Challenge

Due to the very long service life of the machines, the foundry and casting industry with its predominantly medium-sized structure is characterised by a low degree of automation. Maintenance is a key area that can drive major cost savings and production value around the world. Most foundries still use the traditional time-based maintenance, which is why failures keep occurring. Machine down-time and process interruption have two consequences within the typical Foundry enterprise which are the energy waste and the decrease of productivity level (OEE reduction) and increase of process instability, in addition to complex procedures to restore correct working conditions.

Impact

The market segment of metal casting and Foundry consists of approximately 4.700 companies in Europe, for a global value of casting products of 43 billion euros within this market, 70% are small enterprises (with fewer than 50 employees) therefore with a limited possibility with access to benefits of Industry 4.0 digital revolution.
The SNIPE project has been focused in technological solutions for the reduction of down-time on the
1) melting process,
2) the conveyor and belt transfer, and
3) the green sand production.
These are recognised as the most critical scenarios in terms of energy and economic impact for the foundry industry. In the case of down-time, they have direct implications on other production process.