Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Available ScienceDirect
online
Available atonline
Procedia CIRP
www.sciencedirect.com
at www.sciencedirect.com
00 (2019) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ScienceDirect
Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000
ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Procedia CIRP 00 (2017)

Procedia CIRP 000–000
98 (2021) 73–78
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
28th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering
28th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering
FOUNDRY 4.0: An innovative technology for sustainable
FOUNDRY andCIRP
28th 4.0: An innovative
flexible
Design process
Conference,designtechnology
May for
in Nantes,
2018, foundries sustainable
France
and flexible process designa in foundries
A new methodology
Stefan Scharfa,b*,to analyze
Bastian the
Sander a functional
, Marc and Richter
Kujath , Hans physical
b architecture
, Eric Riedelb, of
existingStefan
products
Scharfa,bfor an assembly
Hagen
*, Bastian Stein
Sander a c
oriented
, Joerg
, Marc tom product
Kujath aFelde d
family
, Hans Richter b
, Ericidentification
Riedelb,
a
c
Hagen Stein , Joerg tom Felde
d
Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation, Sandtorstrasse 22, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
b
Otto-von-Guericke-University
Fraunhofer Paul Stief *, Jean-Yves Dantan, Alain Etienne, Ali Siadat
Magdeburg, Institute of Manufacturing Technology and Quality Management, Universitaetsplatz 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
Institute for Factory Operation and Automation, Sandtorstrasse
12A, 9994722, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
a
c
Leichtmetallgiesserei Bad Langensalza, Gothaer Landstrasse Bad Langensalza, Germany
b
Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Institute of Manufacturing Technology and Quality Management, Universitaetsplatz 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
d’Arts Promeos GmbH,
Arts etGiessener Strasse 14,LCFC
90427EA
Nuremberg, Germany
d
École Nationale Supérieure et Métiers, Métiers ParisTech, 4495, 4 Rue Augustin Fresnel, Metz 57078, France
c
Leichtmetallgiesserei Bad Langensalza, Gothaer Landstrasse 12A, 99947 Bad Langensalza, Germany
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 391 4090 476.d
E-mail GmbH,
Promeos address:Giessener
[email protected]
Strasse 14, 90427 Nuremberg, Germany
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 3 87 37 54 30; E-mail address: [email protected]
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 391 4090 476. E-mail address: [email protected]

