UNITHERM - Future Belongs to Aluminium

UNITHERM, s.r.o.

Aluminium alloy castings play an irreplaceable role in industry. Among other things, they are used to make gear, motor and pump boxes, insulator flanges, pistons, wind turbine components and covers and lids. All these and many more items, which it has been manufacturing for over 25 years, can be found in the portfolio of UNITHERM foundry. The company specialises in small batch production and supplies its products to all branches of industry, except large-scale production for the automotive industry.

There are different types of aluminium casting technologies. UNITHERM uses sand casting (gravitation) and casting into metal moulds (gravitation, tilting, and low-pressure casting). In addition, in view of its location on the limits of a protected landscape area, the foundry exclusively uses technologies and chemicals which are friendly to the environment. In view of the ever stricter environmental restraints, this provides a competitive advantage for the company. A shining example is its unique sand foundry, built on the basis of its own research and development. While the currently used moulds made of betonite mixtures are quick and simple to use, they do not have such strength properties as moulds made of mixtures emitting toxic fumes after being filled with liquid aluminium (e.g. furan moulds). Therefore, in order to maintain its competitive position, while adhering to its environmentally friendly approach, the company has built

a new foundry using the sandmould casting system, where geopolymer components are used as bonding agents, which themselves harden the mould. Moreover, all the sand mixture used is completely regenerable, which, besides being economical, also adds to environmentally friendlier processing. To meet customers´ needs, the company can manufacture larger series of certain parts of their products by die casting. With its three large low-pressure casting machines, a specially designed tilting casting machine, three gravitation casting machines, and four gravitation casting stands, the company is in a position to fully meet their requirements. To satisfy its customers to the fullest extent, the company has built its own machining shop furnished with turning, milling, and

drilling machines and a heat treatment line, not to mention all the equipment needed for the checking of all its products – 3D CMM, blast testing machine, spectroanalyser, helium leak measurement machine, and an X-ray machine. For surface finishing by paint or anodisation, the company collaborates with selected suppliers. The castings production construction process and the shaping of the casting equipment appearance are effected under the 3D SOLIDWORKS programme, supported by the MAGMASOFT(C) programmes used for verifying the correctness of the casting construction and the casting technology, which also predicts potential defects in the casting. This simulation programme has been complemented with a simulation module for geopolmyer sand mixtures, making UNITHERM a universally unique foundry.

UNITHERM, s.r.o. Vedlejší 25, č. p. 88 | 466 04 Jablonec nad Nisou Czech Republic Ing. Adam Rokos Chief Commercial Officer arokos@unitherm.cz Mobile: +420 777 792 211 | Phone: +420 488 388 112

Future belongs to aluminium!