Mingzhi Giga MLD 2000 — the world’s largest cold box amin core making machine

With the rapid development of shipping, wind power and other industries using large-scale equipment worldwide, the demand for large casting production capacity is constantly growing, as are the requirements for their accuracy. The traditional production method, which involves a largely «manual» process of making cores with self-hardening mixtures based on silica sand and furan resin, can barely cope with this demand, while creating significant prospects for the supply of equipment for the production of cold box cores.

The production of core making machines for mass production of cold tool castings is developing worldwide, but there is still a significant gap in the level of technology required to produce large cores of the Giga Cold Box type, with a sufficiently large volume of sand shooting.

The above problems associated with the production of large cores must be analyzed and solved in order to meet the following requirements:

• Fast processing and filling of large core boxes with sand;
• Efficient hardening of large cores throughout the entire volume;
• High-speed drive technology for core boxes of large size and mass;
• Intelligent process control.

Solution and Application

With nearly 20 years of experience in the field of cold box core making technology and equipment production, Mingzhi Technology has made deep analysis and successfully developed and tested an innovative Giga Cold Box core making machine with a one-time shooting volume of 2,000L by mid-2022, which can effectively produce super-large sand cores weighing 2,800kg.

Key technical breakthroughs of Mingzhi can be summarized as follows:

1. Large-capacity shooting technology

Mingzhi Technology’s multi-stage pressure switching control technology for sand shot and the corresponding design of spray nozzle make it possible to quickly fill 2,000 liters of Giga Cold Box core box at one time, effectively improving the compaction degree and uniformity of large sand core, and reducing the energy consumption in manufacturing.

2. «Giga» Sand Core Curing Technology

The integrated technology of multi-group high-efficiency heaters and large blow nozzle is adopted to achieve short blowing flow, reduce catalyst consumption, reduce exhaust emission, greatly shorten the curing time and improve the stability of sand core.

3. Heavy-duty control technology

The servo control technology is adopted to ensure fast and smooth operation of linear actuators, which can accurately control the angular or linear position, the moving speed for large masses, thereby improving the repeat positioning accuracy.

4. Intelligent control technology

Intelligent control of the process parameters of large core production, sand shooting and curing through sensors and detectors on the equipment can realize the collection of process data and the complete management of the operation and maintenance of the equipment.

The Giga Cold Box core making machine with a shooting volume of 2,000L from Mingzhi Technology has been honored by the Jiangsu Machinery Industry Society, which recognizes that the comprehensive technical indicators of this equipment are leading the international level:

• Maximum core volume ≥ 2,000L;
• Dry cycle time ≤ 60 seconds;
• Blowing time ≤ 240 seconds;
• Core production capacity (such as 2T cores) 8-10 cores per hour.

During the process of equipment development, Mingzhi Technology has independently realized the research and development of more than 10 technologies, including large-flow shot mechanism, efficient solidification system and corresponding core boxes, while successfully completing the test of Giga Cold box core making machine and protecting the developed technology and design solutions with numerous patents. There are obvious advantages in the parameters of the core, such as shooting volume, blowing time, automatic core box replacement time, core production efficiency and core quality. The successful development of Mingzhi Giga Cold box core making machine with a core capacity of 2,000L will help more large casting manufacturers reduce labor requirements, improve product quality and production efficiency. At the same time, this large casting manufacturing technology serves to improve the precision of products and their application efficiency, as well as environmental protection, the development of intelligent manufacturing, thereby enhancing the overall competitiveness of the foundry industry chain, which drives the rapid development of shipping, aerospace, wind power engineering and other industries.

The successful development of Mingzhi Giga Cold box core making machine with a core capacity of 2,000L will help more large casting manufacturers reduce labor requirements, improve product quality and production efficiency. At the same time, this large casting manufacturing technology serves to improve product accuracy and application efficiency, as well as environmental protection, and the development of intelligent manufacturing, thereby enhancing the overall competitiveness of the foundry industry chain, which drives the rapid development of shipping, aerospace, wind power engineering and other industries.