PRODUCTION PROCESS

At CAST PROFILES, UNIT-II

We propose to manufacture STEEL & ALLOY STEEL CASTINGS.

For manufacturing the castings the basis requirement is a Foundry shop,Heat Treatment Shop,
Finishing Shop.

Generally speaking we can give any desired shape to metal either by way of rolling, forging
or casting. In rolling the steel is heated and rolled to shape, In forging steel is heated and
hammered repeatedly to get the desired shape and in casting steel is melted and then poured
in moulds. In simple terms we can describe foundry as a place where we melt steel in a
melting furnace and pour the molten metal into moulds (cavity created in sand). Once the
casting is made and the desired shape is achieved it is once again subjected to heating process
which is commonly called Heat Treatment process.
In fact after the molten metal is poured and it solidifies it attends the desired shape but do not
have the desired physical properties. In order that it achieves the physical properties it is
subjected to Heat Treatment Process where in it is reheated (but not melted)and cooled in a
predetermined sequence.

For melting steel we propose to use Electrical Induction Furnace which is supported by whole
paraphernalia of Water Cooling system which involves under ground water Tank, water
pumps, Heat Exchangers, Water cooling Tower and Emergency over head water tank and
civil foundation for the furnace installation.

For Moulding we propose to adopt CO2 Sand system where in sand is premixed with Sodium
Silicate and purged with co2 gas to make a mould.
Sand is mixed in the sand mixers while after the castings the moulds are broken to take out
the castings in the shake out machine. The used sand is reclaimed through the re-claimer,
intercoolers, vibro feeders, conveyor belts and pneumatic sand conveyors, storage hoppers for
fresh and used sand. The sand plant is a semi automatic plant which helps in the increased
level of production while cutting down on the human errors & labour cost.

Next in the sequence of production process is: HEAT TREATMENT

HEAT TREATMENT:-
Heat Treatment is a process which ultimately imparts the desired physical properties to the
cast component.

We propose to install a grooved hearth oil fired furnace of 30MT per batch capacity which
will be synchronised with a Water Tank, Oil Tank and Forced Air cooling for water
quenching ,Oil Quenching and Forced Air Cooling and for still air cooling.

Mechanised Forklift and Crane is being proposed for charging and discharging of Castings in
the furnace.
Temperatures recorders of 8 point recording will be installed in the furnace to continuously
monitor the temperature movement.

Quality control in a foundry starts with controlling the very first input in a foundry that is
sand and other ingredient that goes into mould making. For this a fully equipped sand testing
lab is proposed to be set up.

A chemical lab by weight analysis is required for checking the chemistry of all the incoming
raw material and material during the process.

A spectrometer is the heart of any foundry to undertake online chemical analysis of the
molten metal in the melting furnace. This ensures that the right chemistry is achieved and
maintained before pouring the molten metal into the sand moulds.

Castings after the heat treatment are subjected to all types of Physical Properties Tests.
Tensile test (Yield strength, Ultimate tensile strength, Elongation, Area reduction, bend test
etc) are done on a Universal Testing machine

Impact load Test under room temperature and under minus 45degree Celsius is done with the
Impact Testing machine, Notch cutting machine, shadow projector, sub zero bath
refrigeration unit are the supporting equipments to the Impact Testing machines.

Hardness of the castings and their samples are checked with different equipment depending
on the application and the size of the components.
For this BHN hardness Tester, Vickers hardness Tester, Micro Hardness Tester is proposed to
be setup.

Soundness of the castings is checked using ultrasonic testing machine for internal defects.
Magnetic particle Inspection is done to check for sub surface cracks in the castings.
Image analyser consisting of a microscope, CCD camera and software with computer is
applied for visualizing and study of micro structure of the casting component.

Dimensional accuracy is checked with linear measuring instruments like vernier callipers,
straight edge scale, marking table etc.

The castings poured undergoes through all these above mentioned procedures and tests at
different levels of it’s process and the results are compiled by the Quality Assurance
Department for the second party/third party verification and are dispatched after getting the
necessary clearances from the customers end.

END