Business: Industrial
Getting Ideas for Energy Management Opportunities
2.3 Foundry processes and equipment
It may be useful to repeat a few basic relationships:
- The energy to produce
a tonne of good castings is the foundry’s total
energy consumption divided by the tonnage of castings shipped; - The furnace production
is the total energy divided by the tonnage melted;
and - The overall yield is the ratio of the energy in good castings and in furnace
production.
Adding to the melting energy, the foundry’s other energy intensive
systems, such as compressed air and transport systems for molten metal, sand,
castings
and scrap, multiply the energy content in the casting. In the following, we
shall examine these systems briefly.
2.3.1
Raw materials
Other EMOs
Housekeeping
- Support cost-consciousness in your employees. On posted signs throughout
the foundry, at strategic locations, show costs of raw materials (sand, silicon,
ferroalloy admixtures, etc.) in $/kg. Make employees aware of how much is
consumed – and
wasted – through poor housekeeping, and at what cost. - Ensure adequate
inventory with due consideration to delivery lead times – running
out of an item will certainly result in energy losses as well. - Keep the inventory
of raw materials current.
Low cost
- Try to keep raw materials dry and, if possible, “warm” inside,
particularly scrap, in order to reduce the temperature gradient for preheating/drying
or melting; keep the scrap bay doors closed.