Product category:
Diecasting machines and equipment
News Release from: Frech | Subject: Diecasting and 'green' legislation
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 25 January 2005
Technical diecasting advances pay a
'green' bonus
Although efficiency and reliability are the first considerations for any diecaster investing in capital equipment, increasing legislation is moving the issue of environmental impact up the agenda.
Considerations of tomorrow as well as today are also affecting the development programmes of equipment manufacturers, as recent developments at high pressure diecasting machine builder Oskar Frech and Co demonstrate At the most general level, improvements that are motivated in the first instance by reasons of profitability can also have positive environmental implications
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 26 Mar 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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For the diecaster producing components in magnesium alloy, making the right choice between hot and cold chamber manufacturing routes is fundamental.
Lower power consumption, for example, will reduce the diecaster's variable costs; but it also contributes to the global task of reducing the rate at which finite resources are depleted.
As well as the diecasting machine itself, this principle applies to every action of every item of powered equipment that helps to turn hot metal into a diecast part - furnace, metal ladle, die heater/cooler, die spray, casting removal unit, cooling conveyor, and so on.
In this connection it is worth noting the 'green' credentials of the Realtime Control system, which gives the diecaster so much control over the way in which the metal enters and flows through the die that the sprue can be shorter, runners fewer and flash negligible - all of which amounts to less metal metal and re-melted, with obvious environmental benefits.
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Adding further to its diversification policy, a toolmaker has invested in more diecasting machine capacity, this time to enter the LM5 diecastings market.
Improvements to the layout of the machine also have a 'green' dimension, as Frech has demonstrated with its new F and M Series of hot and cold chamber machines, both of which have a completely re-thought hydraulic system.
Amongst many other features, the pipework of the injection unit is now integrated into the base of the machine, which reduces the risk of leakage and thereby the need for disposal where it can do no harm.
Amongst ancillary equipment, automated die spraying is today an almost obligatory part of a machine specification.
Frech's latest system, the Spraymotion 2, moves in two axes in order to stay close to the profile of the cavity.
Optional (but desirable) extras include modular nozzles that can be assembled in almost any configuration - and the 'Vapojet' spray head that prevents loss of fluid at the end of the spray cycle.
This is a threefold instance of getting the most from the least - and doing the least environmental damage while you are about it.
One of the most serious environmental threats comes from SF6, the gas commonly used to blanket the dosing furnace for magnesium diecasting that is also known to damage the ozone layer.
Frech has already reduced significantly the volume of SF6 it uses, and as a further step is also investigating the feasibility of using instead 'ozone-friendly' hydrofluorcarbon 134, which research commissioned by the International Magnesium Association has shown to have very similar handling characteristics.
The clearest example of Frech's ability to minimise the use of materials that are potentially polluting or in increasingly short supply is the all-electric E Series, the nearest thing yet to a sustainable hot chamber diecasting machine.
Now sufficiently well established to be more than a technical curiosity, the E Series has replaced complex hydraulics with brushless servomotors for all the movements of the machine: die locking/opening, casting ejection, injection and spraying.
Not content with being 'cleaner' when compared with fluid-dependent hydraulics, it also uses considerably less of the electric power on which it depends - another example of doing more for less.
To put numbers on that surprising claim, a 24-hour head-to-head test of a hydraulic DAW 80 RC machine and its electric equivalent running identical dies saw the E machine consuming 76.2 rather than 217.7kWh - a saving of 65%.
That looks good on the electricity bill - and just as good on the broader balance sheet that weighs up the odds for the planet's future.
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