Mechatherm have supplied and installed several Vertical D.C. (Direct Chill) casting machines for plants looking to produce anything from 5,000T/A up to 150,000T/A or greater.
Mechatherm casting machines can be designed to cast extrusion billet, rolling ingot or T-bar. Our casting machines generally come in two configurations, either with a mould table tilt frame or a rail bound mould carriage. Both are designed to allow access to the casting pit to remove the finished product after casting.
Our machines are hydraulically operated via a cylinder mounted in the bottom of a casting pit. We have designed and installed many casting machines that use hydraulic cylinders that are either internally guided or externally guided.
The basic design features of our VDC casting machines are typically common to those found in most cast houses around the world. However, Mechatherm has developed and introduced a number of its own design innovations over the years which we think give us a cutting edge over our competitors and make casting operations easier for our clients.
Some of these features are:
- Remote hydraulic tilt frames.
- Moving pit cover platforms for operator access and safety.
- Moving scissor lift platforms for mould maintenance.
- Integrated steam extraction systems.
- Closed loop cooling water systems.
- Emergency water supply systems.
- Specialised PC/PLC based control systems with human/machine interface giving ‘Set point’ control.
- SCADA control systems.
Mechatherm has also re-built and re-furbished many existing VDC casting machines to bring them in line with today's ‘state of the art technologies’.
Mechatherm recognises that our clients sometimes use specific mould technologies from alternative sources. For this reason we take a flexible approach to custom design our casting machines to interface with various different types of mould table. For example Mechatherm have many successful references where we have incorporated and controlled mould tables from various leading tooling suppliers.
Our automation and controls engineers are also fully experienced in integrating non Mechatherm supplied casting equipment and software into our final plant control systems.
