Tech Solution #3: Mingzhi Integrated Core Centre

03 Sep 2024
Senza categoria.

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Redefining traditional core making through the MICC integrated solution

 

Current Challenges in Traditional Core Making 

  In traditional core making, the separate arrangement of core-making machines and various auxiliary equipment—such as the daily sand hopper, sand temperature regulation system, sand mixer, resin heating system, gas generator, hydraulic station and other auxiliary equipment—creates several inefficiencies. The challenges include variations of production parameters such as sand mixing batch size, significant fluctuations in core sand waiting time, and an uncontrolled core sand storage environment. Consequently, core-making quality varies significantly, and production efficiency is low.   Mingzhi Technology's experimental research on cold core and inorganic processes reveals that reducing core sand waiting time minimizes fluctuations in core quality, while controlling sand temperature and increasing catalytic gas temperature enhance core-making efficiency. Therefore, three critical factors—sand temperature, core sand waiting time, and catalytic gas temperature directly impact core sand fluidity, core strength, and overall efficiency.  

Mingzhi's Innovative Solution

  To address these issues and manufacture higher quality and more efficient core-making equipment, Mingzhi Technology has reimagined the traditional core-making centre. By developing the MiCC (Mingzhi Integrated Core Centre) and the MiCL (Mingzhi Intelligent Core Control System), they have significantly improved traditional control technologies. The MiCC ensures stable core-making quality and enhanced production efficiency by optimizing raw sand temperature control, core sand waiting time, and catalytic gas temperature.  

1. 1. Raw Sand Temperature Control

     Silica sand's poor thermal conductivity often poses challenges in traditional core making. To overcome this, Mingzhi Technology developed a raw sand temperature control device integrated with the raw sand storage structure. Using an airflow boiling temperature control method, the device enhances the cooling, heating, and uniformity of raw sand, maintaining an ideal temperature to stabilize core quality.  
   
   

   2. Core Sand Waiting Time Reduction

   The integrated MiCC core centre streamlines the core sand flow process. The sand mixing unit mixes the required core sand based on the volume calculated by the MiCL system, directly adding it to the sand storage cylinder. This integration ensures that core sand is immediately ready for use after mixing, significantly reducing waiting time. As can be seen by data comparison in Table 1, the improved integrated core-making centre reduces core sand waiting time by 90% compared to that of traditional centres.
   
   Table 1: Comparison of the waiting time of core sand between traditional and integrated core centre
   
   

   Core Type	Core-Making Process	Number of core-making molds per hour	Traditional core-making centre	Integrated core-making centre
   			Core sand waiting time (minutes)	Core sand waiting time (minutes)
   Inner core (complex, thin-walled)	cold-core	60	>30	2
   	inorganic	40	>45	3
   Outer mold (simple, thick and large)	cold core	45	>15	1.5
   	inorganic	30	>20	2

    

   3. 3. Catalytic Gas Temperature Enhancement

   Traditional core-making centres often suffer from heat loss due to long pipelines between the gas heater and the blowing hood, of particular issue in winter. The MiCC integrates high-efficiency curing technology, allowing catalytic gas to enter the blowing hood with virtually no distance (<0.5m), thus minimizing heat loss and catalyst consumption. This design yields a 30 to 50% curing efficiency compared to traditional centres.
   
   Table 2   Comparison of heater performance between traditional and integrated solution
   
   

   Performance	Traditional solution	Integrated solution
   Heat loss	50%～60%	10%～20%
   Kwh/kg Curing energy consumption Kwh/kg （only cold core process）	0.009	0.0045
   Catalyst consumption (catalyst dosage/ core weight, ml/kg, only cold core process )	1ml/kg～1.5ml/kg	0.5ml/kg～0.7ml/kg
   Curing efficiency (cold core & inorganic) curing time (s)	20-30s（cold core process） 30-50s（inorganic process）	10-20s（cold core process） 15-25s（inorganic process）

   Superior Quality and Efficiency

   The MiCC integrated core centre's control over raw sand temperature, core sand waiting time, and catalytic gas temperature results in notable improvements. Data comparing 5000 cores made by traditional and integrated centres, as illustrated in Table 3, shows that the integrated centres produce more stable quality cores, with defect rates, unsuccessful core shootings and core breakage significantly reduced by 75 to 88% compared to traditional core making centres.  
   
   Table 3: Quality data of 5000 core centres produced by traditional and integrated core centres
   
    

   Technology	Core name	Defect rates: traditional core centre		Defect rates: integrated core centre
   		core broken	unsatisfied shooting	core broken	unsatisfied shooting
   cold core	water jacket core	3.62%	1.46%	0.43%	0.25%
   	riser core	0.4%	1.50%	0.1%	0.32%
   inorganic	water jacket core	9.06%	5%	1.05%	0.83%
   	riser core	2%	2.55%	0.5%	0.46%

    

   Conclusion

   The MiCC Mingzhi Integrated Core Centre, paired with the MiCL Intelligent Core Control System, represents a disruptive yet positive innovation in core making. It better meets production requirements, significantly improves core quality and efficiency, saves energy and materials, reduces production and operation costs, and enhances the production environment. Mingzhi Technology’s advancements arm foundries with superior core-making solutions that are environmentally friendly, efficient, and intelligent, facilitating process transformation and upgrading.  

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