the Vesuvius brochure - Terre d`Ambre

Contents
Vesuvius in the world......................................... 02
Global reach, local presence........................................ 04
End markets................................................................ 06
Value creation............................................................. 10
The power of creativity................................................ 14
Committed to sustainable growth............................... 18
Committed to people development............................. 22
The world of Vesuvius......................................... 30
Steel Flow Control...................................................... 32
Linings....................................................................... 36
Foundry...................................................................... 40
Fused Silica................................................................ 44
Insert
Key datas
Vesuvius in the world
• 05h30
Borken, Germany
Anshan, China
• 19h30
Toyokawa, Japan
• 11h30
Kolkata, India
• 16h00
Pune, India
• 11h30
Cleveland, USA
Feignies, France
Monterrey, Mexico
• 11h30
Izurza, Spain
• 08h30
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• 08h30
Sao Paolo, Brazil
• 18h30
• 16h00
Tamworth, UK
• 05h30
• 18h30
Trinec, Czech Republic
• 10h30
Pittsburgh, USA
• 04h30
Ostend, Belgium
Barlborough, UK
• 05h30
Skawina, Poland
• 11h30
• 10h30
Welland, Canada
• 11h30
• 11h30
• 11h30
Suzhou, China
• 18h30
Wuhan, China
• 18h30
• 11h30
Pelabuhan Klang,
Malaysia
Genova, Italy
Langreo, Spain
• 21h30
• 12h30
Olifantsfontein,
South Africa
Bulli, Australia
Vesuvius is a community of experts. Present around the world, we deliver
solutions to our customers to improve their efficiency. The services we offer
encompass design and engineering, products and operations management.
Our global network of plants brings us within reach of our customers, serving
them in real time, with the capacity and flexibility they need to respond to their
markets’ demand.
Vesuvius is a global provider of customized products,
services and technologies that make demanding high
temperature industrial applications possible.
Our mission is:
- to develop innovative solutions that enable our customers
to improve the performance of their manufacturing
process;
- to provide each employee a safe workplace where he
or she is recognized, developed and properly rewarded;
- to deliver our shareholders a return on their investment
that allows the company to grow and prosper.
The markets we serve include Iron & Steel, Glass,
Foundry, Minerals & Metals, and Solar Energy.
Their final destination is construction, automobile,
transportation and electricity.
Global reach, local presence
4
The Vesuvius business model is to create consistent
value within our customers’ processes, through its
contribution to the safety, quality, productivity and
sustainability of their activity.
It relies on proprietary technology and in depth customer
process knowledge. This has been acquired over many
years by our 300 applications engineers, in areas such as
ceramics, metallurgy, metal flow and heat management,
and developed by Research & Development engineers in
14 Vesuvius laboratories worldwide.
Knowledge transmission and people development
are key to the sustainability of our offer. The Vesuvius
network of experts around the world enriches its service with diverse cultures and experiences developed
through close customer contact and working within
the communities we belong to.
End markets
Vesuvius provides products, services and technologies
dedicated to high temperature industrial processes with
a special expertise in molten metal handling.
Our customers’ end markets embrace a diverse range of
segments spanning cars and trucks, railroads and construction through to windmills and solar panels.
6
Steel processing, the most demanding industrial
process for refractory products, is fuelled by the fundamental needs created by economic development:
construction, infrastructure, transport, industrial
equipment, automotive and consumer goods.
The steel market has achieved a consistent growth of
5,2% pa over the last ten years.
Vesuvius is a world leader in refractory products for steel.
Cement demand has changed in recent years with the
growing needs of emerging countries for construction
and infrastructure works. Cement manufacturing
requires very high temperatures and frequent maintenance of equipment.
Vesuvius provides refractory solutions that reduce
the maintenance downtime and save energy for its
customers.
MT
1.600.000
1.400.000
1.200.000
1.000.000
800.000
600.000
400.000
Foundry is a global technology essential for everyday
applications in our industrial world, such as cars and
trucks, trains, mining and water pipes. It is growing
rapidly in the emerging nations in relation to their
equipment needs.
Under the Foseco brand, we provide a large range of
solutions that help foundries improve their productivity, quality and energy consumption.
Flat Glass is a growing market that serves three main
sectors: construction, automotive and solar panels.
Its technology requirements are evolving rapidly with
energy conservation and safety concerns.
