 

recycling rates and a higher use of 

secondary raw materials. 

www.eea.europa.eu 


AGTOS 

Up to date blasting technique 

on Ankiros show 

AGTOS, Emsdetten, Germany, provides 

the foundry industry with surface 

technology. Besides manufacturing 

turbine wheel shot blasting plants 

for cleaning, derusting, descaling 

and shot peening the company also 

pro jects complete machining centers 

including the conveyer technology. 

At the exposition Ankiros from 

29 September to 1 October 2016 

AGTOS will be presented on 

the booth of its Turkish 

agent Teknometalurji. The 

visitor will see examples of 

projects that were carried 

out in Turkey and other 

countries. Inno vative turbine 

and filter technology as 

well as elaborated ways in 

maintenance ensure the 

economic treatment of surfaces 

of casted parts. 

The company provides shot 

blast ing solutions for roughen 

ing, derusting, de-scaling, 

and hardening of surfaces. 

With a wide range of 

applications, ranging from 

small chain components, to 

large steel constructions, 

the surface technology specialist 

has virtually no limits 

on providing blast cleaning 

solutions to meet the needs 

of many different industries. 

The company has the capability 

to offer refurbished 

shot blast machines, repairs, 

updating and modernization 

of machines from other shot 

blasting manufacturers. 

Special emphasis is put on 

an extensive service regarding 

the blasting technology. 

Therefore the company provides 

the suitable spear parts 

and carries out the repairs for 

machines out of the own and 

other productions. 

www.agtos.com 

Castings on a hanger on their way to the blasting machine (Photo: AGTOS) 

We are a medium-sized company that is expanding all over Europe, operating in the foundry 

and steel construction industry at two locations in Germany. 

We wish to strengthen our team, and we are looking for a sales agency for our location in 

Poland, i.e., a 

Self-employed Sales Agent (m/f) in 

Field Service / Sales and 

Customer Acquisition 

What you can expect: 

Your job will be professional telephone acquisition as well as local consulting and support 

for customers. You will work with various customer target groups in careful and systematic 

ways and perform exciting special activities, always using the right approach. 

What we expect from you: 

• Completed commercial training as well as knowledge of the foundry trade 

• A high capacity for team work and excellent communication skills 

• Convincing negotiation strengths and a talent for sales 

• Confident and reputable manners and an affinity for dealing with customers 

• An extensive knowledge of MS Office and an excellent use of „new media“ 

• An excellent knowledge of German and Polish (spoken and written) 

We will offer you: 

• A responsible job with good prospects for the future 

• A diversified and challenging job 

• An attractive, performance-based compensation that you will essentially 

determine through your successful sales 

If you are interested in this job, we are looking forward to your complete application 

documents. 

Please send us your application (cover letter, resume, certificates in one PDF file) 

by mail to our “HR department” – info@foundry-service.de 

STA Foundry Service_128_174.indd 1 12.07.16 13:38 


K BROCHURES 

Insulation technology 

4 pages, English, German 

A product brochure describing the key features of the Thermo-Protector insulation 

system offered by Lippmann. The product provides excellent insulation efficiency 

over a temperature range from -50 °C to +250 °C. It is self-adhesive, water-repellent, 

self-extinguishing and self-vulcanizing and ideally suited for convoluted or flexible 

piping systems. 

www.lippmann-gmbh.com 

Automatic water dosing for shake-out and cooling drums 

4 pages, English 

In this brochure, Sensor Control explains how water dosing in shake-out and cooling 

drums can be automated by using efficient instrumentation sensors. Sensors are 

applied to measure fresh air into the drum, the mold box temperature, the exhaust 

air leaving the drum, used sand temperature, moisture and height on the belt behind 

the drum, etc. 

Information: www.sensor-control.de 

Molding sand management system 


A brochure featuring FoMaSys, a modular sand management system, offered by 

Michenfelder Elektrotechnik. The system is composed of four interacting sand testing 

and moisture control modules. The brochure describes in great detail the functions, 

features and visualization options of the system. 

Information: www.michenfelder.com 

Magnesium and aluminium foundry and machining facility 


In this brochure, Explat presents its activities as experts in magnesium and aluminium 

alloy casting and as specialists in parts machining. The foundry has a capacity 

of 100 t. The weights of the aluminium and magnesium castings produced range 

between 200 g and 330 kg. 

Information: www.explat.cz 


Vibrating feeder 


This product brochure features vibrating feeders supplied by JML. It includes technical 

data and photos of two feeder models, one for large quantities of bulk materials 

and one for small to medium material flows. They are both designed for castings 

weighing up to 450 kg. 

Information: www.jml-industrie.com 

Foundry equipment 

5 pages, English, German 

In this brochure, Webac Gesellschaft für Maschinenbau summarizes their product 

and service range for the foundry industry. Specially featured are molding and core 

sand preparation plants, sand regeneration plants, sand coating plants as well as 

cold resin pattern plants. 

Information: www.webac-gmbh.de 

Melting and heating technology 


A comprehensive brochure setting out the expertise of Marx in melting, ladle and 

extrusion technology. Detailed descriptions are provided of channel and crucible 

furnace plants; induction furnace plants; insulation technology; casting, transport 

and treatment ladles; gearbox series, etc. 

Information: www.marx-gmbh.eu 

Chemical metallurgical products 


This brochure provides information about fluxes offered by Hüttenes-Albertus for 

ferrous and non-ferrous casting applications. Each flux series is described in great 

detail, including a listing of available products, the forms in which they come, a 

summary of their specific purposes, temperature ranges, etc. 