Abstract
Abstract
Abstract
The issue of resource-efficient and sustainable manufacturing is now more of a priority than ever. Both technological innovations and continuous
Inoptimization
today’s
The
of existing
issue business
process flows
environment,
of resource-efficient and
are essential
thesustainable
trend towards to ensure
more
manufacturing
resource-savings
productis nowvariety
moreand
and future competitiveness,
of acustomization is unbroken.
priority than ever.
especially
Due indevelopment,
small and medium-sized
to thisinnovations
Both technological andthe need of
continuous
businesses.
agile and The present production
reconfigurable contributionsystems
introducesemergeda developed
to cope technology
with variousinnovation
products for aproduct
and fully mobile meltTosupply
families. design system.
and The three
optimize hitherto
production
optimization of existing process flows are essential to ensure resource-savings and future competitiveness, especially in small and medium-sized
necessary
systems as process
well as steps
to of “melting
choose the metal”,
optimal “transfer
product melt” and
matches, product “hold melt” are
analysis replaced
methods are by a singleIndeed,
needed. processmost
stepof “melting
the and holding
known methods metal
aim toin
businesses. The present contribution introduces a developed technology innovation for a fully mobile melt supply system. The three hitherto
fully distributable
analyze a product orcrucible
one systems”.
product family This
on novel
the approach
physical level.allows
Differentto combine
product individual
families, process steps
however, may in a single
differ largely one
in and, thus,
terms of tonumber
the completely
and
necessary process steps of “melting metal”, “transfer melt” and “hold melt” are replaced by a single process step “melting and holding metal in
reorganize
nature material flows
of components. Thisand manufacturing
fact impedes supply chains in foundries. As fullyof connected systems, value-creating units (casting stations) will
fully distributable crucible systems”. Thisannovelefficient comparison
approach allows to and choice
combine appropriate
individual product
process stepsfamily combinations
in a single for the
one and, thus, to production
completely
ladle
system. fusible
A new alloys from
methodology mobile crucibles
is manufacturing on
proposed to analyze demand. This will facilitate route optimization in supply chains through more flexible process flows
reorganize material flows and supplyexisting
chains inproducts in view
foundries. of their
As fully functional
connected and physical
systems, architecture.
value-creating The aimstations)
units (casting is to cluster
will
and product
these products families
in new and satisfies
assembly the demands
oriented product of a sustainable,
families for the energy-efficient,
optimization of and highly
existing flexible
assembly linesfoundry
and the production.
creation of The technical
future core of
reconfigurable
ladle fusible alloys from mobile crucibles on demand. This will facilitate route optimization in supply chains through more flexible process flows
the plant systems.
assembly development Based is a novel burner technology thea based on structure
inexpensive natural gas. This burner system enables a gas-basedare heat generation in
and product families andon Datum
satisfies Flow
the Chain,of
demands physical
sustainable, of the products
energy-efficient, is analyzed.
and highly Functional
flexible foundry subassemblies identified,
production. The technical coreand
of
aelectrical
functional control
analysis quality
is and for theMoreover,
performed. first time a hybrid
process-safe recirculation
functional and and recycling
physical of high-temperature
architecture graph (HyFPAG)
the plant development is a novel burner technology based on inexpensive natural gas. This burner system enables a gas-based heat generation in
waste
is heat
the produced
output which by processes
depicts the
to preheatbetween
similarity combustionproduct air,families
which boost efficiency further and tocutting costs and emissions. The new andoverall technological Andevelopment
electrical control quality and for the by firstproviding design
time a process-safe support both, and
recirculation production
recycling system planners
of high-temperature product
waste heat designers.
produced byillustrative
processes
considerably
example of a reduces manufacturing
nail-clipper is used to costs and
explain the at the samemethodology.
proposed time contributes An significantly
industrial tostudy
case environmental
on two protection
product by a of
families substantial
steering decrease of
columns of
to preheat combustion air, which boost efficiency further and cutting costs and emissions. The new overall technological development
CO2 emissions.
thyssenkrupp Presta France is then carried out to give a first industrial evaluation of the proposed approach.
considerably reduces manufacturing costs and at the same time contributes significantly to environmental protection by a substantial decrease of
©CO 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
2 emissions.
© 2020 Theunder
Peer-review Authors, Published of
responsibility bytheElsevier B.V.committee of the 28th CIRP Design Conference 2018.
scientific
© 2021
This The
is an Authors.
open accessPublished
article underby Elsevier B.V.
the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
© 2020
This The Authors, Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer is
Keywords: an
review open
underaccess
Assembly; the article under
responsibility
Design method; the CC
of the
Family BY-NC-ND
scientific
identification license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
committee of the 28th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering.
This is an open
Peer-review under access article under
responsibility the scientific
of the CC BY-NC-ND committeelicense
of the (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
28th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering.
Peer review under the responsibility of the scientific committee of the 28th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering.
Keywords: sustainable manufacturing; foundry; industry 4.0; production efficiency; lean manufacturing

