Projects Archive - Meltech Limited

New investment For Europe’s leading Sculpture Foundry

In 2015 Meltech were awarded an order for a rebuilt induction melting system for Pangolin Editions based near Stroud, UK, who manufacture bespoke fine art sculptures for elite artists such as Damien Hirst, Martin Jennings and Philip Jackson. Bronze structures are cast and fabricated to an exacting standard with finished artwork ranging from just a few kg to many tonnes in weight.

The existing melting facility was comprised of a range of gas and oil fired tilting furnaces to provide copper-based alloys at the right temperature and quality to achieve high quality finished castings. These fuel fired furnaces have an upper limit on the maximum melt temperature at around 1300 degrees centigrade so it was not possible to cast stainless steel in-house.

Mindful of the need to add stainless steel to the company’s portfolio, it was considered that a twin -bodied 300kg induction melting furnace system should be the preferred choice to add flexibility to the production requirements. With limited budget, it was also essential that the machine should be second hand but in a condition which would guarantee a high level of operational reliability. Having little experience with second hand induction furnaces, the company also required a good quality after sales care and technical back up and after exhaustive research Meltech was selected as the preferred supplier for this.

Throughout the project, Meltech provided technical support to include: specifying the right power requirements, installation drawings, project support from start to finish including liaison with pipework contractors, civil engineers and the company’s own project management team to achieve a seamless conclusion to the contract. Once installed, commissioning and on-site training was given to allow operators to safely run and maintain the equipment. As department manager Helen Jacobs explains “the quality of the system, technical competency and support that Meltech have provided has been very impressive. Buying a rebuilt second hand machine from Meltech was the right choice and has given us confidence in their products and services”

Special Induction melting furnace for technology centre in Belgium

The Metal Processing Centre is a joint venture between OCAS (research centre for the application of steel) and CRM (Centre for research in metallurgy) and is equipped to develop, produce, process and characterise tailor-made alloys. Together with its partner Sirris – the new melting furnaces will add to the support to the foundry and manufacturing industries. The Metal Processing Centres unique range of equipment enables the simulation of industrial metallurgical processing of virtually every alloy on a laboratory scale.

In mid-2014, changes to the facilities requirements made it necessary to replace an old motor driven induction melting furnace system with a state of the art replacement at their development facility in Zwijnaarde-Gent, Belgium. The proposed equipment was to include a 300 kg Steel capacity tilting furnace driven by a 200 kW 3,000 Hz inverter plus an 80 kg Steel capacity tilting furnace driven by a 100 Kw 3,000 Hz inverter which was to be installed onto an existing concrete base to reduce the need for modifications.

The contract was awarded to Meltech Ltd, England in July 2014 was to include two standard Pulsar inverters with one Flush platform and one standard design furnace body, each system was to be incorporated into a modular platform complete with metal spillage containers, integral bus bars, hydraulics and lip fume extraction systems, all incorporated into a raised working area with stairs and handrails.

The system design was bespoke and developed using the Solidworks software system which enabled the customer to visualise and see each component and finished system in 3D before any manufacturing had begun, the big advantage of this software became apparent when design modifications were necessary in order to allow test instrumentation and casting equipment to be added later on.

The modular platform and equipment was pre-assembled in Meltech’s Haverhill facility in the UK, before being dismantled and final re-assembly at the customer’s site. The whole installation process was completed in just three days with everything lining up right down to the last nut and bolt.

There were many considerations when the design concept was finalised, in particular, each furnace would have to be perfectly positioned to allow easy access for our monitoring and casting equipment to be added. The machine would also have to be safe in operation, almost maintenance free and meet MPC’s stringent noise and emission standards. Connections to each furnace body such as bus bars water hoses, power cables and extraction ductwork also had to be carefully thought out to allow the free movement the furnace without damage or excessive wear to the service assemblies which were positioned below the platform. Metal run through could also be catastrophic to these sub-platform assemblies so a spill tray arrangement was designed and built underneath each furnace in order to contain potential molten metal spillage.

As Mr Johan Verlee, Project manager for MPC explains “We considered that our particular requirements were a big ask for any manufacturer but it was our consideration that a small flexible specialist could provide a practical solution, Meltech listened to what we wanted and provided a high quality product within our budget, I would like finish by congratulating Meltech for the nice work they have done, everything fitted just fine in place, every bolt and hole was in the correct position, unbelievable”

This project is one of several bespoke induction furnace systems to which Meltech Ltd has now become a leader and ad’s further to the specialisation in both standard and non-standard Induction melting and heating equipment sales.

Induction melting furnace with rotation capability developed for special application

Recent developments have taken place where furnaces with a standard fixed pouring point have been adapted for applications where molten metal can be directly poured into several different processes without the need for complex or cumbersome launder systems or ladles, typically this technology can be applied to continuous casting plant and metal powder manufacture, where smaller batch quantities of differing molten alloys can be fed directly into to multiple casting or atomising machines.

