Casting plant for car rims: safe cable guidance in extreme heat

• What was needed: energy chain and energy pipes for high temperatures; chainflex®-cable
• Requirements: the cable solution had to withstand extremely high external temperatures and falling drops of hot molten metal without any problems
• Industry: Rim production, motor vehicles
• Success for the customer: up to the first test after three months, not a single incident was reported, the cables and chains operate safely and reliably at the high temperatures

The Indian company Endurance Technology Pvt Ltd is a manufacturer of aluminium rims for two-wheeled vehicles with well-known customers such as Bajaj, Yamaha, Suzuki and Harley Davidson. The aluminium rims are manufactured in the plant using the gravity die casting process. As part of a project to automate the casting process, the project managers were looking for suitable components that could withstand the extreme conditions in the casting plant. The plant contains barrel-shaped holding furnaces that move the molten metal along a defined path to a specific position above one of four moulds. Once there, the barrel is tilted and pours the molten metal into the moulds. This process is synchronised and automated. However, the holding furnaces require a wide variety of cables, e.g. for power or signals. It was not only necessary to find the right high-temperature cables for the hot ambient conditions. The safe and organised routing of all cable harnesses also had to be guaranteed. In addition to heat, there was also a risk of individual hot droplets from the melt falling onto the cables and cable routing. A solution therefore had to be found that could withstand extremely hot, molten metal without any problems.

For the cables themselves, a wide range of thermo cables for power and signalling cables from the chainflex® portfolio are used. The cables have a length of 18 metres in the application and travel with the holding furnaces. Close to the blast furnace, they are permanently exposed to the extremely high air temperatures. In addition to drops of hot molten metal, they can also easily withstand temporary contact with a hot high-performance rotor for degassing the molten metal.
Equally important are the energy chains and energy pipes that are used in the application and guide the cables safely. 
The cable guides, which are made of the material igimud HT, can now withstand chips of up to 850 °C as well as the droplets of hot molten metal in the application without any problems. Extreme density plastic energy pipes are used when metallic grit or molten metal should not reach the cable inside the pipe in the first place. The RX e-tubes are also highly flexible and easy to open for maintenance. The first three months of use, during which the customer did not report a single incident, showed that the investment was worthwhile. The customer is so satisfied that the e-chain® and chainflex®-cable have already been planned for another casting system.