Turnkey plant to manufacture high resistance cast parts at Metalogenia (Monzón)

Metalogenia, manufacturer of cast parts for the automotive industry, requested a fully automated plant capable of producing high quality, low alloy, medium carbon parts which are highly resistant to wear and impact.

Integral solution

We have responded well to the challenge, constructing a turnkey plant that included a steel foundry and a thermal treatment plant with a total of 20 furnaces. We have developed the general engineering of the plant, including the overall layout and the line and load plans for the civil work.

For the foundry we have supplied an 8-tonne arc furnace, which includes the latest technology such as the use of a transformer with a specific high potential and an AOD converter that works in tandem with the arc furnace to achieve full control of the composition of the metal and to avoid non-metal intrusions.

It is equipped with an automatic nitrogen and argon injection system as well as a smart system that, depending on the chemical composition of the extracted sample and the desired final composition, indicates to the operator the amount of each one of the alloys that must be added to the bath.

Once the parts have been cast, they are submitted to several thermal treatments that provide them with the durability and ductility necessary to carry out the hard working conditions to which they will be subjected.

The austenizing zone, which is fully automated, works with an automatic machine that introduces and extracts the loads for the site as well as a transfer system especially designed to cover the 8 austenizing furnaces and 34 loading / unloading and inspection tables facing one another.

The intervention of the operator is limited to selecting the recipe for the desired thermal treatments saved on the computer data base. The rest of the process occurs completely automatically.

The treated load is quenched in a water tank especially designed to agitate well. Once cooled to the appropriate temperature, it is transferred to the tempering furnaces that, thanks to recirculating fans ensure a homogeneous and precise heating of the load.

Both the melting plant and the thermal treatment plant include the appropriate sensors and the data collections and transmission systems to implement the technology 4.0.

Advantages

• Exclusive regulation and control system that optimizes the operation of the arc furnace and the consumption of both electrical energy and electrodes.
• An AOD converter equipped with a smart system that indicates the exact number of necessary alloys.
• Full automation of the treatment plant through the use of a self-powered trolley and a transfer machine.
• The plant is prepared to implement technology 4.0