“We bought our first DISA back in 1981 because we were looking for high quality, reliable production,” says Gökhan Can, Production Manager. “Now, 44 years later, adding seamless pouring to two of our DISA lines has cut cycle times, improved casting quality and reduced staffing from three to two operators per line. Because DISA and pour-tech’s seamless pouring solution is pre-integrated, they got the machines working together very quickly and we had no problems at all with the commissioning.”

With high-speed pattern changes in place, pouring often becomes the bottleneck; specifically, the time needed to manually reposition the pouring device for pours following a pattern change. Seamless pouring now synchronizes Trakya Döküm’s DISAMATIC 270A and D3 moulding lines and pour-tech pouring systems in every possible situation. It also controls pouring temperature along with inoculation feeding and verification for each mould.

Monitizer | CIM (Link to AI-Driven Foundry Intelligence & Optimization | Monitizer) is seamless pouring’s digital foundation, able to bring multiple, previously standalone sub-processes together to work in harmony, with many other benefits like data collection and recipe management.

For seamless pouring, it calculates the position of every mould on the line. It sends this data to the pouring control unit in real time, so the pouring device moves to the right position and starts pouring just as the mould arrives. DISA’s partnership with pour-tech means the interface connects the two systems seamlessly and is ready to run with any CIM-enabled DISA lines.

“It was surprisingly quick and easy to install,” says Erhan Erdin, Maintenance Manager. “Connecting machines from different vendors can be a headache but this pre-integration worked straight out of the box, plus DISA and pour-tech collaborated closely on the project, and that definitely made our lives a lot easier. We are very happy with the two systems and how well they integrate.”

“The seamlessly connected pouring interface cuts 1-2 seconds from each cycle,” explains Gökhan Can, Production Manager. “The time taken to adjust and monitor the pouring unit during pattern changes used to vary depending which operators were on shift. With full automation, production now only takes for 2-3 minutes.”

“Removing manual variations reduces the ‘operator effect’, and we think that’s why we see consistently higher quality and scrap rates,” continues Gökhan Can. “It now takes one fewer operator to look after each line and the remaining staff spend less time controlling and monitoring the process.”

With fewer workers involved overall, operations become safer while automated pouring makes it easier for inexperienced operators to run the line. “Once the working principle of the system is understood and mastered, it is easy to operate,” says Gökhan Can.

Trakya Döküm has digitalized four lines with CIM so far. Machines can now “talk” to each other, which enables further automation. Different CIM modules can load new pattern settings, sort bad castings or flawlessly control in-mould cooling time (IMCT) for different patterns, giving stable production. CIM data can be viewed in real time and stored for future use.

“We have and use different CIM modules, especially IMCT,” says Gökhan Can, Production Manager. “We use them to manage product recipes and ensure backward traceability of castings. We access CIM’s data from our local network and analyze it.”

Marrying DISA’s digital solutions with its market-leading foundry hardware is proving a successful strategy for Trakya Döküm. It is extending its seamless pouring, with AI coming soon to exploit its CIM-collected stores of process data.

“DISA’s services have always been reliable, and they solve any problems quickly,” says Erhan Erdin, Maintenance Manager. “Their machines are a good choice for reliable, high quality and fast production. We are working right now on deploying fully automated seamless pouring on our two other CIM-enabled lines and are currently moving to AI-driven process optimization with Monitizer | PRESCRIBE on one line.”