Efficiency and metal quality were the main reasons for the Chinese Hongbang Die Casting Company (Jiangsu Province) to convert its production to dosing technology. The company therefore ordered 41 Westomat dosing furnaces from StrikoWestofen Asia (Taicang) for its new location in Tianjin and the one in Nantong. Hongbang had previously had the opportunity to experience Westomat in operation. After additional test runs on its own premises, the foundry was finally convinced of quality and metal yield of the Westomat.
When a foundry company converts its production to a completely new system, it has to be 100 percent convinced of its benefits. This is also true for the Chinese Hongbang Die Casting Company (Nantong City, Jiangsu Province). In addition to the switch, the company used the occasion of the opening of a new production location to order 41 Westomat dosing furnaces from StrikoWestofen Asia (Taicang). The Hongbang Die Casting Company has been a customer of StrikoWestofen for a number of years now, and this is the biggest single order of Westomat in whole Asia.
Maximum demands on metal quality and metal yield
The Hongbang Die Casting Company specializes in the manufacture of tool designs and cast aluminium parts and in precision engineering. It supplies companies from the automotive sector such as Mercedes-Benz and Tesla Motors. The company has worked with the ladle system up to now. However, as the demands made on quality and reliable reproducibility continue to rise in lightweight construction in particular, Hongbang has now set its sights on modern dosing technology, including the new ProDos 3 control from StrikoWestofen (Gummersbach). This is because only systems with an especially high dosing accuracy, low metal losses and efficient energy consumption are to be taken into operation at the new production location in Tianjin from 2016 onwards. The modern product range and the services offered by StrikoWestofen were well-known to the foundry company beforehand. Hongbang has been successfully working with StrikoMelter melting furnaces for a number of years now. Hongbang was given a direct insight into the operation of the Westomat when it visited the Hongtu Company, which also supplies the automotive sector. Here the Hongbang foundry company was able to see for itself how efficiently the dosing furnaces function. After subsequent test runs in its own production, the main arguments for placing the order were the efficiency of the Westomat and the metal quality and metal yield it offers.
Westomat: efficient in any form
For the total of 41 Westomat, Hongbang decided on four different sizes – the Westomat 900, 1200, 2300 and 3100. “All four sizes allow cost-optimized operation thanks to their advanced technology,” explains Nanzhou Zhang, Sales Director of StrikoWestofen Asia. “They all allow energy consumption and material loss to be reduced considerably.” The Westomat only requires one third of the energy consumed by ladle systems, and its metal loss of 0.06 percent amounts to only 20 percent of the usual metal loss. Other arguments encouraging Hongbang to place the order were the process reliability and the high temperature stability of the metal. In addition, the mode of functioning of modern dosing furnaces makes a significant contribution to the sparing use of resources. Policy in China is now focusing more and more on environmental awareness, and foundry companies have to react with efficient systems. The Hongbang Die Casting Company has therefore already announced that StrikoWestofen Asia can expect further orders in the future too – for the Westomat and for the StrikoMelter.
More details on StrikoWestofen systems as well as quotes are available directly via e-mail (sales@strikowestofen.com) or by telephone (+49 (0)2261-70910).