Westomat: Available Options

Westomat Duo

Easy to install, integrate and maintain, this compact and highly customised Westomat model delivers the benefits you’ve come to expect from a classic, but with 14% less footprint and some other unique features. Most notably, and the reason this furnace is ‘small and mighty’, there are two potential positions for the riser tube. This doesn’t just make pouring, sample taking and cleaning easier, it also allows a parallel arrangement with the die casting machine that saves precious space. Find out more below.

A super saver
 The space saving credentials of our modified model means that an area previously limited to 7 die casting machines and a Westomat can now accommodate 8 die casting machines. Increased production without the expense of expansion.

What’s ace about better use of space
In addition to more flexible riser tube positioning, this Westomat’s specially designed U-shaped rods, can be taken out and mounted from one side saving, again allowing customers to make best use of their available floorspace.

Sampling made simple
Westomat Duo’s special ‘double-opening’ design means that the 2nd (un-used) dosing position can be used for metal sampling. The positioning is perfect as it means sampling is carried out as far away from the refilling position as possible for accurate and realistic results.

Have the urge to lance purge?
With this Westomat model, you can. An optional jetting lance can be used instead of porous plugs.

Use it, don’t move it
Another benefit of our new customised Westomat model is that is requires no ‘moveability’. Employing pneumatics and with no chassis or rails required, all that’s needed is a simple lift and tilt.

Biscuit Correction

Biscuit correction improves the dosing accuracy and reduces the out-of-tolerance rate. The dosing weight is constantly and automatically adapted during the entire production process.

A bus system transfers biscuit data from the die-casting machine to the Westomat, evaluates them in the control and processes them further as required.

The tried and tested biscuit correction system has been sold more than 150 times up to now and used in the corresponding number of foundries. It makes a significant contribution to increasing process reliability by effectively compensating for drifting of the dosing weight and helping to avoid incorrect settings being made by the operator.

The biscuit correction version has been further improved and fully integrated into the ProDos4 control, meaning that a separate SPS is no longer necessary.

Optional Web Server 4.0

The web server for the ProDos4 control enables it to be integrated into the local company network. This allows all relevant information to be called up conveniently from your office.

For example, it is possible to observe the pressure in the furnace chamber or the temperature and weight of the melt.

Furthermore, malfunction notices and/or all process data (memory data) of the last 350 cycles can be transferred too. All process data transferred can be further processed using a process control system. In addition, simple service functions can be used with the help of the diagnosis tool ProDos Diagnostics or via remote diagnosis. The high safety standard of this system guarantees that external intervention into the process is not possible.
 

ProDos Diagnostics

– Dosing Furnace Diagnosis Software

The diagnosis software ProDos Diagnostics offers a wide range of possibilities. The comprehensive analysis of the dosing accuracy using the biscuit, the display of the dosing weight while taking all operating conditions into account as well as targeted assistance in the setting of individual correction factors allow the user to evaluate the stability of the production process at a glance.

When there are interface problems, it provides simple error recognition.

This includes the recording of all interface signals between die-casting system and Westomat, an impulse diagram of the last dosing process and an impulse diagram of the last interface malfunction. To be able to use all functions of the software to the fullest, it is effective to use it in connection with our optional web server. This allows all process data of the Westomat under examination to be downloaded from your desk within seconds and analysed with a few clicks of the mouse and permits sources of error to be detected rapidly and in a targeted way.

The ProDos Diagnostics software is available to our customers cost-neutrally and can be executed on the Westomat website. It runs on all Windows systems from XP onwards.

PneuCo - for the Flanged Riser Tube too


The PneuCo system is the contact–free alternative to top stop measurement using an electrode. The pneumatic control of the PneuCo system uses a pressure change to measure the rise of the liquid metal in the dosing pipe to the desired level.
A small flow of air is directed from the output of the pneumatic control at the scanning point (small hole) in the dosing pipe. As soon as the rising level of the liquid metal in the dosing pipe covers the air outlet, the pressure in the PneuCo system rises suddenly. This rise is detected by a pressure switch and sent on to the dosing control as a dosing contact. The pressure switch corresponds with the dosing contact used in classical electrode scanning.

PneuCo is available for two riser tube versions- for classically moulded ones as well as flanged riser tubes.

Riser Tube Edge Cleaning

The build-up of metal deposits on the edge of the riser tube is prevented by cutting off the aluminium thread.

The riser tube edge cleaning system blows a short pulse of compressed air onto the edge of the riser tube to achieve two principal effects.

  1. Metal deposits are prevented in this area. This allows the edge to have a constant height, and this in turn has a positive effect on the dosing precision.
  2. The manual cleaning cycle of this area is minimized in terms of the availability of the overall system.
 

(Porous) Plugs Integrated Into The Furnace Floor

Porous plugs integrated into the furnace floor of the Westomat help to improve the metallurgical quality of the melt. The purge gas (usually nitrogen N2) releases hydrogen dissolved in the melt, thus reducing the density index of the melt. This improves the quality of the melt.
The porous plugs are made of a special porous material allowing them to produce extremely fine gas bubbles over the entire surface of the plug. This allows a very good treatment of the melt and reduces the purge gas consumption. The cleaning intervals are stored in the control according to certain requirements and do not have to be controlled separately. All the customer has to provide is the inert purge gas, and the purge gas line to the purge gas dosing module.

Extended Riser Tube


In the manufacture of cast structural components in particular, the demand for a high-quality melt, constant temperatures and low fluctuations in the dosing weight are especially high. The extended riser tube supports these requirements in a positive way. 
The heated riser tube is designed to extend directly into the shot sleeve of the pressure die-casting machine. This considerably reduces the flow path of the liquid aluminium between the pouring edge of the riser tube and the shot sleeve of the pressure die-casting machine. 

As a result, there is virtually no loss of temperature in the transfer launder, and oxide formation and hydrogen absorption are reduced. The short distance travelled by the metal flow also allows shorter dosing cycles.

Dosing precision of ±1,5 %

Within the ProDos4 control, the algorithms of a newly developed software allow the virtually exact determination of the dosing weight with the help of the feed pressure curve. This increases the dosing precision of the Westomat in connection with the biscuit correction to up to ±1,5 % and improves the compensation of pressure fluctuations as well as the reproducibility when different correction factors are set.