The Magaldi Industrie srl has reaffirmed its already well-established presence in Mexico with the acquisition of an order for a Casting Cooler, as part of an expansion project for a no-bake foundry.
The Magaldi Casting Cooler (MCC®) has been installed to convey automotive items such as motor supports and gearboxes. The maximum castings size is 1.4 m x 1.1 m x 0.8 m with a maximum weight of 400 kg.
The MCC is equipped with a cooling tunnel, held under negative pressure, in which a stream of cooling air flows at controlled speed to avoid thermal shock to castings. Ambient air is sucked from the centre of the cooling tunnel and is forced to the extremities of the cooling hood. The cooling of these castings is performed on two separate coolers “MCC01” and “MCC02”. The castings are loaded by crane from the shakeout and then unloaded onto the MCC01 belt. The operators carefully place two castings in parallel on the belt width in order to maximize the cooling time inside the tunnel. The castings are then cooled on the MCC01 and then transferred to the MCC02 through a special damped chute.
The drums of MCC01 are 300 mm in diameter only, in order to minimize the drop between the two conveyors during the unloading of the castings. The dampened chute assists a smooth unloading. The MCC® conveyors are also equipped with closer pitch idlers at the loading areas in order to enhance the loading capability and the resistance to shock loads.
Once the castings are unloaded onto MCC02, the cooling process proceeds so castings leave the hood at 90 °C. An important characteristic of the system is that with two possible settings, energy can be saved based on seasonal variations. In summer, when the ambient temperature is higher, the energy consumption of the venting system is the maximum needed to reach the expected castings temperature of 90 °C. In winter, when the ambient temperature is lower, the system automatically changes the setting parameters of the MCC® (belt speeds, fan speeds, etc.) so that it can achieve the same cooling temperature but with higher energy savings.
At the exit of the cooling tunnel, operators at both sides of the conveyor can perform the de-gating activities and are able to load by crane the carousel of the shot-blasting machine.
With reduced noise levels and in the absence of vibration, the activity of sprue removal becomes easier and safer for operators.
With the MCC®, the foundry can achieve the optimal temperature for castings and minimize the handling after the shake-out thus increasing the productivity (natural cooling would have taken around 6 hours while the MCC® has reduced the process to 1.5 hours).
The belt of both MCC® conveyors is manufactured in Hardox steel of extreme strength, so the longevity of the belt is increased.
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