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Topic Chemicals Foundry Corporate News

Imerys Metalcasting, Innovation & Customer Service

Foundry industry: A strong sector of the global economy is changing over time, developing new technologies, trends and leading innovation.

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Imerys Metalcasting is a leading green molding sand supplier to the foundry industry. The Company is constantly evolving, aiming to always be one step ahead of the technological developments, initiating innovative research, and leading to state-of-the art products launches. This way, it manages to cover the market demands for high quality castings, higher production efficiency, and meeting the increasing authorities requirements for a cleaner workplace inside the foundries  and a cleaner environment.

Based on the statement above, lightweight casting- and emission reducing technologies are two of the latest examples of innovation in foundry, and Imerys with its expertise, long experience and know-how is managing relevant key projects that can offer custom made solutions, responding that way rapidly to the new market challenges.

The goal and vision of the Group is supported by the Imerys Foundry Laboratories, whose main functions include Customer Service, Quality Control & New Product Development. The labs are fully equipped with all the standard molding sand testing equipments, as well as with devices specialized in a range of more sophisticated applications, like emissions measurement of molding sands and raw materials.

Specifically for the emission reduction technology, the expert knowledge of the chemical reactions that occur inside the molding sand during the casting process and the pyrolysis of the carbonaceous components in the molding sand, led Imerys to design and develop a series of innovative products that have enabled the foundry process to operate with fewer harmful gas emissions, improving that way the workplace conditions, protecting both the employees’ health and the environment. The development started nearly 20 years ago, implementing ENVIBOND® during GIFA 2007, and although the company recently celebrated 10 years of ENVIBOND®, the development is still ongoing.

The newest development results are going to be presented at the WFC in Krakow in September 2018.

Additional to the green molding sand application, new development takes place for environmentally friendly core sand additives for PUR cold-box, analyzing the strength behavior over time, as well as further properties like storage time and flowability. 

Samples from all over the world arrive on a daily basis in Imerys Foundry labs, supporting the way not only customers, but also the Imerys Technical Support Departments in different geographical areas, such as the US, China and Europe, specifically Germany, France  Turkey & Italy, assisting Imerys activities on a global level.

Additional to the daily business, Imerys Foundry Labs serve the purpose of regular customer trainings in all the important for the foundry process tests, like, among others, determination of active clay, loss of ignition, and determination of fines’ content in the molding sand.

The results of the molding sand analyses performed in the Imerys laboratories form the basic data for the expert system. Imerys customers profit from the lab reporting system, which is planned to be further optimized in the near future through the implementation of a newer, more modern database that offers more features and additional functions, ensuring the optimization of the work processes and documentation of the lab, as well as the high quality of reporting received by the customers. 

A very important milestone for Imerys Metalcasting Innovation was the recent inauguration of the brand new Imerys Technology Center in Atlanta.
The purpose for this modern ITC is to operate as the science & technology center of the Group, working on new product development for foundry applications. Additional to the Group’s internal resources, Imerys Metalcasting Innovation has worldwide co-operations and partnership contracts with various Universities and Foundry Institutes in N. America, Europe and Asia. Through those collaborations Imerys manages to continually increase the technical knowledge and keep the finger on the pulse of the industry, the latest breakthrough developments and newest methods. 

Finally, all Imerys processes are conducted under the highest safety standards; safe working conditions are the basis for all activities in Imerys and Foundry Labs are no exception to that. The daily business is guided by strict health- and safety regulations and protocols that ensure the safety and well-being of anybody present on the Imerys premises at all time. Moreover, regular safety trainings and in-house seminars by EHS specialists are offered not only to the staff members of the labs but also to all employees from all the different functions.  

Continuing the Company’s long tradition that established Imerys as leading supplier of the Foundry industry, Imerys commitment to the market is to continue developing innovative solutions, always having in focus the customer needs and the newest market trends.

Meet us on booth 107 at the 73rd World Foundry Congress from 23rd – 27th September 2018 in Krakow, Poland.

Company Info

Imerys Metalcasting Germany GmbH

Schmielenfeldstraße 78
45772 Marl
Germany

Telephone: +49 (0) 23 65 8040

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