Recently, three foundries have upgraded their sand mixers with DISA's SMC (Sand Multi Controller), an Equipment Modernisation Programme (EMP). This upgrade has been done by more than 10 foundries. EMPs supplied by DISA were targeted to improve the quality and stability of the sand mix to achieve lower scrap and final machining costs.
Adding an SMC enhances the performance of batch mixers, made by DISA and other manufacturers. The SMC monitors, each sand batch and controls water addition, ensuring that the moulding sand’s properties stay very close to the desired values. Operators simply select the correct sand recipe from the user-friendly interface.
“Inconsistent, out-of-tolerance green sand causes all sorts of casting quality problems like sand inclusions, porosity and shrinkage,” says Bernard Kuai, Senior Service Manager for DISA Sand Plant. “The SMC measures critical properties, like sand compressibility and automatically, adds water to keep the sand mix correct, even when temperatures or humidity change in the foundry. More precisely, in-line laboratory testing and control can have a big effect on scrap rates.”
Adding an SMC delivers consistent sand properties
The first foundry had traditionally manually sampled sand from its DISA TM mixer. The results were used to estimate how much moulding sand and water needed to be added for each batch. However, the sand properties varied widely during production.
DISA fitted an SMC and sand quality immediately improved. By handling almost the whole mixing process and logging all relevant data for each batch, the SMC reduced the operators’ workload too.
The second foundry was struggling to achieve the correct sand mix with its locally manufactured, non-DISA mixer and manual sampling. DISA’s engineers changed the water entry point and the sampling hole to the side of the mixer, then fitted an SMC. The upgraded mixer now provides a rapid, complete mixing that consistently produces sand to the foundry’s required specification.
“DISA’s Sand Multi Controller replaces old-fashioned, inaccurate manual methods with precise, automated control that ensure each batch is within specification.” Bernard Kuai, Senior Service Manager, DISA Sand Plant.
SMC shows excellent results in double mixer upgrade
At a third foundry, DISA fitted SMCs to two non-DISA mixers as part of another successful EMP. The SMC brought the mixing process under control again, improving compactibility significantly and tightly regulating it across a narrower range.
“DISA’s Sand Multi Controller replaces old-fashioned, inaccurate manual methods with precise, automated control that ensure each batch is within specification,” says Bernard Kuai. “A mixer upgrade is one of many EMPs that DISA offers and is a rapid, cost-effective way to improve your process and reduce labour requirements.”
“A mixer upgrade is one of many EMPs that DISA offers.” Bernard Kuai, Senior Service Manager, DISA Sand Plant.