Keywords: sustainable manufacturing; foundry; industry 4.0; production efficiency; lean manufacturing
1. Introduction of the product range and characteristics manufactured and/or
assembled in this system. In this context, the main challenge in
1.Due
Introduction
to the fast development in the domain of total amount
modelling andof analysis
climate-damaging
is now not pollutant
only to emissions
cope with(especially
single
communication
1. Introductionand an ongoing trend of digitization and CO ) to
products, a
total amount
2 minimum.
a limited Political restrictions,
product range pollutant
of climate-damaging both
or existing global and national,
product(especially
emissions families,
In the industrial
digitalization, sector, the generation
manufacturing enterprisesofare process
facing heat accounts but
important deliberately
COalso becombine ecological andand economic aspects intonational,
order to
2) to to able toPolitical
a minimum. analyze to compare
restrictions, products
both global and define
for more
challenges than 60%
in today’s
In the industrial of total energy
sector,market consumption
environments:
the generation [1]. In
of processa heat this context,
continuing
accounts new achieve the envisaged
productcombine
deliberately objectives.
families.ecological Within
It can be observed this
and economic context,
that aspects energyorder toa
classicalinexistingas
the metalworking
tendency towards
for more than industry
60%reduction and
of total energy foundries
of product in particular
development
consumption [1]. In this consume
times and
context, production
product factor
achieve families is also becoming
are regrouped
the envisaged objectives. increasingly
in Within
function important
of context,
this clients or fromasana
features.
energy
extreme
shortened amounts of energy
product lifecycles.
the metalworking industry and and thus
In addition, produce
foundries there large amounts
is an increasing
in particular of economic
consume However, perspective.
productionassembly Thus,
oriented
factor is also the question
product
becoming of an
families are
increasingly energy-efficient
hardly to
important find.
from an
CO2. Considering
demand
extreme ofamounts oftheenergy
customization, apparently
being atinexorable
and thus same increase
theproduce time ainglobal
largeinamounts global
of andOnsustainable
economicthe product production
perspective.family
Thus, is the
level,of fundamental
products
question of importance
differ
an mainly in fortwo
energy-efficient the
warming
competition
CO andwith
a growing
competitorssenseallof over
ecological responsibility
the world. This it is main
in trend, future competitiveness
characteristics: (i) of
thesmall
isnumber andofmedium-sized
components enterprises
and (ii)
for the
2. Considering the apparently inexorable increase global and sustainable production of fundamental importance the
today
which
warming more
is and important
inducing
a growing than ever to
the development develop solutions that
from responsibility
sense of ecological macro to micro enable a (SMEs)
it is type
future in the metalworking
of competitiveness
components (e.g.ofmechanical, industry. With
small and electrical, a view
medium-sized to a typical
electronical).
enterprises
sustainable
markets,
today more use
results ofinthediminished
important available
than everenergy
tolot sources
sizes
develop duewhile reducing
to augmenting
solutions that thea
enable process chain
Classical
(SMEs) ofmetalworking
the aluminium
methodologies
in the casting production,
considering
industry. mainly
With Figure
single
a view a1typical
shows
toproducts
product varieties
sustainable use of(high-volume to low-volume
the available energy production)
sources while reducing[1]. the or solitary,
process chainalready existing casting
of the aluminium product families Figure
production, analyze the
1 shows
2212-8271 © 2020 The Authors, Published by Elsevier B.V.
To cope with this augmenting variety as well as to be able to product structure on a physical level (components level) which
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
identify
Peer reviewpossible
2212-8271 ©under
2020the optimization
Theresponsibility of thepotentials
Authors, Published by Elsevier
scientific in theof the
B.V.
committee existing causes difficulties
28th CIRP Conference regarding an efficient definition and
on Life Cycle Engineering.
This is an open
production access article
system, under the CCtoBY-NC-ND
it is important license knowledge
have a precise (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
comparison of different product families. Addressing this
Peer review under the responsibility of the scientific committee of the 28th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering.
2212-8271 © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an©open
2212-8271 2017access article Published
The Authors. under theby CC BY-NC-ND
Elsevier B.V. license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review
Peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of scientific
of the the scientific committee
committee of the of theCIRP
28th 28thDesign
CIRP Conference
Conference2018.
on Life Cycle Engineering.
10.1016/j.procir.2021.01.008
74 Stefan Scharf et al. / Procedia CIRP 98 (2021) 73–78
2 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000

the results of a detailed analysis of the energy flows within the The reasons why electric heating solutions are nevertheless
casting production. In well accordance with the energy flows in widely used can be explained by the fact that the so far known open
SME foundries presented in [2] and [3] these consumption data flame burner systems have decisive disadvantages both in terms of
were collected at the project partner LGL GmbH as a further temperature controllability and in temperature homogeneity that
typical representative of the SME light metal casting. can be achieved. The resulting local overheating limits the use of
gas-fired industrial furnaces currently mainly to large-volume
15 % melting furnaces [10].
Miscellaneous
Energy Input

Detached from the energy source used, the conventional

process design of light metal casting production currently
prevailing in both SMEs and large companies can be subdevided
into the following process steps (see also Figure 3) [11, 12]:
35 % 2% 23 % 4,5 % 1,5 % 16 % 3%  Stationary and centralized metal melting and pouring into
a (hopefully) preheated transport ladle,
 Transport of the melt and pouring into a stationary and
decentralized holding furnace,
Raw
Material
Melting Melt
Transport
Holding Casting Fettling Heat
Treatment
Machining Inspection  Ladling melt from the holding furnace and casting of the
Production component.
Fig. 1. Production process and determined energy requirements
in a light metal foundry. a)
Melting Transport Holding Product
When evaluating the energy flows, it quickly becomes clear State of the art
that an increase in efficiency within a foundry can be realized Pouring Pouring Casting

primarily by a (re)design of the individual process steps for

metal supply. With this goal, an innovative burner system for
efficient heat supply, a system for continuous digital process
b)
monitoring and, based on these developments, a completely
new concept for melt supply was developed within the scope of Melting, transporting and holding in one crucible
New Process

