Molding Operations at Spokane Steel Foundry

by Randy Mullins, Molding Supervisor

Spokane Industries Steel Castings Division boasts two varieties of molding lines in which to generate steel castings and meet our customers demand - Greensand and No-Bake lines. Our No-Bake line is an automated IMF conveyor system. It provides the ability to make larger steel castings and more steel castings per mold. We have the capability of running four to eight patterns at the mixer head with two to four patterns on our backup line depending on the size of the pattern.

As the loop begins each pattern is filled at the mixer station, compacted and sent to get strike off where an automated arm removes the excessive sand from the pattern. The mold is then sent to the roll over machine where the mold is prepped and stripped from the pattern. The empty pattern is looped back around to the mixer head to be set up and filled again.

The mold is then transported to a curing oven where it finishes curing. It then is prepped and cleaned out and sent to the flow coating station where we permeate the mold with a water base coating to give it a good penetration of coating to protect the metal from burn in and to give the casting a smooth finish. Its then sent through a drying oven to cure. This creates a strong barrier between the coating and the molded sand.

The mold proceeds down the conveyor line and reaches the coring line where the cores are fitted in place and prepped for closing. Once the mold is cleaned out and cored up it is sent to the closer which is an automated manipulator that picks up the drag half of the mold and places it on a plate then returns and picks up the cope half, rotates and places it on the drag half, then sent out to be placed on the pouring floor.

The Steel Foundry pouring floor has forty-eight plates that are divided into four rows of twelve plates which can have from forty-eight to ninety-six steel casting molds depending on the size of the molds. Once the molds are poured off, they are transferred to be cooled. When the steel casting reaches its cooling time it is sent to a shaker where the steel casting is separated from the mold and the sand is reclaimed back into the sand system to be reused at the mixing station.

Our Greensand line is where we make our smaller steel castings. We have two lines of greensand molding, an EMI line that makes 30x36 molds and a larger EMI 36x64 molding line. These molding lines are made with a clay bonding system. The clay bonding sand is mixed and monitered with a Hartley automated system that controls the mixture of reclaimed sand, Gilsonite, Bentonite, water and cereal flour which comprises our facing and backing sand. It is then transported to a holding bin for each cope and drag side of the molding lines.

Once a pattern is mounted to a mounting plate on each side of the machines, a flask is placed over the pattern where sand is released and fills the flask. The sand is then tamped and compacted down to form a mold. The mold is stripped from the pattern and sent to the closing station where the molds are cleaned out and cores are placed. When the mold is ready to be closed the cope is brought over and placed over the drag, clamped up and sent to the pouring floor.

Spokane Industries Steel Castings Division can place up to seventy steel casting molds out on the floor to be poured off. When the steel casting has cooled, the mold is sent to our punch out machine where the steel castings are separated and sand returned to be reclaimed in the sand recycling system.

Billy Newman, Production Manager at Spokane Steel Castings states "Our processes and procedures have vastly improved over the last few years as we strive to augment our recycling programs, reduce waste, and reclaim as much of the process as possible which minimizes our carbon footprint. Our goal is to lead by example in the Steel Casting Industry and maximize our efficiencies."

Spokane Industries Updates Dust Collection Facilities

Spokane Industries is proud to announce a substantial update to it’s Dust Collection facilities for it’s Precision Investment Castings Division.  Installed by Filter Technologies, this improves capacity to a total of 38,000 cfm, an increase of 28,000 cfm over the previous system.  This new state-of-the-art system exemplifies Spokane Industries’ “Attitude of Excellence.” 

SPOKANE, WA – MAY 2013: 

As an industry leader committed to minimizing environmental impact,  maximizing conservation, and improving safety, Spokane Industries has tripled its dust collection capacity utilizing the highest standards in eco-friendly production practices.  A Filter Technologies Model 140 – 1.5 M PB Dust Collector was recently installed at it’s Spokane Investment Casting Division location – augmenting it’s existing Torit Downflo Model DF T4-16 dust collection system.

These upgrades cover all areas of the shop removing fine particulates and pollutants from any possible facility emissions, further purifying the air in the Investment Castings production facility and improving the comfort and safety for all of it’s employees. 

With a future expansion capacity of 11,000 cmf, this new equipment will handily manage the air purification needs in its newly acquired 10,000 sq. ft. expansion.

Visit our website at www.SpokaneIndustries.com to learn more about Spokane Industries and give us your feedback on our new upgrades by posting a comment on our Facebook page.

Casting Demonstration Wows Audience at GSI Manufacturing and Career Expo - Spokane

Casting Demonstration Wows Audience at

GSI Manufacturing and Career Expo

Spokane Industries Steel Castings and Investment Castings Divisions participated in the Greater Spokane Inc. Manufacturing and Career Expo, May 14^th & 15^th at the Spokane Fair and Expo Center.  We  enjoyed immense success with the “Foundry-In-A-Box” demonstrations provided by the American Foundry Society. 

 Foundry-In-A-Box is essentially a hands-on, green sand molding and molten steel pouring demonstration that provides a unique and live demonstration of the casting process.  The kit contains two different molds to choose from, sand augmented with bentonite and light oil to replicate foundry sand, tamping tools, release product, etc. - all that is required to simulate the creation of the cope and drag (top and  bottom) of the sand mold, as done in the foundry.

Once the mold is made and closed, tin is melted in a specially equipped microwave oven and poured into the mold.  At Spokane Industries we specialize in carbon and low alloy steels that require extremely high temperatures to melt.  Given its low melting point and ease of handling, tin is used for demonstration purposes.  

The trade show attendees were able to witness the actual casting process from start to finish.  Casting is a complex process and the hands-on demonstrations vastly enhance our ability to educate the uninitiated about our processes and discuss what makes us unique in the marketplace. 

Our success with these demonstrations is evidenced by show goers overwhelming our neighbor’s booths to get a glimpse of what all the excitement in our booth was about.  We are working on a similar demonstration of our investment casting procedure to show off that process in the future.

The Greater Spokane Manufacturing Expo boasted more than 90 companies and attracted over 1,200 students from regional schools.  It is a great venue to recruit students and other attendees for future employment opportunities, and share the process, applications and benefits of castings.

Foundry In A Box

“The response to our “Foundry in a Box” that we purchased from AFS was amazing!  We are always looking for new ways to get prospective employees interested in the foundry.  This is it!”  

Tracei Scofield, HR Director, Spokane Industries.