Tupy expands Maua plant with robotic coremaking, new mold line for heavy truck engine parts.The intense global competition that exists with the production of iron engine cylinder blocks and heads for heavy trucks makes automation the only route metalcasting plants can take to ensure a level playing field See net neutrality. . This rule exists whether the plant is in the U.S., Europe, Mexico or Brazil. For the last year, the Brazilian-based metalcasting firm Tupy, a leader in the supply of blocks and heads to the global heavy truck market, has performed a $30 million (U.S.) modernization modernization Transformation of a society from a rural and agrarian condition to a secular, urban, and industrial one. It is closely linked with industrialization. As societies modernize, the individual becomes increasingly important, gradually replacing the family, project on its Maua, Brazil, plant to eliminate labor and increase efficiency and quality. This modernization project revamped its coreroom, molding and melting and added 50,000 tons of production capacity/yr. For coremaking, the plant now has two distinct automated cells. The first cell is dedicated to a DaimlerChrysler 3.7-L block and incorporates two 100-L coldbox coremaking machines that produce nine different cores. These cores are partially assembled manually before two robots finish the assembly and dip the core packages into a wash. This cell produces 60 core packages/hr. The second cell produces six different block and/or head core packages. With three new 150-L coldbox core machines, these core packages are assembled with the help of manipulators, and then a gantry Gantry A name for the couch or table used in a CT scan. The patient lies on the gantry while it slides into the x-ray scanner portion. Mentioned in: Computed Tomography Scans picks them up and dips them into a wash. The second core cell produces 25-50 core packages/hr. "The demands in quality and efficiency from our customer base necessitates this modernization," said Luis Carlos Guedes, executive vice president-operations and engineering. "Robotics robotics, science and technology of general purpose, programmable machine systems. Contrary to the popular fiction image of robots as ambulatory machines of human appearance capable of performing almost any task, most robotic systems are anchored to fixed positions provides us an automated solution with consistency from mold to mold." Both of the new core cells feed a new cope and drag In foundry work, the terms Cope and Drag refer to the upper and lower parts of a two-part casting flask, used in sand casting. The flask is a wood or metal frame, which contains the molding sand, providing support to the sand as the metal is poured into the mold. green sand molding line with a flask flask (flask) 1. a laboratory vessel, usually of glass and with a constricted neck. 2. a metal case in which materials used in making artificial dentures are placed for processing. size of 63 x 47.2 x 19.7 in. (1,600 x 1,200 x 500 mm). Utilizing a combination of airflow and squeeze pressure for compaction, this new mold line produces 75 molds/hr., typically in a two-on format. To accommodate the new core and mold capacity, the plant increased its melt capacity with the addition of two new 10-ton/hr. induction furnaces An induction furnace is an electrical furnace in which the heat is applied by induction heating of a conductive medium (usually a metal) in a crucible around which water-cooled magnetic coils are wound. . The smaller of the two Tupy plants in Brazil, Maua is 36,000 sq. m (the other plant is in Joinville and measures 172,000 sq. m), employs 928 people and now produces 70,000 tons of gray and ductile iron Ductile iron, also called ductile cast iron or nodular cast iron, is a type of cast iron invented in 1943 by Keith Millis[1]. While most varieties of cast iron are brittle, ductile iron is much more ductile, as the name implies. castings per year, with 99% of the production being gray iron. The plant's current capacity is 110,000 tons/yr. The next step in the plant's modernization is for automated cleaning and finishing. Tupy currently is evaluating ideas and forecasts a complete modernization within the next two years. "Within two years, this plant will be as automated as any in the world," said Fernando Cestari de Rizzo, executive vice president-sales and marketing. "To compete in the markets we compete in, we can provide nothing less." |
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