Cast Metal & Diecasting Times July/ August 2016 April/May 2016 | Page 17

FURNACES | 15

w w w. n e w b u s i n e s s m e d i a . c o

Tailored modernisation at Ford

At Ford’s aluminium foundry in Köln, the trouble-free upgrade of dosing furnaces has increased productivity and efficiency.

Modernisations soon pay off, even with older Westomat dosing furnaces, as realised here at the car manufacturer Ford in Köln, Germany
(image: StrikoWestofen).

In an effort to adapt productivity,
availability and energy consumption to
meet the latest standards, the Ford factory
in Köln, Germany has recently modernised
further production units. To conduct this
work, the global automotive producer again
relied on the competence of Gummerbachbased StrikoWestofen. Successful
conversion to ProDos 3 controls, as well as
speedy relining work in the previous year
were convincing for the Ford factory, so
that further systems soon followed.
Overhaul programme
The made-to-measure project served
to improve dosing accuracy, energy
consumption and system availability.
“Thanks to the rapid completion of the
work, we had practically no production
downtime” is the positive conclusion drawn
by Klaus Herweg, who is in charge of
maintenance at the Ford diecasting plant.
Replacement of the old Westronics
control by the new ProDos 3 was the first
step towards increasing productivity:
Using constant analysis of process flows,
the intelligent ProDos 3 precisely adapts
the dosing procedure of the Westomat to
the production cycle in each case. That
way, it increases dosing accuracy by up to
35%, making an important contribution
to return reduction - and it is easier to
operate, too.
“Over the last three years, we have had
seven of our dosing furnaces converted”
Klaus Herweg explains. “We also installed
an additional system as part of the general
overhaul of a diecasting machine.”

premises. Delivery with a completely dried
new lining ensures rapid commissioning
of the dosing furnace and makes rinsing
batches unnecessary when it is taken into
operation. For one furnace, the customer
decided to have a complete replacement
furnace body delivered, allowing especially
rapid recommissioning. Once the relining
has been completed, even the oldies
among the Westomat furnaces match the
performance of the youngsters; modern
insulation materials allow them to keep
up with comparable new systems in terms
of energy consumption. The costs are
recovered within months.
Manufacturer StrikoWestofen offers a
number of made-to-measure modernisation
concepts – from relining only to complete
modernisation including control,
switching system, pneumatics, sensors and
cabling. It is also possible to retrofit many
of the latest options presented in recent
years into existing systems, including riser
tube edge cleaning, a self-cleaning transfer
launder, a flanged riser tube, biscuit
correction, increased dosing accuracy,
Webserver 4.0 and others. “Conversion
to ProDos 3 as well as relining are
worthwhile investments” Klaus Herweg
confirms. “This is why Ford is going
ahead with modernisation… new is not
necessarily better, after all!”
www.strikowestofen.com

Oldies become goldies
Depending on maintenance and use of
the Westomat, relining is unavoidable
sooner or later. As a special service,
StrikoWestofen offers
three alternatives,
depending on the
downtime the customer
can cope with. The first
one is relining on the
supplier’s premises,
which takes about four
to five weeks, including
transport to the factory
and back.
A more time-saving
option is removal in situ,
followed by insertion of
a pre-sintered relined
replacement part. Here,
only five working days
of downtime need to be
scheduled, including the
heating-up phase.
Thirdly, when time
is of the essence, a
relined replacement
furnace body can be
recommended. Even
with the heating-up
phase, this alternative
requires no more than
three working days
downtime.
Ford decided to
have relining carried
out directly on the
Dosing furnace tuning at Ford: Relining and upgrading to ProDos 3 control make this Westomat state-of-theart (image: StrikoWestofen).
StrikoWestofen

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