A standard hydraulic tilting furnace with a fixed pouring point is not ideal as transportation ladles or launders are required which can result in metal temperature loss, gas pick up and other product quality issues. In each instance where linear (Pre tilt) or rotational (Carousel) technology has been employed, manual ladle pouring has been eliminated along with ladle pre heating.

In one particular application a bespoke coreless induction furnace was supplied and installed into an existing platform area while providing a rotational capability so the furnace could be turned through 90 degrees to allow a direct pour into a selected continuous casting line or alternatively, the other way for a ladle pour. This machine would have to incorporate all the features of a standard magnetically screened coreless induction furnace system with the addition of a supporting carousel system to allow the required radial movement.

Meltech entered discussions with a leading UK based continuous caster in late 2012 where a detailed specification and design principal was agreed. There were many considerations when the design concept was finalised, in particular, the stability of the machine was of upmost importance as the furnace would be fitted onto a hydraulically driven captive ring assembly and had to be highly controllable, safe in operation while being almost maintenance free. Connections to the furnace body such as water hoses, power cables and extraction ductwork also had to be carefully thought out to allow the free rotation of the furnace without damage or excessive wear to the service assemblies which were positioned below the platform. Metal run through could also cause catastrophic to these sub platform assemblies so a spill tray arrangement was designed and built underneath the furnace in order to guide the metal into the spill pit area and away from the carousel in whatever position the furnace was in.

In February 2013 the project was awarded to Meltech Ltd which included a 750kW 600Hz pulsar inverter with a single Mag-Melt 1500kg furnace body, this machine was to be based on the standard range of equipment but heavily modified to incorporate the fore mentioned special features.

The design work was completed and approved by May 2013 within the Solidworks software package which gave the opportunity to model the equipment in 3D, this meant that the machine could be redesigned and modified easily before any actual manufacture had taken place.

Installation of the system was completed over a two week period during summer shut down in August 2014.

As Steve Macey Meltech’s joint Managing Director explains “ We considered that the customers particular requirements were a big ask for any manufacturer but it was our consideration that our design capability and manufacturing expertise would allow us to provide a practical solution, our company has now completed several systems for applications as different as direct multiple mould pouring for precious metals right through to direct pouring into shells at an Investment Foundry, each time we listened to what the customer wanted and we were able to provide a high quality product , on time and on budget”

This project is one of several bespoke linear and carousel type induction furnace systems to which Meltech Ltd has now supplied.

Pulsar IGBT (Transistorized) inverter surpasses expectation

In August 2016 the very first Pulsar IGBT Inverter was developed and installed at Tritech Ltd in Yeovil Somerset , (Formerly Yeovil precision Castings Ltd).

In 2015 Meltech embarked on a development program to introduce a new range of inverter system to add to its established Pulsar range , up until 2016 all new induction systems supplied by Meltech were driven by traditional SCR (Thyristor) technology which has proved over the years to be very reliable and efficient. With the introduction of high rated IGBT’s (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) for frequency switching, it was known that some operational benefits could be achieved however the extent of operational efficiency could not be assessed until a machine had been productionized. IGBT’s are not a new technology and have been used in some industries with much acclaim so the application of these devices were well understood as having significant advantages over traditional SCR technology.

In August 2016 the very first Pulsar IGBT Inverter was developed and installed at Tritech Ltd in Yeovil Somerset , (Formerly Yeovil precision Castings Ltd) this new inverter was to replace an existing SCR driven inverter with the same power and frequency rating on two existing 300kg furnace bodies and cooling system, it was important that this like for like retrofit was selected in order to obtain a direct comparison of how the machines compare , shortly after commissioning it became evident that this machine out performed its predecessor considerably confirming that the machine achieved a melt rate of 300kg of Stainless steel in 25 minutes when compared with its predecessor’s 34 minutes , the kw consumption also reduced to 500kWh per tonne.

The Pulsar IGBT Inverter also has a host of other features including intelligent fibre optic firing, digital control and a touch screen menu driven HMI display with fault memory system for logging performance and fault conditions which is retained over a virtually unlimited timescale. Data can also be recorded on memory stick and emailed or optionally streamed directly to our service department or by internet link.

The Pulsar IGBT system has proven to be a significant move forward in Meltech’s product development as Steve Docherty Managing Director of Tritech Ltd explains, “This inverter was installed in our facility last year and has consistently outperformed the Inverter it replaced, our operators have adapted to using this technology very well and the investment offers lower running costs and an improved melt rate”

The Pulsar IGBT inverter is available from 75kW through to 750kW In frequencies of 200Hz to 10,000Hz , further developments include the introduction of a 400V output version for a Vacuum furnace application which is due to be commissioned in the summer of 2017.