Product
the project presented below. 3. Holding
(electrically heated)

Direct melt supply Casting

2. State of the art - conventional process design

2. Transport
According to current surveys (data source Germany), the (gas-heated ladle)
1. Melting
(conventional gas-heated)
proportion of electric power used for heat generation in non-
ferrous foundries is currently around 50 %. The remaining thermal
energy required is generated by gas-fired burner systems which,
according to the current status, all work with open flame. Further
Fig. 3. Conventional process design in light metal casting production
differentiated, the melting operation is realized in approximately (a) schematically, (b) material flow logistics in SMEs (here layout LGL GmbH)
equal parts by gas- or electricity-heated furnace concepts whereas
the holding operation is almost exclusively realized by electricity- However, this type of process control is fundamentally
heated furnace systems [4–6]. However, comparing the energy neither efficient nor allows flexible production. Apart from the
sources gas and electric power used for heat supply, both the high energetic expenditure due to an individual heating at each
procurement costs and the emitted CO2 equivalents (extrapolation individual process step and the forced overheating of the melt to
based on the current German electricity mix) are significantly compensate for the heat losses associated with each pouring
lower when using gas, as can be seen in Figure 2 [7–9] process, the process flow currently being pursued also has a
negative effect on the quality of the castings produced. In
a) b)
€-Cent/kWh* CO2 (g/kWh) **
particular, the mandatory pouring processes and the associated
20,
18, formation of oxides and porosity impair the melt quality. In order
489
16, 500 to still be able to achieve the required qualities, the melt must be
450
additionally prepared during the holding process, which is labour
14,
12, 400

10,
Δ ~ 13 €-Cent/kWh
350
300
and energy intensive [11–14].
8,
250 201
6, 200
4, 150 In terms of material flow, too, this production process, which can
be assigned to a "PUSH system", is to be assessed as conceivably
2, 100

0, 50
0
unfavourable. The melting furnaces not only severely restrict the
Gas Electric Power Electric Power Gas
alloy-specific variability and thus the range of components that can
be produced, but also represent the production-determining
* Prices without VAT ** CO2 – Emissions in the German electricity mix
Source: Federal Network Agency; Federal Cartel Office (2019) Source: Federal Environment Agency (2018)

Fig.2. Comparison of the energy sources electricity/gas bottleneck in the value-added chain, especially in conjunction with
a) costs, b) emissions the factory crane required for transport.
 Stefan Scharf et al. / Procedia CIRP 98 (2021) 73–78 75
Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000 3

In order to be able to produce as required, individually heated a) b)

holding furnaces are necessary at the casting stations as material
buffers. Besides the high energy intensity for active heating of this
multitude of relevant components (melting furnace, preheating
station, holding furnace), the lack of flexibility results in long, non-
value-adding and yet energy-intensive process times.

Special attention must also be paid to the point of effective

process monitoring in order to ensure a sustainable and at the same Conventional New flameless
open flame burner
time high-quality production. In the production of high-quality
castings, a continuously stable and homogeneous operation of the
individual (high-temperature) process steps is essential. Although Fig. 4. (a) Schematic function of the new burner (b) Modular scaled burner unit
consisting of 4 burner heads with 4x5 cells each (developed by promeos GmbH)
it is sufficiently known from a large number of scientific studies
(e.g. [15–17]) that inaccurate temperature control in both melting
3.2. Novel process and plant concept
and holding furnaces leads to a significant deterioration in melt
quality, the melt temperature in the operational production process
This burner development in turn was the basic prerequisite for
of SMEs is often determined only rudimentarily, usually by means
the success of the developed plant concept, which massively
of thermocouples or mobile infrared heat measuring devices. In the
shortens and considerably simplifies the conventional process
largely automated casting systems of the mass-producing original sequence. Accordingly, the metal is molten, transported and kept
equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and OEM-related casting warm in fully mobile crucible ladles, hereinafter referred as
plants, these sources of error can be reduced to a minimum by "mpots" (promeos product name), which completely eliminate the
means of correspondingly complex process cycles. However, they quality-impairing pouring procedures and make the entire process
are increasingly causing problems for typical SMEs, especially much more efficient. The distinguishing feature of these mpots is
against the background of rising quality requirements and growing that they do not contain a fixed heating solution. Rather, they
complexity of thin-walled casting geometries. obtain the heat energy required from innovative docking stations
(“heat docks”) that operate with the above-mentioned efficient
3. Developments and objects of investigation burner solution.
Melting
Depending on the required
Transport Holding
melting capacity,
Product
State of the art

