StrikoWestofen presents "Schnorkle" and "Westomat Plus+" at GIFA 2015

StrikoWestofen, the market leader for melting, holding and dosing furnaces for lightweight metal casting presented dozens of innovations at GIFA 2015, Düsseldorf. The new “Westomat Plus+” with its optimized technology and its revised design as well as the pneumatic transport and filling system “Schnorkle” were two special highlights. Managing Director Rudi Riedel was very gratified by the reactions of those visiting the booth: “The large sums we have invested in research and development since the last GIFA four years ago were the right strategy. Now we can offer our customers products which meet the considerably higher demands of foundries in an optimum way.”

The GIFA 2015 in Düsseldorf focused on the subjects of energy efficiency and the careful handling of resources – the core competences of the StrikoWestofen Group (Gummersbach). The internationally active company partly used this event of the foundry industry to unveil the new dosing furnace “Westomat Plus+”. To go with it, StrikoWestofen now closes a gap in the aluminium casting process chain with the closed transport and filling system “Schnorkle”. “The talks we have had with our many visitors from all over the world have shown that our current products are extremely well suited to the latest foundry trends,” says Rudi Riedel with satisfaction.

Inner and outer values: the new Westomat PLUS+

The new Westomat Plus+ fascinated visitors to the fair with its extraordinary design. Thanks to its compact form, it requires much less space than its predecessor did for the same performance. At the same time, the smaller furnace surface reduces heat losses caused by thermal radiation. A new overhead heating system can be easily replaced from above, and its service life is also three times longer. In addition, the optimized pneumatic dosing system makes the Westomat Plus+ even more reliable and easy to maintain. Thus, it only requires one third of the energy consumed by ladle systems, and its metal loss of 0.06 percent is only about 20 percent of the usual figure.

Performance vs. safety

StrikoWestofen has developed “Schnorkle” to safely transfer melt from the melting aggregate to the dosing or holding furnace. This closed transport system is filled directly at the melting furnace and ensures safe melt transfer routes. By applying pressure to the closed transfer ladle, “Schnorkle” guarantees that everything goes smoothly during the transfer of the melt: at a constant flow rate, the molten metal is filled into the Westomat using a transfer pipe with no contact to the atmosphere. In this way, “Schnorkle” prevents the oxidization of the metal and improves its quality. Thanks to “Schnorkle”, the temperature of the melt remains stable, thus reducing the energy consumption of the foundry. The new products and innovations from StrikoWestofen met with great interest among the visitors to the fair.