Vesuvius provides refractory products for glass tanks as
well as rollers for the glass forming part of the process.
Climate change is now a global concern. Solar Energy
is a proven solution that will play a major role in the
future supply of electricity. The total quantity of electricity generated by photovoltaic technology is expected
to grow from 20 Gwp in 2010 to 52 Gwp in 2020.
Vesuvius provides an extended range of refractory
products used in the manufacturing of thin film and
polycrystalline solar panels. Crucibles, rollers and insulating foams are some of the products made using the
Vesuvius proprietary technology of Fused Silica.
GWp
60
50
40
30
20
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
20
20
13
F
0
11
F
0
20
05
10
19
95
200.000
world steel production evolution
8
Aluminium is a light and resistant metal. Its demand is
being stimulated by energy conservation concerns that
relate to large applications in the transport, aerospace
and construction sectors.
Vesuvius offers refractory products for primary, secondary
and the recycling of aluminium as well as additives,
inoculants and equipment for aluminium casting.
Photovoltaic modules installed
Value creation
Vesuvius delivers value to its customers by continual improvement of their process performance. Such value can help
address customers’ critical requirements. The value creation
is supported by our commitment to consistently deliver quality products and services and ensure that reliability and
integrity become the shared basis of our relationship with
customers and give them the level of confidence they expect.
10
The Vesuvius offer is essentially focused on consumable products that are
vital components of our customers’ processes. The solutions we offer can
dramatically influence performance for our customers, not only through
productivity but also in the quality of the finished product, the environmental footprint of the process and the safety of employees.
Vesuvius applies the highest standards of quality, safety and sustainability
to its own operations in order to meet its own corporate social responsibility requirements as well as the global expectation of its customers.
12
Supporting safety
Vesuvius products are designed to handle molten
metal and extreme temperatures. Any failure could
have catastrophic consequences for customers,
employees or equipment. Our first commitment to
our customers is in the reliability of our solutions
that protect those employees who use them.
Reducing emissions
Thermal optimisation is key in the solutions we supply.
Vesuvius contributes to the reduction of its customers’
energy usage and subsequent carbon emission through
insulation materials, laminar flow management, extended sequences and reduced downtime.
Enhancing quality
In most applications our products are last to come into
contact with the customer’s products before solidification. Vesuvius products therefore have a critical impact
on the ultimate quality of the final product. Our commitment to delivering a reliable and consistent performance is a guarantee for our customers. Moreover we
cooperate with their R&D teams to develop and deliver
quality improvements in their processes.
Improving productivity
Total cost improvement is the main driver for the
solutions we offer. Over time Vesuvius has developed
an undisputed worldwide reputation and expertise in
our customers’ processes that anticipate their process
efficiency needs.
The power of creativity
Innovation is at the core of all our activities. To stimulate
We offer:
this innovative strength we value creativity in all aspects of
- 6 Research centres for customer process simulations and
our processes. We aim for continuous improvement and the
highest standards of quality.
cooperation with universities in joint research projects,
- 8 Development units across 4 continents, close to our
customers’ operations,
- 140 PhD’s, number of whom will develop their career with
their strong technical background as future operational and
commercial managers.
14
In Foundry, we reproduce the key processes used by
our customers. With full ferrous and non-ferrous metal
melting and treatment capabilities, we can manufacture
liquid metal to the required quality and specification.
Our foundry facility is used to validate the capabilities
of our newly developed products, implement environmental testing and regularly benchmark the performance of our key global brands.
Ceramic technology
Our fundamental expertise is centred on ceramic materials that must withstand extreme usage conditions of
our products. Some application temperatures exceed
1600°C in aggressive molten metal, glass or slag
resulting in considerable thermomechanical and thermochemical stresses. As the required properties cannot be designed in a single material, Vesuvius has
developed composite products with engineered
microstructures.
16
The fine balance between thermal and physical properties is elaborated with state of the art analytical
equipments. Fitness is confirmed by computer simulations and physical evaluations in pilot equipments
reproducing real usage conditions.
Automation of our customers’ processes to provide
safety, productivity and quality.
We cooperate with OEMs to develop automated systems for installation, quick change or complete operation management. Automation and the mechanical or
robotic handling of our products in operation has rapidly become a critical factor in enhancing the safety and
productivity of our customer’s process and the quality
of their final product.
There is an ongoing requirement for increased casting
sequence lengths, for more difficult steel qualities and
for eliminating dangerous tasks around the casting
platform.