several heat docksPouring

can be coupled.PouringIn this case,Casting
it is possible to
For the purpose of the urgently required increase in efficiency, forward the waste heat generated to the partner stations in order to
a research project on which this contribution is based pursued the raise additional efficiency potentials. Figure 5 illustrates the
goal of significantly reducing the required primary energy input approach.
and the pollutants emitted, while simultaneously improving both
a)
casting quality and production flexibility. In this context, a Melting, transporting and holding in one crucible
fundamentally new burner system was developed which enables
New Process

Product

the implementation of a completely new material flow concept. Direct melt supply Casting

This concept in turn was realized by developing and installing an

innovative plant technology and researched close to series
production. In addition, a sensor-supported system for continuous
process monitoring has been developed which in future will enable b)
digitally controlled, fully automatic melt supply.

3.1. Innovative modular burner technology

The new modular and hence scalable gas-based burner was

developed primarily by the project partner promeos GmbH. In Flexible melt supply
(efficiently gas-heated)

contrast to previously known solutions, this burner makes it possible

for the first time to use the cost-effective and environmentally
friendly energy carrier gas in electrical control quality for generating
the required heat. The flat and flame-free combustion of the gas-air
Fig. 5. New developed process design in SME light metal casting production
mixture makes it possible to provide the heat as homogeneous IR (a) schematically and b) target status in the layout of the LGL GmbH)
radiation and with uniform convection. This overcomes the central
problems of open flame combustion. At the same time, this After melting, the mpots are transported to the individual
development enables to process preheated air in a safe and precisely casting stations and supply them with liquid metal as required. In
controllable manner. This means that the waste heat generated can doing so, they function similarly to a thermos flask and use the
be recycled within the process to preheat the combustion air. previously drawn exhaust gas specifically as a thermal insulation
Figure 4 shows the schematic function (a) and the prototype of the cushion. If necessary (e.g. if the mpot has to remain at the casting
new modular scalable burner system (b). station for a long time when casting low-volume components),
correspondingly smaller heat docks can compensate for possible
heat losses.
76 Stefan Scharf et al. / Procedia CIRP 98 (2021) 73–78
4 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000

By using such a fully transportable melting and holding Table 1. Overview of the conducted experiments to directly compare the
system, at least two pouring processes can be eliminated. This classical and the new method of melt supply.
significantly reduces the formation of oxides and slag, which
improves quality and minimizes material losses. Experiment no. Melt supply Casting weight [kg] Number of castings
1_c 1.07 36
classical
In addition to the energy-related advantages, the innovative 2_c 1.3 18
concept approach allows for completely new possibilities for 1_n 1.07 45
new
the design of internal material flows, especially in terms of 2_n 1.3 15
production planning and manufacturing logistics. Thanks to the
fully networked plant technology of the future, the casting 4.1. Environmental and economic comparison
stations will be able to request the required fusible alloy as
needed at the heat docks and then ladle it directly from the Two circumstances, which result from logistics processes
provided mpots. This corresponds to a changeover from the in a foundry, drive gas consumption of melting furnaces. First,
current PUSH principle to a target-oriented PULL principle. due to the subsequent transportation in an open transfer ladle the
melt is significantly overheated to compensate for heat losses.
3.3. New sensor technology for process monitoring Second, the alloy is usually not melted just-in-time, such that it
must be hold in the furnace until the caster demands for it.
Last but not least, a sensor-based monitoring technology, also Analogously, two facts drive electricity consumption of holding
developed in the project, enables both a continuous monitoring furnaces. First, electrically operating holding furnaces have
of temperatures and filling levels as well as a target-oriented common instantaneous input power around 30 kW. Second, an
communication between mpot and heat docks. The sensor- entire charge to be casted can easily last for several hours.
based data thus provide the basis for smart process control. This in
turn addresses a concrete application scenario for the digitalized, The above drawbacks are addressed by the proposed new
fully automated production of the future. approach. To quantify this, the combined consumptions of both
melting and holding in experiments 1_c and 2_c are compared
4. First experimental results with those of 1_n and 2_n. Because the process times in the
four experiments varied, the direct comparisons of energy
A series of four experiments in a real foundry being consumption, carbon emission, and production costs are based
representative for German SMEs were conducted to evaluate on one hour of melting time and holding time, respectively.
both the reduction in gas and power consumption and in carbon
emission as well as the gain in cast quality when operating the By inspecting Figure 6 it is striking that the new method
novel technology. For this purpose, the developed prototypes of reduces the consumed electricity by 94 % and gas by 32 %. The
a heat dock (including the novel burner with 300 kW output former reduction is mainly due to substitution of electricity by
power), a hold dock (a scaled burner with 50 kW output power), gas for holding. A reduction in gas consumption is achieved,
and a mpot were installed six months prior to the experiments. because the melt does not need to be overheated as it is
Thus, the new technology has been inspected over a reasonable transported in the entirely insulated mpot.
time to identify and eliminate error sources in operation.
a) b)
30 40
In order to minimize random errors, the four experiments,
each lasting for approximately 8 hours, were conducted at three 25
35

