A “Cool” Story About Fixing Metallic Die-Casting Water Issues

Ridco runs its die casting course of 24/7 and says their outdated galvanized metal cooling tower was costing them vital downtime.

Ridco Casting Firm

Relating to die casting, controlling the method temperature is essential. If the temperature of the dies is simply too scorching, it might injury the mildew. Too chilly, and the temperature might drop too rapidly and trigger critical defects together with better porosity or misruns on the casting floor. 

Used to attract warmth from the die cavities, water is an integral a part of the die-casting cycle. That is the place cooling towers come into play guaranteeing that optimum water temperatures can allow the manufacturing of the highest-quality elements.

Nonetheless, the reliance on outdated, outdated cooling applied sciences can put die-casting firms vulnerable to expensive downtime and even flawed elements that will trigger irreparable injury to an organization’s status. 

For years, the Ridco Casting Firm in Pawtucket, RI struggled with its three metal-clad cooling towers which needed to be operational 24 hours a day, seven days per week. The fourth-generation family-owned and operated zinc die casting producer is understood for producing a number of the highest high quality elements within the business. 

“Metallic cooling towers are upkeep intensive,” President of Ridco Casting Jeffrey Cohen stated. “We spent lots of time over time repairing and changing our outdated galvanized metal towers.” 

Improper temperature controls through the cooling course of is a number one reason behind defects for the die forged business.Ridco Casting Firm

A cooling various

The efficiency of cooling towers constructed with metal-clad sheeting could be compromised by a major variety of elements. Amongst these are environmental circumstances, equivalent to salt-air or the presence of ambient caustic gases from business. Different corrosive injury may result from the tough chemical compounds used to deal with the water that passes via the cooling tower.

“We lastly determined to finish the cycle of changing our steel towers with one other steel tower,” Cohen stated. “This time we determined to go along with an HDPE cooling tower, and we’re completely happy we did.” 

Excessive-density polyethylene (HDPE) cooling towers are composed of engineered plastic that’s impervious to the pure and chemical causes of rust and corrosion.

Developed by Delta Cooling Towers (deltacooling.com), such cooling towers can be found at present in quite a lot of designs and capacities from 10 to 2,500 cooling tons, with newer modular designs that may be related for even better capacities. 

The HDPE cooling tower mannequin Ridco Casting chosen was a Paragon 200-ton mannequin with sufficient cooling capability to remove all three of the steel towers the corporate was using.

This mannequin contains one-piece casing, so there aren’t any troublesome joints or seams. Areas which are usually the supply of leaks that require vital ongoing upkeep. Its HDPE development ensures that the tower design can deal with the hardest water-cooling jobs in any local weather.

Water, used to attract warmth from the die cavities, is an integral a part of the die-casting course of.Ridco Casting Firm

Financial savings past sturdiness

HDPE cooling towers provide further price saving advantages as properly. For instance, Ridco skilled a considerable financial savings when its new unit was put in. A typical cooling tower set up undertaking can take a number of weeks or extra.

Nonetheless, the engineered plastic designs are manufacturing unit assembled, enabling an set up course of that may usually be accomplished in a single day with a smaller crew.

Cohen estimates that his new cooling tower has vastly lowered bills on expensive water remedy chemical compounds in addition to requiring far much less upkeep and having basically eradicated downtime associated to its cooling water.

Cohen can also be impressed with the financial savings he’s seeing on his cooling tower’s fan drive system. His outdated steel towers got here with a belt-drive fan system that required periodic belt substitute with a view to forestall additional downtime.

The Delta direct drive fan additional eliminates the necessity for this upkeep, whereas the variable-frequency drive (VFD) motor permits customers to take pleasure in substantial financial savings on electrical energy consumption. 

“We’re estimating a financial savings of a minimum of $5,000 a 12 months on our electrical payments,” Cohen stated. “And now, we’ve a decrease common water temperature studying than with the three outdated models. So it has labored properly for us.”

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Greg Rankin is a Houston-based freelance author with greater than 20 years of expertise writing for the HVACR, processing and mechanical engineering industries.