This challenge has been met by Vesuvius through the
development of advanced automation and handling
systems. These continuously monitor and control the
flow of steel and enable used refractory products to be
changed without interrupting the casting process or
requiring the direct manual intervention of the operator. Robotic manipulation facilitates the use of more
robust mechanisms and creates opportunities to improve
refractory products design beyond what is currently
possible using traditional manual systems.
The latest generation of ladle slide gates and tube
changers are designed to be robot compatible bringing our customers one step closer to a fully automated steel casting process.
Modelling of the melting-casting-solidification process
is an essential step in providing our customers with
optimised solutions. The use of advanced simulation
software enables accurate prediction of product performance and effective demonstration of metal quality
improvements.
The complete process can be simulated including melting, pouring, solidification and even the final properties of the metal.
Casting process simulation is used as a development
tool, to investigate and validate the effectiveness of
new product designs and formulations.
The continuing advancement in computer simulation
using finite element analysis (FEA) allows more and
more accurate determination of thermal distribution
and stress gradients to optimise product properties.
Vesuvius has developed thermomechanical simulations to predict interactions between our products and
corrosive environments.
Finally, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) coupled
with physical water modelling is used to simulate our
customers’ process flow patterns including temperature, pressure and velocity distribution. Our products
are constantly optimised to improve quality and reduce
the cost of customers’ processes.
Committed to sustainable growth
The Vesuvius’ strategy is to deliver sustainable and profitable growth. We apply a long term view to all our operational decisions, with an emphasis on safety, environmental protection, lean and quality management. Such action
plans are achieved with the commitment of our teams
worldwide.
18
Safety
Safety is our number one priority. It is an essential
part of our company’s mission to ensure safe working
conditions for our employees. It is also a collective
responsibility and requires the full commitment of all
Vesuvius people to work safely.
This was made clear to all employees when the
“SAFETYBREAKTHROUGH” program was launched in
2008. It is a global Group initiative designed to reduce
the number of accidents in Vesuvius to the lowest level
within its industrial sector, with the ultimate goal to
reach zero accident throughout the company.
This initiative includes a broad range of actions based
on recording, analysis, change of practices, training,
communication, and investment:
20
- Safety is the first item of the agenda at all our
management meetings.
- Executives regularly lead safety tours at all locations
where we have employees at work.
- Safety audits are conducted each week in all sites.
- Safety standards are deployed throughout the Group.
- All significant accidents are analysed by the Group
Executive Committee.
Safety is also fundamental in our partnership with
customers. In installation or operating conditions our
employees, alongside our customers, are exposed to
critical conditions where reliability of products and
practices and trustworthy cooperation are key.
Protecting the environment
At Vesuvius, reducing the impact of our activity on the
environment is a constant consideration.
We are dedicated to helping our customers to achieve
the same. It is part of our cost competitiveness. This
is our commitment to those we work with and to the
communities in which we live and work.
A group wide plan for a reduced carbon impact was
launched in 2010 to decrease greenhouse gas emissions of the entire supply chain in which we participate, from raw materials to customer operations.
Energy consumption and carbon emissions are taken into
account in all our investments. All our factory emissions
are proactively treated in anticipation of local regulations. Special efforts are taken to analyse our present
operations and launch appropriate actions to reduce
our emissions.
Quality
Quality is an intrinsic part of the value we deliver to
our customers. Moreover, it is essential to the safety of
our customers operations as our products often form
part of the critical process path.
The Vesuvius quality plan is developed with the aim of
achieving a zero level defect rate following implementation of the 8Ds procedure to address quality issues.
Lean
Lean practice has become part of our company culture.
We aim to reduce waste of all nature in our operations.
Lean workshops which are deployed across our plants
improve Safety, Ergonomics, Quality and Productivity.
We undertake to involve all our employees in our
continuous improvement efforts.
Committed to people development
22
Vesuvius is a community of experts.
Vesuvius is present in 33 countries worldwide and employs
To maintain the level of excellence we offer, we place training
more than 50 nationalities.
at the forefront of our action.
Our employees represent diverse cultures, experiences and
In each country, our local workforce is actively trained in
skills. They enrich our Group and enable us to serve our
mastering our technologies in order to successfully coope-
customers with the same level of high quality expertise
rate with local customers.
worldwide.
