Thermal process technology manufacturer StrikoWestofen Group in June released a completely redesigned series of dosing furnaces at the International Foundry Trade Fair (Gifa) 2015, in Dusseldorf, Germany.

StrikoWestofen’s new series benefits from an innovative type of heating, improved insulations and an excellent, even more functional design, states StrikoWestofen GM Rudi Riedel.

“After years of development, Gifa is always precisely the right context for presenting our innovations to experts worldwide,” says Riedel.

Included in the series released at Gifa 2015 was the Westomat, a dosing furnace that can be used for the casting of structural components as well as for pressure die-casting and gravity die-casting.

The Westomat line is a classic product from StrikoWestofen, with more than 5 000 Westomats sold worldwide, some of which have lasted for over 25 years.

“Five-thousand Westomats sold means 5 000 opportunities to build on the experience of our customers. This is why good cooperation with customers and manufacturers of foundry machines is so important for successful development,” explains Riedel.

The new Westomat brings numerous advantages for light-metal foundries, including in the fields of design, pneumatics, heating, efficiency, controllability and operational safety, says StrikoWestofen.

In addition, the Westomat provides advanced material availability and productivity, requiring little cleaning and maintenance.

The Westomat is easily set up and can be integrated into any die-casting operations, states the company.

StrikoWestofen states that the release of its new line of dosing furnaces marks the company’s entry into the next stage of development in dosing technology.

One of the focuses of this next stage is how to reduce costs, save resources and make work easier, says StrikoWestofen.

Riedel further explains that the focus at StrikoWestofen is on offer- ing a new technology for aluminium foundries with further improvements in terms of availability, energy efficiency, operation, operational safety, space requirements and sustainability.

Even higher dosing precision and easy controllability both contribute to saving resources and simplifying operations for the personnel in foundry companies, he says.

Measuring Performance
The performance and availability of dosing furnaces and the maintenance effort they require can only be realistically demonstrated by values measured in practical operation.

For this reason, the engineers from StrikoWestofen regularly evaluate the data coming from dosing systems.

The data is recorded while the foundry systems are in operation and are supplied to StrikoWestofen by its customers.

As these values are based on the experience gained through various on-site parameters, they give StrikoWestofen information on the optimum conditions for the particular foundry system being used, as well as providing data showing the requirements of a foundry company, says Riedel.

“We are proud to be a German company at the forefront of development whose innovations set new standards for dosing furnaces in light-metal casting, especially considering that the requirements – for the casting of structural components for example – have been steadily rising,” Riedel concludes.