Information: www.huettenes-albertus.com 


K INTERNATIONAL FAIRS AND CONGRESSES 

Fairs and Congresses 

Fond-Ex 

September, 12-16, 2016, Brno/Czech Republic 

www.bvv.cz/en/fond-ex 

56. International Foundry Conference 

September, 14-16, 2016, Portorož/Slovenia 

http://www.drustvo-livarjev.si/index.php?lang=english 

Metal – 21. International Fair of Technologies 

for Foundry 

September, 20-22, 2016, Kielce/Poland 

www.targikielce.pl/en 

Euromold 2016 

September, 20-23, 2016, Düsseldorf/Germany 

http://euromold.com/en 

IFF – International Foundry Forum 

September, 23-24, 2016, Dresden/Germany 

www.international-foundry-forum.org 

4. China Int’l Aluminum Industry Exhibition 2016 

September, 26-28, 2016, Guangzhou/China 

www.chinaaluminum.net/en 

Ankiros Annofer Turkcast 2016 

September/October, 29-01, 2016, Istanbul/Turkey 

www.ankiros.com/index.php?en 

2016 China International Die Casting Congress & 

The First CEO Forum 

October, 18-21, 2016, Jiaxing/China 

www.cfadcc.com/en-index.aspx 

Indometal 2016 

October, 25-27, 2016, Jakarta/Indonesia 

www.indometal.net 

6. International Foundry Congress & Exhibition 

November, 23-24, 2016, Lahore/Pakistan 

www.pfa.org.pk/info/6th-IFCE/21/0 

CastTec 2016 

November, 24-25, 2016, Darmstadt/Germany 

www.casttec2016.de/en/home 

2016 Japan Die Casting Congress & Exposition 

November, 24-26, 2016, Yokohama/Japan 

www.diecasting.or.jp 

Aluminium 

November/December, 29-01, 2016, Düsseldorf/Germany 

www.aluminium-messe.com 

Alucast 2016 

December, 1-3, 2016, Bangalore/India 

www.alucast2016.com 

Fundiexpo 2016 

October, 5-7, 2016, Queretaro City/Mexico 

www.fundiexpo.com 

Advertisers‘ Index 

AGTOS Ges. für technische 

Oberflächensysteme mbH 60 

ASK Chemicals GmbH 23 

ASTI Gießereigeräte GmbH 51 

Quarzwerke Baums GmbH & Co. KG 15 

voestalpine Böhler Welding GmbH 11 

Büro für angewandte Mineralogie 27 

ConviTec GmbH 33 

Gustav Eirich GmbH & Co. KG 2 

ExOne GmbH 35 

FAT Förder- und Anlagentechnik GmbH 41 

Filtech Exhibitions Germany 7 

Foundry-Service GmbH 55 

GTP Schäfer GmbH 43 

H20 GmbH 45 

Jasper Ges. für Energiewirtschaft & 

Kybernetik mbH 37 

JÖST GmbH & Co. KG 43 

Klein Anlagenbau AG 49 

O.M.LER 2000 S.R.L. 47 

Reed Exhibitions (Deutschland) GmbH 31 

Regloplas AG 53 

RÖSLER Oberflächentechnik GmbH 45 

RUMP Strahlanlagen GmbH & Co. KG 15 

Troostwijk Veilingen b.v. 47 

Heinrich Wagner Sinto 

Maschinenfabrik GmbH 19 

WOKO Magnet- und Anlagenbau GmbH 32 

58 Casting Plant & Technology 3 / 2016

K IMPRINT 

PREVIEW / IMPRINT K 

Preview of the next issue 

Publication date: December 2016 

Vehicle of the Mercedes-Series BR 222 (S-Class) showing the position of the rear strut tower – an aluminium structural casting (Photo: Daimler) 

Selection of topics: 

K. Vollrath: Aluminium structural die cast components: More capacity for Europe’s premium vehicles 

With the delivery of large-scale structural castings for the hybrid body of the new C-Class Mercedes Swiss DGS Druckguss Systeme AG, 

St. Gallen, has proven its expertise as a development partner for the global large-scale production of such castings. The next step is now the 

development of production and logistics structures that are capable to satisfy the needs of the European premium manufacturers. 

P. Hofer et al: Tungsten-based composites as a die material in high-pressure die-casting 

Local microstructure improvement in high-pressure die-castings by influencing thermal and mechanical process parameters were examined. 

Within the examination of the cooling of hpdc-tools the process related properties of the tungsten-based composite Densimet 185 (D185) 

were tested. The material D185 is compared with iron-based die materials. 

H. Wang et al: Optimization of a brake caliper 

Due to safety reasons, brake calipers are produced to the highest quality requirements. The Shanghai Sandmann Foundry (SSF) developed, 

and is successfully producing a car caliper made of ductile iron which was acquired to be optimized in a DISAMATIC casting process. 

Imprint 

Pub lish er: 

Ger man Foundry As so ci a tion 

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Cer tifi ca tion of cir cu la tion by the 

Ger man Aud it Bu reau of Cir cu la tion 

ISSN 0935-7262 

Casting Plant & Technology 3 / 2016 59

Competence in 

Shot Blast Technology 

We offer a complete service in surface 

preparation technology, not just as machine 

designers and manufacturers. 

Our emphasis is on providing reliable 

service on: 

• Wear and Spare Parts 

• Repair and (remote) maintenance 

• Inspection and process advice 

• Machine upgrades and performance 

enhancement 

• Upgraded used machines 

AGTOS 

Gesellschaft für technische Oberflächensysteme mbH 

Gutenbergstraße 14 · D-48282 Emsdetten 

Tel. +49(0)2572 96026-0 · info@agtos.de 

www.agtos.com 

214-12/15-2c

CPT International 03/2016

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