Vesuvius’ ambitious business plan is supported by a
three-legged Human Resources strategy: HTR. Each
strategic focus area is described below, with examples of the most recent HR programs implemented
at Vesuvius.
South
America
Nafta
Shared Services
Europe
Linings
India
Asia Pacific
Flow
Control
Salaried
Hourly
Foundry
H – “Hire and Resource”:
The first strategic area focuses on accelerated external
recruitment in selected functional and geographical
areas, programmes to develop international mobility
and growth of our R&D capability.
Fused Silica
Headcount per Region
24
Headcount per Business
Headcount per Category
The Columbus programme rejuvenates our employment base and encourages promising young graduates
from developing countries to join Vesuvius and enjoy
an international career. This graduate intake is a corporate resource and is funded centrally.
Columbus graduates spend three months in their home
country and then nine months in China in three different
postings within the Business Units. During 2011, three
graduates from Poland and three from Czech Republic
are participating in the programme.
«Vesuvius is a well established and highly respected
company where I will have a chance to develop my
skills and be trained to become a professional engineer.
The Columbus project is a great opportunity to work in
a professional environment and it will be an interesting
cross-cultural experience. I can’t wait to become part of
an international team and to tackle new challenges.»
Michal Smola, recently graduated from the
department of Chemical Technology, Kracow’s
University of Technology (Politechnika Krakowska),
and participant in the Columbus programme in
2011.
T – “Train & Develop”:
The second area focuses on training and development
aimed at preserving and growing our technical exper­
tise. We continuously look to strengthening our learning
organization through local training initiatives, well
developed corporate training curriculum, and to fostering B2B marketing thinking at all levels of the
organization.
Offering five different levels of courses per Business Unit,
from beginner to expert, HEATT ensures that Vesuvius
maintains its competitive advantage in delivering an
enhanced technical service to our customers.
«As a new Vesuvius employee, I found the training very
beneficial to me. It gave me a very strong grasp on all
the products and applications that Vesuvius offers and
a good overview of the company.» - Brook Waldick,
Sales and Service Representative, Canada, after
attending the HEATT Slide Gate training at our
premises in Pittsburgh, USA, in April 2010.
HEATT (Hub for Employee Advanced Technical Training)
is our in-house technical university. It offers internally
developed courses delivered by our own specialists to
our customer-facing staff.
26
Vesuvius Learning Centres
The launch of the Vesuvius Learning Centre in Suzhou
in September 2010 places Vesuvius at the forefront of
modern HR practices in China.
All incoming supervisors and hourly workers in China
are trained at the Learning Centre before they start
their job with Vesuvius. This dedicated building is
equipped with a training auditorium and a practical
exercise room that contains a forklift truck, personal
protective equipment (PPE), and a number of safety
devices,... New hires spend 14 days together in this
purpose-built setting, learning the basic principles of
manufacturing, health & safety and teamwork. This is
followed by 14 days of hands-on training in the plant.
«I was trained in the Suzhou
Learning Centre as one of the
first groups of students that
attended the two week learning
programme. Back at the plant,
I could see a lot of progress,
especially in the areas of lean
thinking and practice. I made
a lot of improvements at the
plant, in particular on 5S processes, and reduced a lot of waste in my work» - Hufu
Song, Foreman at the Suzhou Flow Control mix
plant in Suzhou, China.
Lean and 5S are fundamental principles at the core of
our manufacturing processes.
R– Retain & Motivate:
The third focus area of our HR strategy is centred on:
1- involving our employees in our renewed mission
statement and corporate values;
2- implementing consistent and proactive compensation
and management benefits worldwide;
3- ensuring active career management worldwide
through a standard review and development process.
To develop future leaders, Vesuvius created a custom-made executive education programme with the
world renowned INSEAD business school (Fontainebleau, France). Its objective is to bring our 120 senior
managers up to date with the best practices in areas
as diverse as operations, marketing, strategy, people
leadership and R&D. As the programme is aimed at
pushing the organisation towards new levels of performance, its was named Boost!
28
«Boost! is a thought provoking
programme with a very down
to earth approach and strong
links between concepts and
practices. The sessions were
high­ly interactive and facilitated
by expert faculty members. It
really helped to bring business,
functional and geographical
barriers down as participants
could work together on common issues. I actually
learned a lot from the other partici­pants throughout
the sessions. It was truly an excel­lent, life enriching
development programme.” - Stephanie Wee, Finance
Director Flow Control and Linings Asia Pacific,
Boost! participant.