consecutive days to ensure constant weather conditions.

electric power consumption [kWh]

30 -32 %
Additionally, the following boundary conditions were set to be
gas consumption [m³]

20
equal in all experiments: (1) the alloy is A356 (AlSi7Mg0.3); (2) 25

the amount of alloy to be melted, transported, and hold is 230 kg; 15 -94 % 20
(3) the furnace is preheated and contains 70 kg (15 % of total 26,8 35,4
15
capacity) of already molten alloy; (4) the molten alloy is 10
24,2
transported with the same gantry crane; and (5) the foundryman 10

is the same person. The entire process of melt supply (melting, 5

5
transportation, and holding) was executed twice with the 1,7
0 0
classical and the new method, respectively. During casting the classical new classical new
melt must be hold. More than 50 castings were observed with method of melt supply method of melt supply

either method to obtain both the energy consumption for a

Fig. 6. Overview of consumption measurements a) electric power, b) gas
sufficient holding time under real conditions (e.g. cyclic opening
of the mpot to ladle melt) and a sufficient sample of castings to The total energy to melt 100 kg of alloy, transport, and hold
imply quality measures (cf. sect. 4.2). The casting was performed the melt amounts to 165.7 kWh with the classical method versus
with two different moulds, such that the quality could be 106.0 kWh with the new one (Fig. 7, a), which is a decrease of
evaluated for different geometries, cooling times, and wall 36 %. Based on more than 50 cast cycles (Table 1) the average
thicknesses of the castings (Table 1). In addition, experiment 1_n cycle time is reduced by 5 % (Figure 7, b).
was repeated without chemical degassing and cleaning of the
melt to examine a possible difference in quality of casting.
 Stefan Scharf et al. / Procedia CIRP 98 (2021) 73–78 77
Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000 5

Even though this time saving does not seem to be substantial, which in turn is reflected in an increase in the mechanical
but it scales per casting. A difference of 5 % hence translates into strength properties of the alloy under constant solidification
a huge amount of process time to be saved in mass production. conditions. To investigate this, simple test castings of the alloy
AlSi7Mg0.3 (casting weight of 1.07 kg) were cast under near-
a) 180 b) 270 series production conditions using both conventional furnace
technology and the developed mpot.
150 265
specific energy demand [kWh / 100 kg]

-36 % As mentioned above, in the conventional method and in a

cycle time [s/casting]
120 260 series of tests of the new method, a classical melt treatment for
-5 %
cleaning and degassing the melt (addition of nitral 10 and
90
165,7
255
impeller treatment) and a grain refinement (addition of
265
strontium and tiboral 6) were conducted. A further series of
60 250
106,0 tests documented the new method of operation without any
251
cleaning, only with a grain refinement treatment (strontium and
30 245
tiboral 6). Subsequently, tensile specimens were taken from the
manufactured castings according to DIN EN 50125, prepared
0 240
classical new classical new and tested path-controlled at a defined test speed of 2 mm /min
method of melt supply method of melt supply
on an Inspekt 250 from Hegewald & Peschke. Figure 9 shows
Fig. 7. Comparison of a) specific energy demand (normalized to respective the results obtained from 75 castings or 300 samples analyzed.
one hour of melting time and holding time) and b) cycle time per casting.
180 5,0

Based on the German electricity mix (cf. Fig. 2, b) the carbon 160 4,5
4,0
emissions accompanied by the consumptions of gas and electricity 140

Elongation at break [%]

Tensile strength [MPa]

3,5
are found to be decreased by 41 % by the new method of melt 120
3,0
supply (Figure 8, a). The major contribution is made by the 100
2,5
enormous decrease in electricity consumption, which shows a 80
2,0
higher CO2 equivalent than gas. 60 1,5
40 1,0

