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The brass and bronze foundry Excal is improving the efficiency and quality of its manufacturing process. The company produces a variety of metal products for ordering, including thousands of products of different sizes and shapes. An important step in the manufacturing process is the manufacture of the core-used to form a cavity in the molded brass or bronze product. By adopting RFID technology, the company can ensure that the cores it manufactures are in line with the requirements, so that it can produce a higher-quality finished product. Mike Baures, factory manager of Excal, said that the high quality of the company’s products is a competitive advantage.
When the core is produced, sand and an amine catalyst are injected into a mold called a core box. The core box is composed of various materials, including wood, urethane, or iron. To make the core, you need to press the sand into the mold, and then add a catalyst, which can be used as glue to hold the sand together. When casting, follow the corresponding casting method, including sand, amine catalyst, pressure and heat.
Once the core is hardened, the core is taken out of the box and placed in another mold to produce the required metal product. The molten metal is then poured into the mold and flows around the core to form a cavity. The temperature of the molten metal causes the core to lose its adhesion, and the core decomposes into loose sand, which can flow out of the cooled metal.
When a core is manufactured, the caster usually has to adjust the settings (often a trial, or just a review of the settings used for molds of similar size and shape for the same metal). Excal has about 2000 models for cores of different sizes and shapes. In order to improve the manufacturing system, the company began to cooperate with Palmer Manufacturing, Palmer Manufacturing for its production of core manufacturing machines-a new RFID-enabled CoreMaker core blowing machine.
First, a worker puts passive 13.56 MHz RFID tags on the bottom of each core box. The label complies with ISO 18000-3, ISO 15693 and ISO 14443 standards. Currently, Excal has adopted 10 labels, and they have been used on different boxes. After the staff becomes familiar with the system, the company plans to expand the system to label more boxes. Each label is programmed with a unique ID number, and the label is read when the mold is placed on the workbench of CoreMaker.
To build this manufacturing system, workers first read the ID number of the core box label, and then enter the core box settings into the machine’s programmable logic controller (PLC). “In this way, the best settings can be calculated, and then the best settings can be entered into the casting method of the work and can be stored permanently.” said Jack Palmer, CEO of Palmer Manufacturing.
To activate the label to be read, the worker needs to place the core box on the core making machine and press a button on the machine. The RFID reader built into the machine workbench reads the ID number of the box tag, and transmits these data to the PLC, which corresponds to the set number for producing the core. Then the worker presses another button to start the core manufacturing process, and the core box moves with the conveyor belt to the core blowing machine. The PLC instructs according to the required settings, and starts to inject sand and chemicals in sequence, and then clean the box (RFID radio frequency bulletin: blow out the remaining gas and sand).
Baures said that the use of RFID technology reduces the time required for labor, thereby increasing productivity.
Baures said that although he has not yet calculated the amount of labor required to operate the core blower after Excal uses the system, his biggest interest is to be able to produce higher quality cores, thereby producing higher quality products. He explained that when workers manually experiment with manufacturing methods, the conditions of the core are variable. For example, a core may contain an excessive amount of amine catalyst, which can be damaged by the heat of the molten metal and cause the core to rupture. CoreMaker using RFID technology can ensure that the core is manufactured with the correct settings, so that the manufactured metal products can also guarantee the quality. He pointed out that if something goes wrong, such as a broken core, the foundry can record the settings for manufacturing this core and then make appropriate adjustments.
Baures said that the RFID-enabled CoreMaker is really a smart tool!
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