Released on October 4, 2007

Foundry Solutions & Design Co. (FS&D), Atlanta, recently completed the engineering design for a steel railroad metalcasting facility in the Leningrad region of Russia.

The construction of the building also has commenced, with production to start in late 2008. The annual capacity of the new facility will be 70,000 metric tons of steel castings for the Russian rail industry, including sideframes, bolsters and end-of-car castings. The facility will operate an automated 75 x 10 x 20-in. (190 x 280 x 50-cm) molding line with flexible core setting and mold preparation.

The line will include automation of the sand preparation process, modern molding technology and automated mold preparation. The coremaking, handling and setting system also will be mechanized, and material handling systems, including automated storage and retrieval systems, eliminate some manual handling and non-value-added material movement and labor.

Casting cleaning and finishing also will be automated, with specially developed systems for gate and riser removal before shot blasting, CNC grinders, and robotic finishing cells for casting finishing and gauging. Each finishing cell will be outfitted with an automatic tool-change cartridge; casting gauging will be automated with touch probes, laser scanning and vision systems.