Buderus Guss GmbH in Breidenbach

appreciates high production performance of OTTO JUNKER's melting system and pressurized pouring furnace

A market-leading developer and manufacturer of brake discs for passenger cars, Buderus Guss GmbH, invested EUR 36 million in the expansion of its foundry operations last year. The new equipment was formally put into service at a solemn inauguration ceremony in late September. The expansion project covered all areas of the company's foundry, including its melting and pouring operations.

To upgrade its existing melting capability, the company had opted for the installation of a DUOMELT coreless induction furnace plant comprising two 12-tonne furnaces powered via a 10,000-kW frequency converter system. The 12-pulse converter with filter unit is designed to operate at a frequency of 250 Hz and enables the system to deliver up to 17.6 tonnes of molten cast iron per hour in Duomelt mode. The water recooling system is integrated into a cooling tower circuit and has separate cooling circuits for the furnaces and for the electrical equipment.

Two charging chutes, slag gripper equipment and a JOKS melt processor complete the package. The melt processor is interfaced with the spectrometer and can also be operated from a parallel desktop PC featuring an appropriate display unit. It is thus possible to control and monitor the entire system from a control station remote from the operator cabin. A new pouring furnace was fitted on an automatic moulding line for the controlled production of automotive castings. At a cycle time of around 11 seconds, the system is to pour up to 65 kg of liquid metal per mould. The pouring furnace has a useful capa-city of 10 tonnes and is heated by a 350-kW inductor. Consuming 140 kWh/h in holding mode, the unit has plenty of power left for adequate superheating of the molten metal. Automatic movement of the pouring furnace along and across the mould line is controlled by means of a laser system ensuring accurate positioning above the mould sprue cup. The bath level in the pouring spout is likewise laser-controlled. OTTO JUNKER's pouring level control system ensures an accurate compliance with the specified pouring curve. The appropriate pouring curve is programmed and saved via a teach-in system and subsequently reproduced automatically. The actual metal level in the sprue cup is detected by the laserbased distance measuring system and correlated automatically with the target level in the memorized pouring curve. In the event of a discrepancy, the stopper is opened or closed as required.

The culminating point of this major investment project consisted in the formal handover of OTTO JUNKER's equipment to Buderus Guss GmbH in early October.

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