Energy-saving furnace for Heck + Becker at its die-casting technology centre in Germany

At its Die Casting Technology centre in Germany, toolmaker Heck + Becker carries out casting tests for tool acceptance testing and fine-tuning innovative casting processes. It does this with the help of a fully automated die casting cell with a clamping force of 3,200 tonnes. Around 150 tonnes of aluminium, a year are processed here in small batches that are up to 3,000 parts.

The company purchased a new melting furnace for this die casting unit in 2019, with keeping the top priority of improved energy efficiency and increased melting capacity.

Previously, a natural gas-fired furnace had been used for melting and an electrode furnace for holding, which together kept the aluminium at a temperature of about 670 °C around the clock. As well as high energy consumption, the gas-fired furnace also resulted in metal losses of approximately 3.5 %.

A StrikoMelter shaft melting and holding furnace, which preheats, melts and holds in a single, highly efficient system was the solution. The new MH II-T 3000/1500 Plus+ furnace boasts a melting capacity of 1.5 t/h and also to its enhanced insulation saves over 250,000 kWh of energy a year. This equates to a reduction in CO2 of around 350 tons and the metal losses fell to 1.5%.

Björn Velte, Manager of Building Services at Heck + Becker, is a key figure in the company said: "Our management team have been encouraging the systematic and comprehensive improvement of the energy efficiency of the site as a whole since 2013. And we don't shy away from larger investments to achieve this. We had already cut our CO2 by around 190 tons a year with a new compressed air system and new lighting."

"Although we are "only" a testing foundry, we were also very aspirational when it came to our new melting furnace. On the one hand, we wanted to utilize our capacity efficiently despite a varying workload and deliver the right metal quality to our customers; on the other hand, we wanted the very best in terms of energy efficiency and resource conservation. Here, the StrikoMelter sets the benchmark."

The team at Heck + Becker ordered their new StrikoMelter with virtually all the available energy-saving and automating add-ons: hot gas baffle, bath filling level laser, shaft filling level monitor, partial load efficiency, and feed system with automated material loading.

Dirk Wiechmann, Project Manager at StrikoWestofen said: "The Heck + Becker project demonstrates that investing in energy efficiency and the latest furnace technology makes sense – and not just because of higher production volumes. Because of lower metal losses and significant energy savings, the new StrikoMelter will pay for itself in a few years. Besides, the combined preheating, melting, holding and the automated furnace loading means the process is less dependent on manual intervention."