Vesuvius is active in diverse business-to-business
industrial sectors such as steel, glass, foundry and
photovoltaic. In order to give a fresh impulse to our
industrial marketing strategy, a tailor-made B2B marketing development programme (Pulse) was designed,
with INSEAD. This programme targets our senior sales,
marketing, R&D and general management across the
Americas, Europe and Asia.
«Together with the re­presen­
tatives of the other bu­sinesses at
Vesuvius, I actively worked with
the INSEAD faculty on tailoring
Pulse to our specific needs. With
our already existing corporate
courses «EVC-Forward together»
and «Advanced Marketing»,
Pulse will contribute to reinforcing the strategic marketing
thinking across our entire organisation.» Roland
John­son, Vice-President Marketing & Technology,
Foundry, member of the Pulse design committee.
The world of Vesuvius
Vesuvius comprises four global businesses, each addressing
specific market segments.
The businesses share a wide common technological base which
gives strength to our people expertise. They have a similar
business model based on partnership and cooperation with
customers.
30
Committed to clean steel.
For more than 30 years, Vesuvius has participated to the progress of continuous
casting with the objective to protect the metal from inclusions and oxidation.
To ensure a safer, cleaner and cheaper way to make better steel, Vesuvius offers:
- Assistance in metallurgy
- Automation of systems
- Innovation through fluidodynamics
The Steel Flow Control division provides a full range of
products and services to control, regulate and protect
the flow of steel in the continuous casting process.
Technology developed by Vesuvius allows a tighter
control of metallurgy, longer sequences and minimal
disruption of the casting process. From automation
systems to refractories, we offer a global and reliable range of products and services dedicated to Flow
Control.
Steel Flow Control
32
- Main end markets: cars, consumer goods,
building, construction, railroad, ships, engineering.
- Customers: steel producers.
- Products: VisoTM and VapexTM products, slide
gate and tube changer systems and refractories,
gas purging and temperature control devices,
mould and tundish fluxes.
In cooperation with our customers, Vesuvius
Flow Control has consistently met the challenges to introduce process and product solutions
for the increasingly demanding requirements
of the steel industry.
34
Safety and reliability are our priority.
Vesuvius was there at the beginning supplying ladle
stoppers and nozzles. As steel making evolved, Vesuvius
Flow Control made it possible for the steel makers to
operate safe and reliable sequence casting on their
new continuous casting machines: we developed the
VisoTM products (Vesuvius isostatically pressed monolithic alumina carbon refractory) and the ladle gate systems to control the flow of steel.
The creativity continued with the introduction of submerged entry nozzle and ladle shrouds to contain
the liquid steel as it transferred from ladle to tundish
and tundish to mould, preventing quality degradation
through re-oxidation and providing a safer environment. These developments were followed by tundish
slide gates and tube changers which significantly
increased the productivity and yield of the casters.
Anticipation, creativity and flexibility
are our strengths that constantly optimise
our offer.
With a chameleon-like ability to embrace the diversity
of a constantly changing environment, Vesuvius Flow
Control has maintained its global leadership position.
We have strived to anticipate our customers’ needs
by expanding our products and services portfolio with
automation, slag detection, continuous temperature
measurement, gas purging in ladle and tundish, mould
and tundish fluxes. Today, advanced computation fluid
dynamics and physical modelling allow us to improve
the entire steel casting system through enhanced
refractory product design.
Whatever the challenge from the evolution of continuous casting through the development of thin slab
and thin strip casting, Vesuvius Flow Control has always
delivered an appropriate and invaluable solution.
More than ever, we invest in our people,
production capacity and a cleaner
environment.
We maintain our reputation for integrity, quality and
consistency by timely investment in skilled people and
production capacity in both established and emerging
markets.
Looking to the future and combining increased safety,
reduced energy consumption and carbon levels with
the increasing demand for greater productivity and
quality, we are confident that we have our products
ready and in continuous development to satisfy the
market needs. By providing advanced robotics, long life
refractory and the next generation of flow control systems, we are already enabling our customers to push
the frontiers of steel making forward, granting them
the confidence that Vesuvius Flow Control can provide
creative solutions.
Committed to reducing downtime and waste.
Using proprietary refractory compositions and installation techniques, Vesuvius
technology reduces maintenance downtime and provides for extended service life.
