<link _top>GEMCO ENGINEERS BV, together with sister company <link _top>KNIGHT WENDLING GmbH, offers well over 30 years of foundry consulting, engineering, project management and contracting services. From offices in the Netherlands, <link german-foundry-industry.html _top>Germany, the Russian Federation (as well as with agents worldwide), they provide a complete range of services entirely dedicated to the cast metal industry. Services encompass (cost-) analysis, feasibility and pre-engineering studies, simulation of foundry logistics and concept engineering. <link _top>GEMCO’s teams of foundry specialists can assist you with innovative concepts, design and planning of complete new foundries; project management and general contracting for new turn-key foundry projects as well as foundry modernizations, optimization projects and relocations of foundries.
Strategic and Operational Consulting, Engineering, Turn-around– and Interim Management, <link _top>KNIGHT WENDLING’s consultants service the metal industry with special focus on the worldwide foundry industry. Strategic consulting comprises Mergers & Acquisitions, Due Diligence and Joint-Venture Projects. Operational consulting offers creative, practical yet sustainable solutions to technical as well as operational issues in the complete range of foundry processes. Over the last 10 years, In the field of “Merger & Acquisition / Due Diligence – Strategic Partnership” KW has been involved in about 80 of such projects for financial and industrial interested parties working either on buyer or seller side - this represents 25% of all closed deals in casting industry.
IN RECENT TIMES COMPLETED PROJECTS
DEDICATED STEEL FOUNDRY FOR RAILWAY COMPONENTS
MFA – Materiel Ferroviaire d’Arbérats - is an independent branch of the Spanish company JEZ Sistemas Ferroviarios S.L. The Basque company JEZ is a renowned manufacturer of railway crossings and sidings. The history of the company dates back to 1926 when JEZ, Talleres y Fundiciones was established in Bilbao as a company involved in construction in metal. In 1994, a joint venture with the VAE Group resulted in the new firm JEZ Sistemas Ferroviarios. The strong combination of a (national) market-leader and maybe the most important multinational manufacturer in this field makes JEZ a significant player in the crossings and sidings market. The company has clients in over 35 different countries for important projects such as the French railways and metro systems (SNCF, RATP), London and Santiago subways, just to name a few.
In order to respond to a growing worldwide demand for railway materials JEZ chose to expand its production facilities with the erection of a new to build plant on the French side of the Atlantic Pyrenees, in Arbérats, France. The location in France will also allow the company to even better serve the highly potential French market. <link _top>GEMCO Engineers was asked to perform a concept study, followed by a foundry design and turn-key implementation of all the equipment.
The new state of the art facility covers 7.000 m2 and specializes in the production of railway crossings with a length up to over 6 meters. For these specific products of special lengths/sizes a dedicated modern and highly automated moulding line was developed.
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Patterns which are stored in a high-bay storage rack are transferred by means of an automated pattern manipulator to the moulding line where they are prepared for the moulding process and joined together with the flask halves. From here the moulds are automatically transported though the different stations of the line: mixer/sand filling, curing positions, stripping, inspection, after curing, flood coating, coating drying, core setting and inspection, mould closing and pouring cup setting.
Stripping and closing are fully automated processes, where the other processes run manual or semi-automatic.
Prepared moulds are positioned on the semi automatic pouring and cooling line. Here the full moulds (each weighing up to 15 tons) are indexed to the pouring positions, where they can be tilted to an angle during the pouring cycle. After pouring the moulds are transferred into the cooling tunnel. From where they are transported to the shake out.
After shake out, the product transfer is automated by the use of strong manipulators. These powerful units handle the raw castings through the de-gating, heat treatment, shot blasting and rough grinding processes. Automated transfer cars transport the castings into the finishing and machining area.
Project started with concept engineering in 2007. Permitting obligations were fulfilled early 2008 where in summer the groundbreaking took place. January 2009 the equipment installation started. In June the first pour was executed, followed by the start of production.
BEHRINGER NEW FOUNDRY COMPLETED
“<link _top>Behringer Maschinenfabrik und Eisengiesserei GmbH”, one of the world's leading saw manufacturers, successfully completed first melt and first pour in the new Greenfield Foundry for Iron Castings up to 2 tons.
In 2008, <link _top>Behringer decided to build a new state of the art foundry to replace their existing facility. Prior to the realization of the project <link _top>GEMCO, together with <link _top>Behringer, established the production requirements based on which <link _top>Gemco designed the foundry.
The construction of the new project started late 2008. In May the project team moved into the temporary site office building to organize the installation of equipment that arrived. Towards the end of 2009, the 5.800 m2 building was completed.
In close cooperation with <link _top>Behringer and other contractors the foundry has become a state of the art production facility that is able to produce grey and ductile castings in furan with a production capacity of 6.000 tons. The new facility enables <link _top>Behringer to produce world-class castings in a very efficient manner.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Foundry Industry in Russia: BENCHMARKING and DEVELOPMENT of a REFERENCE GUIDE
IFC ASSIGNMENT NEAR COMPLETION
A project consortium of <link _top>GEMCO Engineers BV and KNIGHT WENDLING GmbH performed a consulting project for the International Finance Corporation (IFC; member of The World Bank Group) titled ‘Foundry Industry in Russia: Benchmarking and Development of a Reference Guide’.
This prestigious assignment forms part of the Russia Cleaner Production Program which IFC currently undertakes in the Russian industry. The Program aims to stimulate investment in and uptake of cleaner production technologies and management processes in the Russian industry and to raise awareness among policy makers and financial institutions.
Focus is being put on those sectors deemed to be most interesting for IFC cleaner production investments; including the Russian foundry sector. The project is actively supported by the Russian government and other main stakeholders in the Russian foundry industry.
<link _top>GEMCO/KNIGHT WENDLING have been awarded this contract thanks to its profound knowledge of the Russian foundry industry, built-up through a large number of recently carried out foundry consultancy and engineering projects for various Russian ferrous and non-ferrous foundries, its permanent presence with a local office in Moscow and of course its experience with similar assignments in various other countries.
The assignment has three main objectives:
- develop a Resource Efficiency Reference Guide for the Russian ferrous foundry sector
- conduct benchmarking of the Russian ferrous foundry sector
- conduct stakeholders consultations to ensure data collection and viability of results
Within the development of the Resource Efficiency Reference Guide; the <link _top>GEMCO/Knight Wendling project team has been preparing a Diagnostics Guide, a Best Practice Guide and a Compendium on references of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). In consultation with IFC, a total of 7 groups of KPI’s have been defined. For the benchmarking campaign, approximately 200 Russian ferrous foundries have been approached. The first results became available in May 2010. The complete project runs until July/August 2010 and will be concluded with the presentation of the Resource Efficiency Reference Guide during a seminar for the Russian foundry industry.
Caterpillar awards contract to <link _top>GEMCO for upgrade metal-treatment and pouring system
CATERPILLAR has awarded <link _top>GEMCO with a contract to upgrade the existing pouring facility at one moulding line in Peoria. During the past months, Caterpillar and <link _top>Gemco have been developing a new system that enables CAT to utilize their existing moulding line with an innovative new pouring system. The system is able to track with a continuous running moulding line and is adjustable in 3 directions. The project further includes an automatic magnesium dosing system, automatic ladle-deslagging and emptying stations.
<link _top>Click here for more information and contact details Gemco Engineers B.V. - Knight Wendling GmbH in our Suppliers Profile
