Supercast Foundry, Manila, Philippines

Our company produces different alloy grades and with the help of the software, we are able to maximize the usage of our melt stocks. We had our spectrometer integrated with the software and charge calculations becomes truly a time saver. Support is likewise excellent! Any software concern is usually attended in a couple of days.

Jerry Hui, President

Aluminium Powder Co Ltd (UK)

We have been using MWK least cost charge software for several months and found it to be an excellent all round charge make up package: realistically priced, easy to install and set up, can be used by furnace operators with a minimum of training, minimises inventory of run-around scraps, allows safe use of non-standard or difficult scraps, excellent software support and assistance, pay back in a couple of months.

Stuart Hindley – Aluminium Powder Co Ltd (UK)

Fundidora de Cananea S.A. de C.V.

Your program has been of great utility, we have been using it for about a year now, have great results on our charges in induction melting furnaces.

Regards

Ing. Ignacio Armando Padilla Tapia

Depto. Ingenieria de Proceso

Canadian Specialty Castings

We will have no problem helping with a letter to promote your system. It has been a very easy to use program with very little problems.

Trevor Bezo, Plant Supervisor

Queensland Rail, Queensland, Australia

As far as writing a comment for your web site is concerned, I'm not much of an orator.

I don't have to do long and cumbersome calculations any more thanks to you.

I can say though, since setting up your programme and teaching the furnace operators how to use it, it has released me to concentrate on other QA work in the foundry which has been seriously falling behind. We are getting tighter control over our melt analysis, alloy recovery rates are being tightened and the furnacemen are very comfortable with the programme's operation. The programme is flexible and easy to use.

Chris Shaw, Technical Officer

United Machine & Foundry, Winona, MN

UMF loves your program, and it is working well for us!!

Tom Renk, President

Thompson Foundry, Surry BC, Canada

Since we have been using MWK software in Thompson Foundry we have had significant savings:
1- We are able to hit the aim amount for each element.
2- We just check the chemistry only once for each heat.
3- We are able to use different grades to make up a charge. This way we do not need to use unnecessary amounts of scrap and we get rid of the returns very quickly.

Kia Damghani, Foundry Engineer

Tonkawa Lowers Raw Material Costs with Charge Calculator

Metalcasters can make several adjustments to their operations to reduce their costs, from making their energy use more efficient, to reducing labor costs by automating. Reducing the cost of raw materials, which amounts to a majority of casting cost, also can make a significant difference to the bottom line.

Tonkawa Foundry Inc., Tonkawa, Okla., a 30-employee, nobake and coldbox iron shop, found a way to save hundreds on a single heat using the Least Cost Charge Calculation program from MWK Software. The calculator uses linear programming to determine the least expensive recipe to charge a furnace to a given chemistry. It considers the cost, chemistry and availability of a metalcaster’s melt stocks in the calculations, which can be tailored to reflect melt losses from contamination, paint, oil and rust, as well as element by element losses while melting.

For Tonkawa, which uses a pair of 1,000-lb. furnaces to heat between 6 and 10 batches per shift, the software paid for itself in a couple of heats.

“What took me half a day now takes 10-15 minutes with this program,” said Jim Salisbury, COO and co-owner of Tonkawa Foundry.

The software program includes four main parts: final additions, least cost charge calculations, melt stock costing and calculating campaigns of charges.

Salisbury makes the most use out of the heart of the program, the Least Cost Charge Calculation, which allows users to select as many melt stocks as needed to find the least expensive charge recipe. The program calculates lower cost charges than its human counterpart because it is able to consider more details, chemistries, costs and availabilities.

If Salisbury needs to purchase stainless steel, his supplier will send him a list of different stainless steel alloys with their prices. Salisbury can then input the information into the Least Cost Charge Calculation program to determine what the most cost-effective scrap will be.

Tonkawa also makes use of the ability of the software to integrate with spectrometer software. This allows Salisbury to quickly adjust the chemistry and cost calculations if he needs to change a charge.

“I’m able to recalculate my charges in a snap,” Salisbury said.

The Least Cost Charge Calculation program can find the most cost-effective charge recipe in a matter of seconds. Users can restrict the use of melt stocks to meet volume restrictions, melting considerations or air filtration limits.