Flask-less Mold Cooling
Another innovative first that has been proven since 1977 and installed in over 70 foundries worldwide is Flask-less mold cooling. The concept is logical; the execution however, requires expertise and experience to succeed.
The Flask-less mold cooling process utilizes lower cost cooling jackets in place of the heavy duty flasks and pallet cars. The cooling jackets can accept multiple molds in one jacket to further lower the capital and operating costs. A simple EL-MEC driven punch-up and plow-off system is utilized to strip the mold from the flask and load into the cooling jackets. Then the molds are moved off to a cooling line or house where any desired cooling time can be achieved. Multiple castings with varying cooling times can be accommodated by another innovative indexing and sorting mechanism.
The many advantages of Flask-less mold cooling:
- Reduction in operating cost – by moving two molds at ½ the molding speed and in lighter jackets via the EL-MEC operators substantial operating costs savings are realized
- 15-20% reduction in cooling times
- Long useful life of the cooling jackets – less friction means less wear
- Extends the life of flasks – use your flasks for molding not cooling
- No chance for mold damage or casting damage
- Smaller total footprint required
- Greatest flexibility via our sophisticated mold supervision and monitoring – A registration automation platform utilizing supervisory control for manual or automatic operation that will index and sort molds to varying cooling times as each casting requires
- Capital cost advantage!
Consider this example of cost savings:
Mold Line Assumptions:
47” x 47” x 12/10 operating at 240 molds per hour with 75 minutes of cooling
| IN-FLASK Cooling (Traditional method) | |||
| Flask Weight: | 3,300 lbs each | 338 flask sets required | 557 tons total |
| Pallet Car Weight: | 1,000 lbs each | 354 cars required | 177 tons total |
| Total Cost of flasks and pallet cars: | $ 3,000,000 | 734 tons total weight (less sand) | |
| Flask-less Mold Cooling – As Comparison to IN-Flask Traditional Cooling | |||
| Flask Weight: | 3,300 lbs each | 126 flask sets required | 208 tons total |
| Pallet Car Weight | 1,000 lbs each | 142 cars required | 71 tons total |
| 2-Up Cooling Jackets | 2,900 lbs each | 130 jackets required | 188 tons total |
| Reduced cooling line and structure considerations | |||
| Total Cost of flasks and pallet cars | $ 1,600,000 | 467 tons of weight (less sand) | |
| Net Capital Cost Savings: | $ 1,400,000 | ||
| Annual Operating Cost Savings: | $ 80,000 | 267 tons less weight @ $0.08/Kwh | |
