ASK Chemicals opens new application technology centre

With the installation of the melting furnace, ASK Chemicals completed its new foundry technology centre in Hilden. In the newly commissioned facilities ASK can now simulate and optimize all key foundry processes under near-reality conditions without disrupting its customers’ manufacturing processes.

With the new testing and application technology centre in Hilden, ASK Chemicals has realized a complete mini foundry with all processes from coremaking through to fettling of the finished casting.

This provides ASK the possibility of thoroughly testing and optimizing under practical conditions the products individually developed for the respective customer and his specific requirements. A special focus is placed on studying how the various products offered by the complete Süd-Chemie Group – e.g. additives, resins, coatings, bentonite and carbon additives, risers and metallurgical inoculants - interact. In its entirety the new facility represents a new dimension in the foundry supply industry.

By establishing the new technology centre, ASK and the other group companies have strengthened their technology leadership position and reinforce their commitment to make manufacturing both more economical and ecological in a joint effort with the leading companies of the foundry industry.

ASK’s experienced application engineers can now use the technology centre for large-scale testing and modifying innovative resin binder systems. Thus it is possible to conduct initial tests at the customer’s foundry with systems already mature for series production. This saves time and money on both sides. As the tests take place under defined and reproduced conditions, important conclusions can be drawn as to the processes and the process parameters.

Besides the development of customized products, emphasis is also placed on close collaboration with manufacturers of machinery with the aim of jointly developing new products and the corresponding machinery, adjusting the machinery to the products and vice versa and systematically creating a more basic understanding of the processes and chemical reactions taking place in foundry production.

The new “mini foundry” is equipped with all the machinery required for hot and cold coremaking, coating the assembled cores, mouldmaking with No-Bake resins, aluminium and iron melting as well as inoculation and casting. A modern shot-blasting plant was installed for fettling the produced castings.

Dr. Thomas Oehmichen, Managing Director of ASK Chemicals, expects that the new technology centre will bring about important new findings of great practical value for his customers. “With the new technology centre we will be able to systematically and in a structured way expand our knowledge about the processes taking place during coremaking and how they interact with downstream processes. We look forward to doing this together with our customers, with the objective of developing better products in a shorter time. Especially in Europe – but also in other parts of the world – the issue of “reduced emissions and sustainable production” will gain in importance. Dedicated development of ecologically reasonable systems will be an essential precondition for maintaining Germany as a foundry industry location in the long run. With the construction of the technology centre, ASK has taken another important step towards this end.”

The cooperation with leading research institutes provides ASK access to all standard and specialist analysis methods.

Also at its own facilities ASK takes sustainable production seriously. This is proved by the fact that environmental protection plays a very important role in the new technology centre. It is equipped with most advanced dust extraction and scrubber systems. A sand regeneration plant of the latest state of the art connects with the technology centre of the ASK Chemicals Group.