DISA, part of Norican Group, has reported stunning scrap reduction figures of up to 86% per pattern from multiple green sand foundries running its Monitizer® | PRESCRIBE Artificial-Intelligence-driven optimisation tool. Customers say that they are “truly amazed” and “astonished” by PRESCRIBE’s results.
Numerous foundries are now deploying the equipment-agnostic PRESCRIBE Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool from Monitizer, the digital division of Norican, across green sand moulding, high pressure and low pressure die casting processes. Customers include Huaxiang in China, Morikawa in Japan, Condals in Spain and EURAC in the UK. PRESCRIBE is also in operation at other foundries that prefer to remain anonymous.
“These fantastic results show once again how PRESCRIBE’s analytics combined with Norican’s unique mix of digital and industry experience transforms foundry performance across scrap rates, energy consumption, sustainability and beyond,” says Nina Dybdal Rasmussen, who heads up the Monitizer brand at Norican. “As more foundries turn to digital in search of process improvements, Monitizer | PRESCRIBE is the tried-and-tested solution that’s proven to perform.”
Morikawa achieves outstanding scrap reductions
Powered by Norican’s strategic AI partner DataProphet, Monitizer | PRESCRIBE’s sophisticated AI-driven predictive analytics optimise an entire production line in real time and recommend changes to process parameters that prevent defects occurring. This significantly reduces scrap and emissions while improving profitability.
PRESCRIBE incorporates the deep process knowledge and famous foundry support of DISA and the other Norican technology brands. It is built on Norican’s Monitizer® | DISCOVER IIoT platform and, like DISCOVER, is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tool. Together, this helps foundries deploy optimisation rapidly, effectively and with low project risk.
Japan’s Morikawa foundry started to implement the full Monitizer suite in early 2021 and, despite the restrictions of Covid, rapidly progressed to optimisation. Initial testing in 2022 convincingly demonstrated PRESCRIBE’s effectiveness.
“The results of the MONITIZER | PRESCRIBE first test showed an uplift of 66.6% and 86.9% respectively for the two different patterns,” says Mr. Junichi Morikawa, President of Morikawa. “We are very satisfied with these results.”
Mr. Morikawa continues, “We are particularly astonished by the excellent results of the pattern that showed 86.9% uplift, since we had been unable to reduce the scrap rate for this pattern before, no matter what measures we had taken.”
Huaxiang: from zero to digital hero in two years
Huaxiang is China’s fifth largest private foundry and produces over 250,000 tons of iron castings annually. It started implementing the full Monitizer digital suite in early 2021 with the goals of stabilising its process, reducing scrap, improving yield and minimising finishing work.
Monitizer’s modular approach means foundries can start by collecting data, then progress to more sophisticated applications and gain value at each step. Huaxiang quickly built out its Monitizer Industry 4.0 infrastructure, implemented PRESCRIBE’s dynamic, real-time control – and rapidly reaped the benefits.
During recent testing, Huaxiang’s scrap reduction figures from four automotive castings were 86.1%, 57.3%, 46.6% and 30.3% respectively.
“Monitizer│PRESCRIBE’s first test results from four different patterns showed an average scrap rate reduction of 57.2%. We are truly amazed by these results,” says Mr. Shaung, Director of Informatization and Digitalization at Huaxiang. “We will continue to use the prescriptions ourselves to reproduce the same good results from the test and cannot wait to implement prescriptions for the rest of our patterns and see further scrap reductions.”
Scrap rates down by 40% at Condals
Step by step, Spanish foundry Condals has steadily extended its digital capabilities with Monitizer. It first upgraded its Monitizer | CIM interfaces on its DISA equipment, then deployed Monitizer | DISCOVER to collect and monitor live process data across all three of its casting lines. Next came Monitizer | PRESCRIBE.
“DISA offered a complete solution with Monitizer,” says David de la Cruz, Chief Quality & Information Officer at Condals Foundry Group. “Other competing solutions only look at parts of the process in detail and only optimise certain parameters whereas Monitizer | PRESCRIBE optimises the entire process to reduce scrap. That was exactly what we were looking for.”
During PRESCRIBE testing, Condals saw a 40% scrap reduction and that improvement has continued. “The scrap rate is staying at the lower level and actually still dropping slowly, so we have seen a reduction and then a stabilisation,” says David.
MAT Group picks PRESCRIBE to cut waste and boost sustainability
Global casting giant MAT Foundry Group chose Monitizer | PRESCRIBE early in 2022, with its EURAC facility in Poole, UK as the initial test site. The EURAC team are digital veterans who first installed the Monitizer | DISCOVER solution in 2019 and now have a complete digital view of their production. With PRESCRIBE, they aim to further reduce scrap and energy consumption – and increase sustainability.
“Quality and emissions reduction are being linked like never before,” says Shaun Lindfield, EURAC’s Commercial Director. “When you start to reduce your scrap, there’s a significant reduction in scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Our ongoing Monitizer project in Poole is vital in helping improve both our process and sustainability.”
“PRESCRIBE’s technology is well proven and the correct next step in our digital journey,” continues Shaun. “It saves you money and makes you more profitable – so why isn’t everybody doing this? If the project is a success – and I am sure it will be – we intend to implement PRESCRIBE in other foundries across our global group.”
PRESCRIBE succeeds in die casting too
A global automotive OEM has seen excellent results with PRESCRIBE in low pressure die casting (LPDC). The OEM uses LPDC to manufacture light alloy wheels for premium vehicles. During the commissioning test, following PRESCRIBE’s instructions for optimum machine set points and other process parameters reduced scrap by 29%.
“The PRESCRIBE AI was built to solve manufacturing problems and it optimises die casting processes just as effectively as it does green sand,” says Nina. “I am delighted to see the fantastic results that PRESCRIBE continues to deliver for foundries. Optimisation is a natural next step from Monitizer | DISCOVER and, because Norican now has years of experience deploying foundry IIoT and AI solutions, we can help customers make a major difference to operations very quickly.”
