New fire-resistant interchange parts shorten relining of Westomat dosing furnaces to only five days
A new on-site relining concept for Westomat dosing furnaces: in cooperation with a leading refractory supplier, the StrikoWestofen Group (Gummersbach) has now developed refractory interchange parts. These prefabricated furnace parts are delivered completely dried and sintered. Installing them shortens the relining process to only five working days, which is about one third of the repair time usual in the market. In addition, the materials used reduce the energy consumption to a value comparable with that of the latest Westomat generation. The prefabricated parts are already available for various sizes. Furthermore, StrikoWestofen is going to successively expand the range in the course of the year.
Plant downtimes are unavoidable during maintenance work. This is why one important focus of product development is on a plant design with as long as possible intervals between maintenance processes. In order to shorten the downtimes during the (at large intervals) necessary relining processes for Westomat dosing furnaces, StrikoWestofen has developed prefabricated refractory interchange parts. These are installed in the furnace shell directly on the customer premises, thus reducing the downtime to only five working days. “This is about one third of the repair time usual in the market,” explains Holger Stephan, manager of the Service und Spare Parts department at StrikoWestofen. As the interchange parts are delivered ready to install, drying and sintering are no longer necessary, and the heating up process is significantly shortened. Rinsing batches for improving the quality of the melt after restarting are no longer necessary.
A worthwhile investment
Relining not only restores the original condition – it can also increase the performance of older Westomat dosing furnaces to an up-to-date level: “The use of special insulation materials reduces the energy consumption to a value comparable with that of our new high-performance insulations,” Stephan explains. The fire-resistant interchange parts are initially available for Westomat dosing furnaces of the sizes 650 to 1,200. The sizes 1,700 to 3,100 will follow by late 2014. “This will allow us to offer interchange parts for all of the sizes of Westomat we offer,” Stephan explains.
Minimizing production downtimes
To bridge the time required for overhauling and modernization work which cannot take place on-site, the furnace-producer from Gummersbach also provides a range of furnaces for rent. Westomat dosing furnaces are available in various different sizes and are equipped with state-of-the–art technology. In this way, StrikoWestofen not only guarantees a smooth relining process with minimized downtimes. “In addition, our customers can test the latest developments under real-life foundry conditions,” Stephan explains.
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