Knowledge and partnership at Foseco

Today’s foundries face a bewildering array of competing priorities, technological advances, industry-defining challenges, and ever-more-demanding end-users. It’s an operating environment of such complexity that no one individual or company could have all of the answers; however, we all have part of the answer. 

To navigate a way forward, a new collaborative approach is needed. It’s no longer enough to rely on a standard set of solutions. Suppliers and foundries need to work together to identify the specific challenges and find tailored solutions. In short, we need partnership. 

But to make this work, we also need knowledge. Here at Foseco, we have a global team of experts to draw on. This team is equipped with knowledge built over many decades, at many different foundries around the world, in many different casting applications. This collective experience ensures our solutions bring tangible improvement in real-world conditions. 

Case study: Volkswagen 

Take the Volkswagen plant in Hannover as an example. In order to achieve the company’s quality and sustainability requirements, high melt purity and process reliability is required. The foundry must also comply with strict density tolerances. Improvements in environmental impact and employee workload were also part of the equation.  

This was a complex and multifaceted challenge. But we were able to work with Volkswagen to tailor a solution that included our SMARTT degassing process control software with FDU MTS degassing unit and NUCLEANT granulated treatment agent. 

This combination of technologies delivered continuous automation of the melt treatment process to achieve consistent melt conditions and adhesion to density tolerances. It resulted in a >10% fall in scrap rates – saving money, cutting energy consumption, and reducing CO2 emissions. The automated process also reduced employee workload and improved health and safety.

NUCLEANT fluxes are one of number of treatment agents that have been formulated for use with the FDU MTS and that cover all principle foundry operations (cleaning, drossing, modification, and grain refinement). These innovative solutions were developed to keep smoke and fumes to a minimum and thus meet customer demands for improved health and safety, while also delivering improved melt quality.