The engineered design of our refractory linings helps to reduce energy consumption and minimise process waste.
The Vesuvius Linings division offers a full range of
engineered products and installation services to with­
stand the effects of extreme temperatures, erosion and
chemical attack.
Vesuvius R&D technology includes solutions that provide ease of use in application plus rapid drying time
to minimise customer downtime and increase value
by reducing overall operating cost. Vesuvius’ highly
motivated employees work together with customers
to impact their bottom line results. Expert field service
teams utilise specialised equipment and application
techniques to provide the most reliable installation at
the lowest possible cost.
Linings
36
- Customers and markets: iron making, steel
making, steel finishing, pelletizing, DRI,
hydrocarbon processing, mineral processing,
non ferrous metals, power generation and
incineration.
- Products: alumino-silicate monolithics,
basic monolithics, precast shapes,
taphole clay, bricks, fibres, ingot heading
systems, engineering and construction
services.
Iron making operation gains increased
productivity.
A blast furnace manufacturing iron in a modern steel
plant is a continuous complex process that requires
consistent operation of all the associated systems
around it to maintain good efficiency. The most immediate of these is the Iron “Runner” system that takes
the molten iron from the furnace to the next stage of
production – the conversion to steel.
At a major European customer, each of the runners
would operate for 35 days, or 135,000 tonnes of Iron
output before requiring repairs. The blast furnace specialists in the Linings team set to work to improve this
performance using a combination of new materials
technologies, computer modelling and the extensive
knowledge and experience available to them.
The final design is a runner system that will now last
up to 56 days carrying a total of 175,000 tonnes of
molten iron between repairs. This significant improvement (30% more iron throughout for the same runner
operating cost) has resulted in this Vesuvius design
being incorporated into other systems.
38
Redesigned tundish system improves quality
and increases yield.
A steelmaking customer wanted to increase the yield
in its billet caster. Vesuvius Linings evaluated the customer’s equipment, conducted water model simulations and recommended a redesign of the tundish
refractory. A single flow-enhancing Turbostop® system
was utilised in the profiled floor design to minimise furniture within the tundish floor whilst the
multi stepped bottom reduced vortex tendencies
allowing for low drain levels. The Turbostop® system is
recessed into the floor design to maximise the effect
on flow and to ensure consistent placement of this
device.
This unique redesign of the tundish improved steel
quality and consistent strand openings and also provided the customer a total yield savings of $2.7 million
per year.
ELBYTM ladle bottom increases yield.
A steel customer wanted to improve yield in the steel
ladle. In order to achieve this, the formation of the draining vortex must be controlled and delayed. Vesuvius
took a customised, engineered approach with each
ladle to understand the fluid dynamics and operating
conditions. We designed and supplied a customised
precast ladle bottom that held contour, enhanced draining and improved yield.
The ELBYTM system utilises two proprietary technologies to improve ladle yield:
1. Computational Fluid Dynamics: CFD simulates the
drainage of an individual ladle in order to custom
design the ELBYTM bottom.
2. NUMAXTM Monolithic Refractory Systems: NUMAXTM
technology maximises wear resistance to maintain
the profile of the yield enhancing geometry.
Through increased yield, The ELBYTM precast ladle
bottom systems saved this customer $1,704,000
annually.
Total turnkey aluminium furnace reline
system gives increased productivity.
A world-leading Aluminium producer entrusted
Vesuvius Linings with the full turnkey relining of its
aluminium melting furnaces. Responsibility for the furnace was handed over to our team immediately after
the last cast was made, and 32 days later, we handed
the furnace back already at operating temperature and
ready to accept the first charge.
This process entailed Vesuvius managing four separate
subcontractors with the scope of work including cooldown, removal and disposal of old lining material, all
necessary mechanical engineering work to the furnace
structure and installation of the new lining. Finally the
furnace dried out and a process of preheating was
carried out to bring it back to operating temperature.
As a result furnaces are consistently returned to the
customer within the time schedule or ahead, providing
extra production days. Each extra day is worth up to
$500,000 of increased Aluminium production.
Improving our customers’ business performance.
The reduction of metal or additives consumption is a source of savings in raw
materials, energy and environmental impact for our customers.
Foseco is focusing on new solutions to deliver more effective casting processes
for our clients and the foundry market place.
