Sand casting aluminium foundry (bentonite)

The sand casting aluminium foundry specialises in production of aluminium alloy castings produced to the requirements of customers from different industries such as electrical engineering, machinery, food industry, ship-building industry, traffic systems and others.

Engineering

The engineering department designs castings and casting toolings in the 3D program SOLIDWORKS with the support of the modern simulation program MAGMASOFT®, which is used to verify the casting design and casting technology and also predicts possible defects in the casting. We offer cooperation with the customer in the stage of design, streamlining and optimisation of the final solution including the proposal of ideal aluminium alloy - a beneficial service to our customers. When designing the casting equipment, we use computer simulation of the casting process and of the solidification of the molten material. We can also provide a proposal of solution of transition to aluminium alloy from a different material (such as wrought material, iron etc.).

Moulding

Wooden or metal patterns are used in the process of moulding of outer shapes. Every casting equipment is designed using a state-of-the-art 3D programme SolidWorks. When necessary, the construction department cooperates with our customers (streamlining and optimisation of the final solution including the proposal of ideal aluminium alloy, proposal of solution of transition to aluminium alloy from a different material).

In the sand casting process, the moulding is done into a unified bentonite mixture or, in case of more complex casting products, into a binding mixture. An improvement of the shaping mixture quality has been achieved through implementation of a sand cooler into the sand management line and introduction of computer controlled moulding-mixture preparation. The computer system provides accurate dosage of individual components of the unified bentonite mixture and controls the mixing time.

The moulding is based on jolting and coining - on the Foromat 20 machines and FRFG 20 turn-up machine. For the production of larger series, we use casting method based on air pulse-blasting and finish the products on the semi-automatic HSP line. The moulds for production of large casting products are made on Foromat 40 machines (jolting and coining method of moulding).

Casting

High flexibility of production allows us producing of a wide range of dimensions and weights of cast parts. Sand foundry offers the possibility of casting cast parts from 0.5 to 100 kg.

1. Casting into sand moulds produced by machine moulding with conventional mechanical jarring and repressing with moulding frame sizes from 400 × 300 mm to 1000 × 1000 mm, frame height 100–300 mm, with cast part weight 
0.1–100 kg.
2. Casting into sand moulds produced by mechanical moulding with impulsive air injection and repressing with moulding frame dimensions 650 × 500 mm, frame height 250/150mm at a weight of 1–30 kg per a cast part.
3. Casting into sand moulds produced by hand moulding up to the maximum frame dimensions of 1000 × 1000 mm, frame height up to 400 mm, with a weight up to 40 kg. 1000 × 1000 mm, frame height up to 400mm, with a weight up to 40 kg.

The annual capacity of the sand foundry is approx 2 500 tonnes of cast parts/year.

Production of cores

For the above technologies we provide core production by the following methods:

1. Injection moulding - CT system – water glass cured with CO2.
2. Hand filling - CT system – water glass cured with CO2.

The weights of the sand cores range from 0.1 to 100 kg/piece.

Finishing operations

1. Trimming and grinding of gatings and risers - newly with grinding machine Koyama
2. Blasting with chrome steel stainless granulate and corundum mixture.
3. Pressurizing of castings up to max. pressure of 6 bar.
4. Heat treatment T4, T6.
5. Assemblies according to customer specifications.
6. In cooperation, we offer the following surface treatment based on customer specifications - protection against corrosion, powdered surface finish, anodizing etc.