How One Vehicle Is Driving Casthouses into the Future?
With today’s demands on smelters, casthouse operations must be carried out quickly and efficiently, but also safely. Unfortunately, these concepts are often at odds.
Casthouses are known for their high-risk factors, frequently tied to molten metal splashes and dangers of related explosions. The good news is that many of these dangers can be reduced, while still improving processes for more efficient operations.
Twenty years ago, it might have been bold to think one singular vehicle could adequately perform all casthouse operations and auxiliary tasks. But an approach by Canadian-based Mecfor is helping aluminium manufacturers with its specialized focus and purpose-built tools. Mecfor’s line of multipurpose vehicles (MVR), known as the Mecfor Casthouse Solution, is driving smelting facilities toward the Industry 4.0 casthouse of the future by integrating automation, thanks to the SmartKonnect technologies.
The future of completely automated and people-less casthouses is plausibly years away. In the meantime, humans will still be required to carry out operations – and they’ll need tools to get those jobs done. Thus, as long as humans are present in the casthouse, the goals will be to increase efficiency and to reduce risk. Achievement of these goals will hinge around curbing bad practices, limiting coactivity between pedestrians and vehicles, and reducing the quantity of tools and equipment necessary to complete tasks.
One Vehicle, Multiple Benefits
A chief component to solving this riddle is the primary vehicle used in the facility. In many cases, this is a forklift or a front-loader, or potentially both. It used to be that smelters were relegated to buying whatever mass market industrial equipment was available to best fit the job. To have specialty equipment developed and manufactured wasn’t financially practical. But use of a standard forklift and/or front loader presents deficiencies in a casthouse environment. Ample space is required for operating and parking the vehicles. There are cost considerations for modifying the vehicle to fit the tasks. There are other factors like poor visibility and exposure to elements. A useful comparison of other factors can be seen in this chart:
Utilization of a single vehicle to carry out all necessary tasks – such as skimming and cleaning the furnace, scrap charging, alloy material charging and stirring – would add both efficiency and safety, especially if this could be done without a worker ever having to leave the driver’s seat.
But that’s exactly the premise behind Mecfor’s Casthouse Solution: changing tools or equipment from prime to scrap charging; alloy charging, dross removal, stirring, crucible handling, dross bin handling, furnace cleaning, spout cleaning and others – done by the simple push of a button.
This premise is possible because the Casthouse Solution isn’t just a vehicle, but an entire system – one that allows multiple tools specific to the jobs. Better yet, these tools are easily and quickly attached without needing to exit the vehicle or require another worker to handle that exchange (thereby reducing coactivity). The hydraulic powered QuicKonnect system rigidly locks the tool onto the mast apron, whether it’s charging clamps, fork rotators, a scrap and skimming tub dumping system, a dumping bucket, scrap pusher, scrapers, rakes or skimming tools.
The Mecfor MVR vehicle safely charges aluminium while also offering versatility for completing other tasks, from bottom cleaning to alloys mixing. And what can’t be overstated about this versatility is how it offers substantial long-term savings by eliminating or preventing damages to the refractory in the furnace because the tools are precise for the task.
Added Efficiency with Added Safety
If the process efficiency isn’t advantage enough, the Mecfor Casthouse Solution takes personal protection of employees to the next level. With all its tool options, and the push-button ease of switching out the tools, operations proceed without people walking in the dangerous furnace area.
For the vehicle operator, always having clear vision over the tool with the mast in lowest position is a must. Typically, due to their design and the way the operator has to couple them with the forks, industrial forklift trucks offer only an open visibility area under the tool, forcing the operator to work with the mast apron in a high position and exposing the machine directly to metal splashes.
But Mecfor’s Casthouse multipurpose vehicle provides a view above the tool, with the mast apron acting as a shield when working near molten metal (as does the charging boxes), giving maximum protection in case of an explosion caused by moisture or foreign materials that get accidentally loaded in the furnace. Furthermore, a triple protection glass assembly resists the impact of an explosion, the heat of molten metal splash and glass bursting.
Because every facility is different, this vehicle offers a hydraulic lifting cab, as well as installation of fixed, made-to-measure spacers under the cabin, setting the operator’s vision at the right angle and axis for maximum safety and comfort. It’s that notion of safety and comfort that was also behind controlling the air quality of the cab with positive pressure and active filtration.
Moving ever closer to the promising visions of Industry 4.0 automation and control in the casthouse, the vehicle offers a 360-degree camera recorder option, along with proximity scanners that help the operator see dangers that would otherwise be out of normal field of view. Additionally, limits can be set on the speed and power of the machine functions according to the tool in use, helping control the human factor that is often involved in accidents.
A Case in Point
A client in Luxembourg needed to increase operators’ safety during furnace loading operations. They had been dealing with recurrent metal splashes because the industrial forklift had to get too close to the furnace sill. They needed a vehicle with a lifting cab to provide better visibility throughout the operation.
They also needed a solution that would maintain a safe distance from the furnace sill and meet the country’s strict compliance requirements. MECFOR’s MVR22 vehicle with a lifting cab solved all its primary pain points and had a major positive impact on production.
The Final Word
When casthouse processes are fast and efficient, operating costs decrease and production increases. Fast and efficient processes require the optimal tools for the job, as well as the reassurance of safety that lets workers function with ease and confidence.
The Mecfor Casthouse Solution is helping rewrite the rulebook for safe and profitable operations through safety and efficiency. This purpose-built line of vehicles is the investment that helps maximize the return on your other important investments – facilities and employees.
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