Is your foundry large enough to house conveyors for cooling off castings? Are you limited by space? How about ventilation? If you’re dreaming of a transient vibration-free, environmentally conscious work zone, don’t let the heat—or the shaking walls—get to you: Stay cool, because General Kinematics has a solution.
Cool Conveying
The SPIRA-COOL® vibratory conveyor addresses all of those issues and even better, the conveyor design replaces up to 400 feet of a traditional vibratory system that’s used for conveying and cooling casting. The design mitigates vibration transmission, which has been known to lead to on-site environmental issues. Furthermore, SPIRA-COOL®’s patented air-chamber design cools and conveys heavy and fragile castings efficiently and quietly.
True Impact
In one North American facility, GK was able to replace the factory’s 122-feet of space that had been previously occupied by a regular vibratory conveyor with an 18-foot SPIRA-COOL®. As a bonus, the SPIRA-COOL® was also able to be elevate castings, which enabled the delivery from one line to another.
“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,” summarized the January 2015 General Kinematics team case study.
Another case study revealed that the SPIRA-COOL® reduced the previous footprint requirements by a factor of eight. As featured in the January 2015 Issue of Foundry, authors Amy Donahue and Claude Hutchens describe the case study in The Challenge of Cooling Castings Without 400 Feet of Conveyors, as well as the development of the SPIRA-COOL®.
With innovative casting cooling spirals, heat is no longer allowed to transfer across a foundry, as previous machines have inefficiently enabled. Rather, the ventilation is centralized to the work area, so heat isn’t allowed to wander. Additionally, the design operates off of one-third of the horsepower required by competitive designs.
Not only are costs saved in the installation process, but also throughout the continued maintenance and through a reduction of re-working requirements. Ultimately, the SPIRA-COOL® helps your foundry—and you—stay cool by conserving space and money.