Foseco is the leading brand in products and solutions
that help improve foundry performance. Located in 32
countries, we pride ourselves on providing local solutions that serve the individual needs of iron, steel and
non-ferrous foundries worldwide.
By working in close partnership with our customers, we
have contributed significantly to improvements in foundry productivity and to the quality of castings that are
vital components in applications such as automotive,
aerospace, power generation, construction, mining
and general engineering.
Our use of local knowledge, combined with our global
expertise, enables us to deliver innovative and practical products and solutions that bring greater efficiency
of operation to our customers.
Foundry
40
- Customers and markets: automotive,
aerospace, power generation, construction,
mining and general engineering.
- Products: molten metal filtration, feeding
and transfer systems, metal treatment
and binders and coatings for mould
and core production.
Automated coating control unit brings
maximum performance to market.
To ensure optimum coating performance, Foseco offers
the Coating Preparation Plant (CPP), developed with
Pro Service Srl. Foseco CPP is an automated coating
control and adjustment process that has taken application consistency to new levels and revolutionised the
coating process.
Increased requirements from foundries that relate to
applications such as thinner wall sections, complex
internal geometries and new alloys, have driven the
demand for higher performance coatings across the
foundry sector.
It has been proved that the provision of a consistently
diluted coating ensures that the correct layer of coating is applied to the mould or core during the application process.
This results in a consistently higher surface finish of the
cast component, free from burn-on or related defects.
Most importantly, optimum results are achieved on a
repeatable basis.
Successful trials using the Foseco CPP unit have been
held with customers in large engineering and automo-
42
tive foundries in India, Italy and Turkey where casting
surface inconsistencies were found to relate to fluctuations in the density or viscosity of the manually diluted
coating.
The CPP unit is consistent, stable, precise and cost
effective. It allows for automated adjustment of the
coating to deliver the necessary consistent density and
viscosity prior to application which ensures repeatable
application of a specified coating thickness.
Centrifugal filtration unit designed for
Turkish foundry.
Cost savings, environmental benefits and improved
product quality are the results of a new and enhanced
filtration system developed by Foseco for producers of
large ferrous castings.
Filtration of liquid metal has long been recognised as
an effective tool used to improve casting quality and
reduce overall production costs. However, filter application techniques developed for small to medium sized
iron and steel castings have key limiting factors when
applied to larger castings.
The new (HOLLOTEXTM CFU) Centrifugal Filtration Unit
has been designed by Foseco with the extreme nature
of large ferrous casting conditions specifically in mind.
One of the first foundries to benefit from the system is
the Akdas Foundry in Ankara, Turkey. It produces lowalloy, carbon, manganese and high-alloy steel castings
of up to 55,000 kilos and serves a number of sectors
including automotive, cement, energy, mining, marine,
machinery and steel works.
The foundry melts steel and iron in any combination
of six high frequency induction furnaces ranging in size
from 1 to 15 tonnes. It undertook the trials on two steel
castings with remarkable results compared to standard
practice, particularly with respect to improved surface
finish, grinding and weld repair. It also recorded a significant difference on overall casting production costs.
Energy outputs significantly reduced at Jieli
Wheel, China.
Foseco has developed highly efficient crucibles that
significantly reduce CO2 outputs and deliver cost benefits to our client base. Jieli Wheel of Western China,
based in Chongqing, designs and manufactures aluminium alloy wheels for motorcycles. It carried out its own
independent study to measure the energy consumption
of a Foseco crucible compared to a crucible supplied
by another manufacturer. The results showed that the
Foseco crucible consumed almost 16% less energy
than the competitor over the trial period.
Jieli Wheel operates a large number of gas fired holding furnaces. Extrapolated over the total number of
furnaces, the potential saving over a year was more
than 450,000 cubic metres of gas.
This represents also a significant saving in CO2 emissions at 1,120 tonnes a year.
All foundries that supply the automotive industry are
typically big users of crucibles. These are used widely
in aluminium foundries to both melt and hold liquid
aluminium and consume large levels of energy during
the casting operation.
Reducing the cost of solar energy.
Solar energy, in the future, will be one of the main sources of electricity.
There is no doubt that, to make it viable, all those in the supply chain must find
a way to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of this energy source.
Vesuvius Fused Silica contributes to this industry challenge with larger crucible
sizes, greater integration in the overall manufacturing process, purer quality
materials and a wide variety of products.