Economically, the new method performs better if costs are 20 0,5

0,0
considered (i.e. no investments) that are necessary to melt 230 kg 0
Rp0.2 Rm A
of alloy and transport and hold the melt. As indicated in Fig. 8 (b) A-Proben N-Proben N*-Proben
Reference New Process New Process (without melt treatment)
the production costs are roughly halved, which is mainly due to
the substitution of expensive electricity by cheap gas in the holding
Fig. 9. Results of the component tests
process. The production costs base on 19 cent per kWh for
electricity and 3.9 cent per kWh for gas, which are current real
The results clearly show that the test samples produced with
costs for energy-intensive industries in Germany.
the mpot have significantly better strength values than samples
a) 90 b) 20
produced with the conventional method. In particular, the
maximum tensile strength Rm increases by approx. 12 % when
80
using the mobile furnace system.
70
-41 % 15
-48 % Furthermore, the research hypothesis seems to be
production costs [EUR]

60
confirmed, according to which the replacement of the furnace
carbon emission [kg]

50
10 technology could make the necessity of melt treatment
84,3 18,91
40 superfluous, since the strength values of the untreated samples
30 (green) are only slightly below those of the treated samples
20
49,5
5 9,77 (blue), but in any case significantly above those of the reference
samples whose melt was treated. The metallographic
10
microstructural analyses carried out prove that this change in
0 0 strength is due to the improved melt quality and not to
classical new classical new
method of melt supply method of melt supply solidification-related causes, since an average SDAS of 25 µm
was determined independently of the test series.
Fig. 8. Calculated a) carbon emissions and b) production costs (normalized to
respective one hour of melting time and holding time).
4.3. Current limitations of the new approach
4.2. Studies on quality improvement The new method of melt supply was tested in an aluminum
foundry being representative for SMEs. Its quantified advantages
With the new melt transport process and by eliminating the are thus only valid under these particular boundary conditions. The
previously necessary ladling processes, lower porosity distinct reductions in energy consumption, carbon emission, and
formation, less slag and thus a higher melt quality is expected production costs need to be evaluated both when transferred to mass
78 Stefan Scharf et al. / Procedia CIRP 98 (2021) 73–78
6 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000

