“DISA vertical moulding guarantees high uptime and quality”: DISAMATIC D3 delivers 20 million moulds in under five years

Since the Ma'anshan Yuemei foundry in China put its new DISAMATIC D3-B-555 machine into production in October 2019, this high-speed vertical moulding line has produced over 20 million moulds.

The D3’s combination of astonishing speed, low scrap and high uptime made this incredible total possible. Located in Ma’anshan city, Anhui province, the moulding line currently outputs 3200 tons per month on average, with moulding speeds between 520 and 540 moulds per hour. Its scrap rate is around 2%, which is lower than the other lines operated by the foundry.

“The uptime rate for the entire line is at least 95% but the DISA machine’s own downtime rate is negligible, close to zero," says Mr. Liu Liang, Plant Manager at Ma'anshan Yuemei. "Preventive maintenance by DISA helped produce this result. Also, original spare parts are of better quality and have a longer service life, so they do not cause additional failures and equipment downtime.”

High output, great quality, low maintenance

Yuemei originally chose the DISAMATIC D3-B-555 line because it wanted extremely fast moulding speed while maintaining high quality, productivity and reliability. Yuemei also predicted that quality-focused customers would find a DISA-equipped foundry more attractive.

“Our main product is compressor castings and the volume is high,” says Mr. Liu. “We believed that DISA equipment could deliver the high speed, reliability and stability we required. The reputation of DISA's vertical moulding line is a guarantee of quality, so it would also help us to win better orders from high-end customers for high-end products such as automotive castings.”

The DISAMATIC D3 is designed for the highest speeds, yields and uptime. This next-generation vertical machine combines unmatched quality with high throughputs of up to 555 uncored or 485 cored moulds per hour. Its simple, robust design requires little maintenance to deliver excellent reliability.

TOPS for fast, reliable production

To assure maximum uptime, Ma'anshan Yuemei fits only original DISA parts and subscribes to the DISA TOPS program. DISA Total Optimisation Production Services (TOPS) is an exclusive equipment inspection, service and maintenance program for owners of DISA moulding equipment that helps maintain peak machine performance.

“DISA TOPS offers very good preventive maintenance,” says Mr. Liu. “Even if there is an unexpected problem on site, DISA service engineers can solve it perfectly.”

Choosing DISA original parts plus DISA service and support has helped Ma'anshan Yuemei to keep its moulding powerhouse running perfectly.

“DISA's after-sales engineers are very patient and experienced,” continues Mr. Liu. “They give good support both on-site and remotely, and can maintain and overhaul the equipment.”

Rapid ROI from ultra-low cost per casting

The DISAMATIC D3-B-555 line is a premium quality, high performance machine that delivers the very lowest cost per casting. It’s performance that pays. After making 20 million moulds at Ma'anshan Yuemei, the D3’s productivity and reliability has created higher than predicted income for the foundry.

“When we began the project, we expected to recover the investment in about 4 years,” says Mr. Liu. "In fact, the investment was recovered just 2 ½ years after the D3 was actually put into operation."