Vesuvius Fused Silica designs and manufactures products made for all applications where the low thermal conductivity and high mechanical and chemical
properties of the fused silica can provide added value
solutions to our customers. SOLAR® Crucibles play a
significant part in the very dynamic market of photovoltaic energy. They are used to manufacture silicon
ingots which in turn become wafers, then cells to end
in photovoltaic panels.
In the glass tempering industry our division recently
illustrated its position as an innovative supplier of rollers with the patented SMARTLY DRIVEN® attachment
system which provides customers with one of the most
reliable products in the market.
Fused Silica
44
- Main end markets: solar panel (multi­crystalline and thin film), tempered glass for
automotive and flat glass for LCD and plasma
screens as well as building industry.
- Customers: polycrystalline ingots, thin film,
diffusion furnaces, flat glass, tempered glass,
stainless steel and special niche markets
in foundry, optical, artistic and electronics.
- Products: SOLAR® Crucibles, SOLAR®
& ZYAROCK® Rollers, ZYAFOAM® insulating
material and many other specialties
for different applications.
Beyond the bounds of possibility…
Vesuvius Fused Silica is recognised as a pioneer,
developing innovative solutions for many generations
of high-tech requirements. These developments are
achieved through close collaboration between our
research teams and the engineering departments of
system manufacturers.
We are deeply involved in the production process
improvements in the high-tech glass used for LCD and
plasma screens, in the continuously evolving and next
generation automobile glass, and in inventive architectural glass products, for specific technology innovations of the 21st century.
Our creativity and reliability were also tested when
innovators of the fast growing photovoltaic market
searched for a way to produce multicrystalline silicon
ingots, key to the production of solar panels. Vesuvius
Fused Silica was the first partner in the world to deve-
46
lop and offer SOLAR® Crucibles capabilities and capacities enabling this industry to continue its evolution
and expansion.
Our strength is to be local within a global
market place…
Committed to being close to our customers and their
markets, Vesuvius Fused Silica manufacturing plants
are located around the world where the industry
demand dictates. As a result, people from different
cultures, languages, and backgrounds are working
together globally to provide the best possible service locally. Embracing diversity enriches knowledge
and creates a dynamic and innovative environment
in which to develop new products and solutions. This
willingness and agility to always meet customer needs
and even to anticipate them has always been a driving
force within Vesuvius Fused Silica.
An example of our responsiveness and innovation is
the SMARTLY DRIVEN® end cap solution for rollers
used for glass tempering and solar diffusion furnaces. Responding to industry needs for a durable and
high temperature end cap system, Vesuvius Fused
Silica developed an all-mechanical solution that
increases potential working temperatures to almost 2.5
times greater than traditional and alternative systems.
Additionally we focused on a green solution to eliminate the use of hazardous resins and the potential
for harmful vapours during operation. This technology
is now widely applied in all manufacturing locations
around the world following best practice and global
standard implementation.
Thinking sustainable growth…
Vesuvius Fused Silica continuously works to achieve
the next generation of sustainable and environmentally friendly products. These products are designed
to reduce our waste, our carbon footprint and that of
our customers too. Our integrity manifests itself in our
community of employees, a dynamic partnership with
our clients, and a commitment to research and continuous improvement.
Some examples of our recent developments include:
ZYAFOAM® fused silica insulation, a fibre free, low
density refractory product designed to provide a
dust free, durable insulation in harsh environments.
ZYAFOAM® respects the most recent safety and environment standards.
The SESAME® Box packaging system for SOLAR®
Crucibles was developed to reduce cardboard and
Styrofoam usage and waste. This reusable innovation
has been implemented globally.
Vesuvius would like to offer special thanks to all
those who kindly agreed to have their photographs
taken and published in this brochure.
Art Direction: Vesuvius Corporate Communication / Claire Morel Fatio
Lay out: Claire Morel Fatio
Printing: Jourdan / Ivry-sur-Seine
Photographs: © Claire Morel Fatio
© Samuel Dhote
© Getty Images
© iStockphoto.com /
Artists’ Member Name
Vesuvius is the largest business within
Cookson Group plc, a leading materials science
company operating on a worldwide basis
in Ceramics, Electronics and Precious Metals markets.
Cookson is a FTSE 250 company listed on the London
Stock Exchange and headquartered in London.
Registered Office
Cookson Group plc
165 Fleet Street, London
EC4A 2AE