Abstract
Most of the current foundry processes are based on well-developed and established practices typical of mature technologies. Contemporary economic, environmental and societal developments have concurrently changed at an unprecedented rate the context where traditional metal casting methodologies have not really developed much over time. Consequently, significant challenges and opportunities arise. This work will present the founding metrics of a novel approach to metal casting with the development of a new philosophy (called “Small is Beautiful”) aimed at tackling the current pressures on the industry with a focus on energy and materials’ efficiencies and flexible production. Traditional and well-established parameters are presented and compared to new metrics defined from first principles and thermodynamic properties. All metrics are validated using industrial and scientific literature data of five sand casting plants melting different ferrous and non-ferrous alloys.
Highlights
Costing models for capacity optimization in Industry 4.0: Trade-off SSuussttaaiinnaabbllee MMaannuuffaaccttuurriinngg SSyysstteemmss CCeennttrree, SScchhooooll ooff AAeerroossppaaccee, TTrraannssppoorrtt aanndd MMaannuuffaaccttuurriinngg, CCrraannffiieelldd UUnniivveerrssiittyy, CCrraannffiieelldd, MMKK4433 00AALL, UUnniitteedd KKiinnggddoomm between used capacity and operational efficiency
It should be clarified that both SECo and SECm are metrics that describe the overall performance of the plant from two different points of view and, they should be compared to ηo only
The definition of energy and material efficiency metrics was discussed for a generalised shape casting process
Summary
The first steps in defining this new philosophy were focussed on capturing practices and comparing energy and resource efficiency studying 80 foundries, contacting 60 and visiting 10 of them. About 100 enterprises and industry experts were interviewed and general energy data were collected. This survey revealed that usually foundries do not consider energy efficiency and emissions a key decision-making factor and do not monitor in detail energy consumption. In this area, the greatest interest of the foundry management is on the costs associated with energy bills. There is generally little knowledge on how to monitor energy efficiency and, where identified, major differences in practices between foundries have been recorded [4]. This work will describe the metrics usually adopted in this context and will propose some new ones
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