production (which already has a high degree of process automation) References

and when transferred to other higher melting metals.
[1] Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt). Energy consumption
During the first investigations (see sect. 4.1) several prospective for fossil and renewable heat (Energieverbrauch für fossile und
erneuerbare Wärme). https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/daten/energie/
optimizations were revealed, which are likely to further improve the energieverbrauch-fuer-fossile-erneuerbare-waerme#warmeverbrauch-
environmentally compatible operation and lower operation costs of und-erzeugung-nach-sektoren. Accessed 25 November 2020.
the new melt supply: [2] Pagone, E., Jolly, M., Salonitis, K., 2016. The Development of a Tool to
Promote Sustainability in Casting Processes 55, p. 53, https://doi.org/
1. Optimize the heating curve for melting by smart control. 10.1016/j.procir.2016.09.001.
2. Preheat the combustion air of the burner by re-utilizing [3] Pagone, E., Salonitis, K., Jolly, M., 2018. Energy and material efficiency
hot, exhausted air. metrics in foundries, p. 421, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2018.02.140.
3. Omit chemical degassing and cleaning of the melt. [4] Stephan, W., Zitzmann, K., Pröbstle, G., Kapischke, J. Efficient use of
energy in industry (Effiziente Energieverwendung in der Industrie).
4. Complete automation of the melt supply. http://effguss.bdguss.de/?wpfb_dl=154. Accessed 25 November 2020.
The effects of each of the above optimizations, however, [5] Bosse, M., et.al. Identification of sector-specific potentials for the use of
renewable energies in particularly energy-intensive industrial sectors using
need to be analyzed, which is left for upcoming studies. the example of the foundry industry (Ermittlung von branchenspezifischen
Potentialen zum Einsatz von erneuerbarer Energien in besonders energie-
5. Conclusion intensiven Industriesektoren am Beispiel der Gießerei-Industrie).
https://www.bmu.de/fileadmin/Daten_BMU/Pools/Forschungsdatenbank/fkz
In summary, it can be stated that the targeted reorientation of the _3712_44_347_erneuerbare_energien_bf.pdf. Accessed 25 November 2020.
[6] Brough, D., Jouhara, H., 2020. The aluminium industry: A review on
process operation for melt supply in non-ferrous foundries can be state-of-the-art technologies, environmental impacts and possibilities for
regarded as very successful. Based on an innovative burner unit, a waste heat recovery. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijft.2019.100007.
new type of plant system was developed and prototypically tested in [7] Federal Network Agency, Federal Cartel Office (Bundesnetzagentur,
a real foundry environment, which enables a very flexible and Bundeskartellamt). Commercial and industrial electricity prices in Germany
extremely efficient distribution of the molten metal. The confirmed until 2019 (Gewerbe- und Industriestrompreise in Deutschland bis 2019).
https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/154902/umfrage/strompreise-
advantages can be summarized as follows: fuer-industrie-und-gewerbe-seit-2006/. Accessed 25 November 2020.
1. Reduction of production costs (by at least 48 %), [8] Federal Network Agency, Federal Cartel Office (Bundesnetzagentur,
Bundeskartellamt). Gas prices for commercial and industrial customers
2. Less carbon emissions (by at least 41 %), in Germany until 2019 (Gaspreise für Gewerbe- und Industriekunden in
3. Reduction of primary energy demand (by at least 36 %), Deutschland bis 2019). https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/
4. No cleaning and degassing of the melt by eliminating the 168528/umfrage/gaspreise-fuer-gewerbe--und-industriekunden-seit-
pouring processes 2006/. Accessed 25 November 2020.
5. No overheating of the melt due to an improved transport [9] Petra Icha, G.K. Development of the specific carbon dioxide emissions of the
German electricity mix in the years 1990-2017 (Entwicklung der spezifischen
process Kohlendioxid-Emissionen des deutschen Strommix in den Jahren 1990-
6. Transport is not time-critical due to the insulation of the pot, 2017). https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/entwicklung-der-
7. Transportation can be performed by different vehicles (e.g. spezifischen-kohlendioxid-4. Accessed 25 November 2020.
crane, forklift, tugger train, automated guided vehicle system), [10] Federal Association of the German Foundry Industry (Bundesverband
8. Sensor-based data of ladle are key to smart process controls, der Deutschen Gießerei-Industrie). Energy-efficient foundry operation
2.0 (Energieeffizienter Gießereibetrieb 2.0). http://effguss.bdguss.de/
9. More flexible production, because several alloys can be ?page_id=29. Accessed 25 November 2020.
produced simultaneously approaching a lot size of one. [11] Bührig-Polaczek, A., Michaeli, W., Spur, G., 2014. Handbook Primary
Forming (Handbuch Urformen), 2nd edn.,
Although the reported results only represent an intermediate https://doi.org/10.3139/9783446434066.fm, Hanser.
status, very positive results could be documented and proven. [12] Herrmann, C., Pries, H., Hartmann, G., 2013. Energy- and resource-
The imminent implementation of the final burner system for efficient production of aluminum die casting (Energie- und
recycling the waste heat generated will open up further significant ressourceneffiziente Produktion von Aluminiumdruckguss).
potential, so that the technology development introduced will http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39853-7, Springer Vieweg.
[13] Ciach, R., Editor, 1998. Advanced Light Alloys and Composites.
make a significant contribution to sustainable production in the http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9068-6, Springer.
future. An intelligent process control system planned in the [14] Shi, T., Wang, C., Mi, G., Yan, F., 2019. A study of microstructure and
following, which is based on sensor data and realized by an mechanical properties of aluminum alloy using laser cleaning,
artificial intelligence model, is the key to fully exploiting the https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2019.04.015.
potential of the above-mentioned advantages, thus minimizing [15] Hamasaiid, A., Dargusch, M.S., Davidson, C.J., Tovar, S. et al., 2007.
Effect of Mold Coating Materials and Thickness on Heat Transfer in
process times, production costs and carbon emissions and Permanent Mold Casting of Aluminum Alloys,
establishing the foundry of the future in the sense of Industry 4.0. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-007-9145-2.
[16] Samarasekera, I.V., Brimacombe, J.K., 2013. The Thermal Field in
Acknowledgements Continuous-Casting Moulds, https://doi.org/10.1179/cmq.1979.18.3.251.
[17] Udayraj, Chakraborty, S., Ganguly, S., Chacko, E.Z. et al., 2017. Estimation
of surface heat flux in continuous casting mould with limited measurement of
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding by the German temperature, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2017.05.012.
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under
grant number 03ET1499.