New furnace linings from expert hands
The heat-resistant furnace lining of melting and dosing furnaces makes a significant contribution to their efficiency and product lifetime. Thanks to a sophisticated relining concept in OEM quality, the StrikoWestofen frequently achieves characteristic values comparable with those of the latest generations of furnaces. “Work done incorrectly shortens the service life of the equipment, reduces the melting capacity and increases the energy consumption by up to 30 percent,” explains Holger Stephan, manager of the “Service and Spare Parts” department at StrikoWestofen. “Furthermore, additional cost-intensive and time-consuming work is often necessary – like operating dosing furnaces with porous plugs.”
Refractory linings of melting and dosing furnaces are high-tech nowadays. The materials, including six different types of refractory and insulating materials, as well as the entire interior furnace geometry are precisely engineered and constantly optimized.
Engineered process guarantees success
In the context of the relining of melting systems, StrikoWestofen offers a complete engineering service which achieves optimum results. In a first step, the service technicians record the current performance and energy consumption of the furnace under real foundry conditions. On the basis of this assessment, StrikoWestofen compiles a forecast of the values to be expected after the complete renewal of the lining. “The use of state-of-the-art materials and the latest engineering results often allow us to achieve values comparable with those of up-to-date models – at only 20 percent of the purchase price,” Holger Stephan explains. “On the premises of our customer Skoda Auto a. s. in the Czech Republic, we were able to reduce the gas consumption per tonne of molten material by 40 percent from 102 to 61.2 cubic meters by relining the furnace and training employees in a targeted way. In terms of the annual melting performance at the Mladá Boleslav location, the costs for lining a total of four melting furnaces are rapidly recouped after only ten months,” Stephan explains. Relining is not just maintenance – it is a permanent improvement of the original system as well. Once relining has finished, StrikoWestofen validates the forecast values in a field test conducted on the customer premises, thus guaranteeing optimum results.
Don’t save in the wrong place
Service lives of ten years and more are not unusual for furnace linings from StrikoWestofen. This durability is based on the exact planning of the materials used as well as angles and gradients inside the furnace. Areas undergoing particular stress are therefore lined with especially resistant refractory material and the angle of flow is optimized in order to minimize the load on the materials. However, even the most well-planned lining must be replaced at some time. Small repairs are made in situ by trained service personnel.
