After the design engineering of large presses (described in my previous article follows the dialogue with the foundry. What is the best pouring position? How are the castings cores arranged? Where will the cooling and degassing ducts be placed?

Once the initial simulations have been performed, the casters simulate the production process from the pouring to the solidification, to the calculation of the internal stresses in the finished casting. With in-house developed software, Siempelkamp transfers these results back to the finite element analysis. If necessary the process runs through another iteration in the design department. The result: After several steps the prototype, with a functional and casting-suitable design which is optimized in regards to quality and costs, exists on screen.

The structural components, which are made of cast iron with spheroidal graphite, are cast. The Siempelkamp foundry, which is one of the largest hand-molding foundries in the world, specializes in castings made of cast iron with spheroidal graphite. Even for casting thick-walled components, the casters have specific metallurgic know-how. This allows setting the optimal conditions for the solidification process during crystallization of the matrix and the graphite nodules.

Each year the foundry produces approx. 70,000 t of molten iron; castings with weights of more than 250 t are daily routine. The world record from 2009 proves the capacity of the foundry: For the new straightening press of Dillinger Hüttenwerke, Siempelkamp cast the upper bolster with a raw casting weight of 270 t which corresponds to the weight of 200 medium-sized vehicles.

For the machining of the castings, the facility with CNC-controlled large-scale machines including a portal machining center with a gantry design which can accommodate workpieces with a length of up to 22 m and a height of 6 m. When machining the bolster of the world’s largest casting for the new straightening press at Dillinger Hüttenwerke, Siempelkamp achieves a tolerance of 0.1 mm for the parallelism and 0.1 mm for the evenness of the surfaces. The tolerance for the height dimension is 0.2 mm, the tolerance for the width dimension is 0.1 mm.

The new software Prod-IQ® offers intelligent process control technology, online quality control, and performance analysis which are exactly tailored to the specific requirements in the area of metal forming. It includes modules for the production data management as well as maintenance and servicing. First real-life results prove that users save up to 2.5% in material and that downtimes have been reduced by up to 4%. Furthermore, by permanently reducing quality fluctuations, the software has reduced waste material by up to 1%.

The software automatically collects production data and presents such data with the help of clear graphics. The quick availability of need-driven information leads to higher transparency because characteristic data regarding plant performance, quality, resource consumption, and costs can be analyzed during production. Because the production data is documented, exact traceability of all production steps is guaranteed.

The information can be easily evaluated: For routine operation Siempelkamp offers pre-configured evaluations such as shift, daily, and monthly reports. Specific requests pinpoint the reason for costs. Once an optimization measure resulting from this evaluation has been completed, the success is immediately measurable. Thus, Prod-IQ® is a valuable tool for the continuous improvement of all processes in the plant.

Next to optimizing the production, the most cost-efficient, condition-dependent maintenance strategy can be implemented. The reason for an increase in the energy consumption of a certain aggregate could thus, for example, point to wear. Prod-IQ® controls threshold values and reports when certain measures are necessary.

With up-to-date design methods, an intensive cooperation between design engineers and casters, as well as up-to-date control technology, Siempelkamp provides the assurance that extraordinary large presses will meet the customer-specific specifications at first go and operate efficiently for decades.