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David Knapp (L) receiving his speaker award from Meeting Chair Kathy Hayrynen
Bio David is a 1959 Graduate Mechanical Engineer from Lehigh University and has a lifelong career in the foundry Industry. After military service in the U.S. Army Ordinance Corps, David joined Blaw-Knox Foundry and Mill Machinery in Pittsburgh as a Management Trainee. David moved on to Corapolis Steel Foundry and then transferred to Union Steel Works where he served as Foundry Manager making armored tank turrets. His first iron foundry experience was at the Beloit Corporation as Manager of Industrial Engineering, Safety Director and Foundry Superintendent. In 1969 he was VP of Operations for Teledyne OhioCast, which produced centrifugal tubes and heat resistant alloys. Subsequently he served thirteen years as VP at Elyria Foundry then joined Cast-Fab as Technical Sales Manager in 1992. At General Castings in Delaware, Ohio, David served as VP. In 2003, David joined Glidewell Specialties Foundry located in Calera, Alabama and travels extensively in the U.S. and Canada serving Glidewell accounts and developing new business. With some forty five years in the industry, David also provides technical support to the foundry on manufacturing, capital projects and business strategies. David and his wife Estelle life in New Albany, Ohio. Semi-automated
Core Line for Vertically & Horizontally Split No bake Core Boxes Ductile Iron
Society, Mankato, MN
, October 18, 2007 Glidewell Foundry is a gray and ductile iron jobbing foundry located in Calera, Alabama. In January 2007 the foundry started up a new mechanized core line capable of running medium size horizontal core boxes together with two-piece core boxes that are vertically split. A large part of Glidewells casting products are specialty valve bodies ranging from 12 inch diameters to 120 inches. Most of the volume, however, is in the 12 to 24 inch range. And until the line was developed, the basic practice of making medium valve cores in one piece was for the coremaker to fill boxes at floor level under an 800 lb/minute continuous mixer. There were few conveyors in the original operation, so the process was very labor intensive, using overhead cranes to lay down and strip each box and re-assemble.In a typical case of making 20 valve cores per 10 hour shift (with only one box), the coremaker had little time for anything else. One can imagine this as absolute drudgery. Only when the core was curing could the operator find a few minutes for other tasks, which were limited to just making small bench cores. (Note: there was little occasion to try and run two valve core boxes as there was no storage, space was limited, and cores were made to satisfy the molding schedule.) Key
findings in Time study of Original Floor Coremaking
As an alternative process to box filling with no bake mixer, investigation was also made into incorporating a large core blower, but here again the major issue was still material handling. After time studies, the core room flow was charted and separated into the various types and sizes of cores. Several layout arrangements were presented until there was full agreement among the project team members. Cores less than 100 lb were considered bench cores and would be made under a new 75 lb mixer. Cores to 1000 lbs with an envelope of 53L X 39W X 46H would be the limit for vertically split boxes and horizontal cores 60L X 40W X 24H would be the limit for rollover and dump boxes. Larger cores were to be continued to be made in the main bay under a large mixer. After a number of meetings over most of a year, the final design evolved with some unique features. The last layout included a scale model of the proposed operation.
The entire system was to be powered conveyor with PLCs and sensors that would allow boxes to advance to subsequent operations automatically or with the push of a button. The fill station consisted of powered conveyor with compaction table mounted on a scissor table that sat in a pit beneath floor plates. In this way tall boxes could be lowered to a convenient height for the coremaker to fill and ram. From the fill station control panel the coremaker could select a destination for the filled core box. This was either to a nearby station where a horizontal core boxes would await stripping or rollover. The other button selection was to send vertical split boxes (valve cores) around a loop to a tilt table. This station allowed the box to be laid on its side so it too could later be stripped. While one coremaker was filling box after box from an advancing staging line, another coremaker would remove previously cured cores with the use of a mold handler and hoist mounted above the strip station.
Green cores were powered away onto selected gravity conveyor lines where they were finished and flow coated using a separate monorail hoist. Once washed and dried, the cores were pushed by hand on conveyor to a pickup station. Here a fork truck would put the cores on vertical storage racks to await the next days heat.
SUMMARY: The new core line dramatically changed the manufacture of medium cores at Glidewell and both simplified flow, reduced manual labor, and doubled output. Palmer Mfg & Supply Company of Springfield, Ohio engineered and furnished the equipment. And the system was installed during the last two weeks of December 2006. Since several shop people and maintenance people had a chance to see the line assembled in Ohio prior to arrival at Glidewell, startup went much better than expected. Of course there was a learning curve, and that was left mainly to the operators. This project represents the first step in automation at Glidewell and it is meant to free production people to focus on the products rather than be consumed by material handling. David J. Knapp Regional Sales Manager Glidewell Specialties Foundry Co. |
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