Profile of the Canadian foundry industry
Metal castings are the first step in the value-added manufacturing chain and
are utilized in the production of most durable goods. Foundry operations
have always been varied and complex, and they have become even more so. The
industry has changed fundamentally in the last five to 10 years. Foundries
no longer produce only raw castings. Today, many modern foundries design
the parts, build the tooling, cast the prototypes, make the castings, machine
them, assemble the castings, and produce a component or assembly ready to
install on the customer’s assembly line. Therefore, the foundry sector
is no longer only foundry operations. Many foundries are designers, casters,
machiners and assemblers of value-added parts.
"No industrial society has
been successful without a vibrant foundry industry base." – Michael Promoli
There are currently about 200 foundries in Canada. The CFA’s
membership comprises large, medium and small foundries. Some are custom producers
while
others are captive operations. Makers and industries served by foundries include
the automotive sector, construction, agriculture, forestry, mining, pulp and
paper, heavy industrial machinery and equipment, aircraft and aerospace, plumbing,
soil pipe, municipal road castings, defence, railway, petroleum and petrochemical,
electric distribution and a myriad of specialty markets.
In foundries, raw material is mostly recycled metal. Virgin metal accounts
for only very small additions to specialty formulations and is also used in
some aluminum and brass foundries. A wide range of technologies and equipment
is being employed, depending on the type of metal worked, the business situation
and the plant condition of different companies. Their common denominator is
high energy usage per unit of product as well as high percentage of total operating
costs.
By using recycled scrap metal, the metal-casting industry contributes
quite significantly to the conservation of natural resources and energy. Nevertheless,
Canadian foundries are prodigious users of energy – it is estimated that
they consume some 6300 TJ (or 1.75 billion kWh) of energy annually. Depending
on the type of metal alloy cast, the casting technology used and the age of
the plant, the energy utilization and its portion of the total operating cost
may vary greatly. This is illustrated by the table “Energy benchmarks
in foundries” in Appendix 5.2, which is well worth a look.
Please note: Commonly, the 2000-lb. ton (short) is used as a unit of measure in foundries.
For reasons of standardization and to facilitate international and between-
industry comparisons, the international SI (metric) system will be
used throughout
this guide (one metric tonne [t] = 2204.6226 lb. = 1.10233113 ton [short]).
Currently,
there appears to be a lack of reliable information on the total production
and benchmarking data of Canadian foundries; no single organization
is known to keep track of all of it. The CFA is currently addressing this problem
and exploring whether its annual industry survey, which collects foundry-specific
data, could be included in Statistics Canada’s program.1 Needed data
can be produced based on Standard Industry Classification (SIC/NACE) codes.
NRCan’s OEE also has relevant energy-related data that could be accessed.
The CFA plans to continue to collect tonnage data.
of good brass castings, two tonnes have to be melted, cast and worked on!
Composition of the foundry
industry
Predictably, as with most of the industrial production in Canada, two
thirds of all foundry output is produced in Ontario. Most of the iron foundries
in Canada supplying the automotive industry are located there. The most prevalent
metal cast in foundries is grey iron. Appendix 5.5 lists the CFA’s member
foundries by metal type cast.
Trends in energy use
Over the last decade, there has been a marked shift toward
electricity and natural gas in the type of energy that foundries use. While
aluminum casters
increased the use of natural gas for melting, iron producers introduced
more electric induction furnaces. Around 1980 there were 40 coke-using cupolas
producing close to 1 million tonnes of iron (or 75% of total). The melting
capacity of
these furnaces is many times greater than that of the largest electric
induction
furnaces. The
efficiency feature notwithstanding, the environmental and regulatory pressures
and expensive anti-pollution equipment, which the operations of cupolas
now require, caused their number to dwindle to about 12 units, accountable
for
an estimated 360 000 t today.
The rapid escalation of natural gas prices
in 2000 and the deregulation of the electricity market have spotlighted the
need to address energy efficiency
issues.
In grey iron production, melting accounts for 66% of the energy consumption;
in steel foundries it is 50%; and in brass and bronze foundries, the
figure is 38%. As can be seen from Appendix 5.2, on average, the total
energy
content in 1 t of good (shippable) iron castings is 50% higher, in steel
castings
60% higher, and in brass and bronze castings 100% higher than the energy
required
to melt 1 t of the metals. All kinds of inefficiencies contribute to this
fact.
1 Because tracking of energy use in the foundry
industry in Canada is not systematic, some of the tables and
figures used in this guidebook are included only to show trends.