Challenge
A North American foundry customer had two existing parallel lines in their facility. The second line was to be modified and run a special alloy material. To compound this change, prior to having the sprue removed the alloys needed to be cooled before joining in with first line to be blasted. From A to B sounded impossible… at first!
Approach
GK engineers went to work studying the options for this customer. Due to a lack of space, the GK SPIRA-COOL® was the first considered. Able to replace the otherwise 122 feet of space needed for a regular vibratory conveyor, the SPIRA-COOL® could do so in 18 feet. It would also gain a large amount of the elevation needed to bring the alloys back to the first line.
Solution
General Kinematics engineered and manufactured the SPIRA-COOL® . This unit not only met the small space requirements, but also achieved a great amount of cooling of both the sprue and castings together. The materials then were able to be transferred to a de-spruing conveyor and back over to the existing first line.
Results
The beauty of this concept was twofold.
First, it solved all of the issues the foundry had considered from trying to extend the building itself to trying to rearrange all of the equipment at the facility.
Secondly, with the small footprint requirements for the SPIRA-COOL® , it could be installed with no modifications to the existing floor and completed without shutting down the existing lines in the plant. This foundry is impressed with this solution from the General Kinematics team.
Want to learn about other GK Foundry and casting cooling equipment? Reach out to our team of GK experts today!
