Noricanのアルミ鋳造

廃棄物ゼロ、不良ゼロ、シームレス統合

アルミニウムの利点：リサイクル性と廃棄物の削減

アルミニウムの使用量が増加している基本的な理由は、リサイクル性と廃棄物削減の点で他の材料よりも優れていることです。
ニアネットシェイプ製造では、機械加工が少ない分、材料の無駄も少なく済みます。アルミニウムの特性（可鍛性を含む）は、この利点を活用して原材料効率を改善するのに特に適しています。

ダイカストの欠点：資源とエネルギーの利用率が高い

アルミニウムダイキャスト作業は、資源とエネルギーを大量に消費します。ダイカスト部品のトータルコストの約25％がエネルギー消費に関連しています。

欠陥ゼロ：廃棄を減らす、良品を増やす

この難しいバランスを取るための答えは、「ゼロ」です。

これは何もしないという意味ではありません。廃棄物（エネルギーと資源）ゼロ、不良ゼロの戦略に集中することを意味します。なぜなら、機器の能力の進化と新たなデジタルソリューションのおかげで、この2つは手を取り合うことができるからです。また、この戦略を採用すれば、急速に進化するアルミニウム市場における他の重要な課題にも

1.　大型で複雑な構造のアルミ部品の需要の増加

 複雑な構造の部品は、優れた強度と剛性と可能な限り低い重量を組み合わせ、より高い機械的性能要件を満たすために「欠陥ゼロ」でなければなりません。しかし、それらはまた、実用的な課題をもたらします。たとえば、炉に収まるように手動でピースを切断して再溶融する必要がある場合、時間と人的資源を浪費する可能性があります。この問題を解決するために、StrikoWestofen社のBigStruc（構造部品専用溶解炉）が開発されました。

2.　開発サイクルの短縮とテクノロジーの急速な変化

これら2つの要因により、新しい鋳造ラインでは多くの場合、図面作成から生産までの時間が大幅に短縮され、無駄（非効率）が障害となっています。一方で、サプライチェーンの遅延を引き起こす可能性のあるものは、ラインの末端で発見された品質問題を含めて、効率を最大化するために特定して対処しなければなりません。

3.持続可能な生産

持続可能な生産は、エネルギー消費やコストの削減だけではありません。持続可能な生産は、長期的な生産を脅かす要因（計画外の不要なダウンタイム）を排除することも意味します。鋳物工場は、稼働時間を最適化し、最初から最適な生産を実現する無駄のないソリューションに焦点を当てる必要があります。

Continuous improvement - from furnace to finished casting

Leveraging the right equipment and digital solutions can make a huge difference to the efficiency and efficacy of operations. Here is a quick tour of the aluminium foundry floor to highlight the improvements possible and how to achieve them.

1. Melting and dosing with StrikoWestofen

Eliminating energy and metal waste: optimised furnace efficiency

Monitizer | Refill Monitor: This digital solution from StrikoWestofen uses real time sensor-generated data to ensure aluminium dosing furnaces never run dry and only ever receive the right alloy at the right time. This prevents unnecessary filling runs, avoidable stoppages and guarantees that dosing and bale-out equipment is always working at full capacity. 

Productivity of metal supply increases by up to 15% at least and, on average, an overall productivity increase of between 0.5% -1% is achieved thanks to reducing downtime and optimized filling cycles. More uptime, more accuracy, more profitable production. 

2. Aluminium die casting performance

Zero waste, zero defect isn’t just a mantra with melt shop benefits. In order to cope with the new wave of larger, often more complex structural parts in high demand, High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) machines with greater closing forces are necessary, ranging from 3,500 tonnes to 5,700 tonnes. The problem is, if additional space is required to accommodate these giants, it can impact on production flow/capacity; wasted space can effectively equate to lost potential.
Also, such machines need to have extremely tight die closures in order to eliminate scrap and avoidable flash for high-quality part repeatability (zero defect).

3. Shot blasting aluminium

Surface preparation and cleaning operations are not always front of mind when looking for areas for improvement in aluminium die casting operations. But why let your perfect process down on the final stretch? Especially when there are more zero waste, zero defect benefits to be achieved.
Aluminium production settings demand lighter, more flexible and more compact shot blast equipment. Solutions adopted should be specifically designed to efficiently clean large, structural aluminium castings that may have complex internal surfaces. Lightweight aluminium parts can also have thin wall thicknesses making them susceptible to deformation, so whether you use an air or wheel blast process, precise control is essential to avoid damage.

Wheelabrator's blast machines for aluminium integrate into tight cell layouts to provide compact, seamless material and workpiece handling, with flexible construction that allows equipment to be moved and adapted quickly to suit rapidly changing production requirements.

Space is maximized, downtime is minimized, and - thanks to innovative engineering tailored for precision blasting, descaling/deburring, deflashing and cleaning of aluminium parts – finished part quality is optimised.

The complete high pressure die casting foundry

featuring melting and dosing technology from StrikoWestofen, high pressure die casting technology from ItalPresseGauss, and shot blast LBS machine from Wheelabrator.

In fact, consultants McKinsey report, that taking a foundrywide digital view can deliver double-digit productivity increases. What’s even better news is that adopting such technologies doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, ‘doing more with data’ is an option open to all aluminium foundries, whatever the existing set-up and digital infrastructure.

Ready and (digitally) able

Most new pieces of foundry equipment – from furnaces and die casting machines to surface finishing equipment – now leave the factory floor digitally enabled i.e. ready to connect to peripheral equipment and data monitoring solutions.

Those that aren’t can have their data sharing potential unlocked by using ‘gateway’ technology, such as our own NoriGate solution, which enables any machine to be “IIoT enabled” to deliver better quality of data. Without having to invest in any new machines, aluminium foundries all have the opportunity to collect process data from any local machines and sensors. The foundation of any data journey.

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