“In recent months Lauds Foundry Equipment has been coming up with innovative ideas and exploring our ability to manufacture products that we believe are equal to and in most cases, better than others in the industry. How do we do this you may ask? From a well developed base range of products, many years of research into how others around the globe do it, through tradeshows, client visits and feedback from our partners in the market,” said Kevin van Niekerk, MD of the Lauds Group of Companies.

“We feel client feedback or requests to improve are always positive opportunities for us to combine all this information with design improvements, overcome weaknesses and improve quality and reliability. In most cases our equipment over performs, particularly our mixers. We can guarantee a 5% additional volume for the clients’ benefit. This benefits not only the client, but when designing our systems, we always aim towards a plant that will stand the test of time and rigours of a foundry. The additional capacity means our systems are slightly larger or heavier than others to ensure we reach the throughput without affecting the wear properties on our equipment.”

“Historically the Lauds range of mixers, reclaimers and all complimenting equipment designs stem from the old original foundry equipment designed by my father and his late partner, during the 80s and 90s. Being one of only two local suppliers in South Africa they were able to design the basis of the equipment, which Lauds has improved on and developed into the modern, efficient foundry equipment that it is today. In addition to that, our exposure in the global market and being fortunate enough to have a facility in Germany where we work together with our technology partners, has resulted in high-quality machinery that we now manufacture under license locally.”

“Our mixers are a blend of the original historical core design with German technology giving us the perfect blend to call our own German engineered product a product of perfection. The mixers range from 1TPH through to 100TPH. They are manufactured mobile as well as fully portable formats, depending on the clients requirements.”

“We have the option of providing the client the option of 100% local South African manufacture to the German specification versus the option of importing a 100% German manufactured product from our Bavarian facility. There is a price difference, but clients have the option to enjoy German engineering at its best!”

“The German mixers offer a full Siemens package from the auto calibration to the temperature sensitive auto blends. We offer a self-teach system, Smart I Tag pattern recognition system, variable height, and dual head (fixed or mobile), all linked to a state of the art Siemens control system. All functionality can be managed remotely from a tablet, android phone or simply from a 15” colour touch screen. All information can be fed directly back to the production department.”

“Another innovation is an electronic display board with live information of exact status, such as selection of gates, sand type, throughput and various other features.”

“We can offer all these features locally in South Africa with our ABB PLC control system. This enables us to deliver a close to European manufactured product at a competitive price. We will not always be the least expensive option, but quality products never are unfortunately. What we put into the system ensures you get more than you expect out of it.”

Environmental awareness
“With the global focus on waste reduction reclamation is a key aspect to our business. Environmental affairs are always going to be a factor for the foundry industry. We are committed to working together to further develop products that can safe guard the environment and reduce costs in the foundries. This side of the business is a continuous research and development sector and we will endeavour to ensure the future is clean and bright for our children.”

“Our other key focuses are waste recovery from silica and chromite. We have successfully completed a project where we recover 95% of the client’s waste material. For many years the client dumped all the reject cores and uncured sand from their facility. The cost of commodities today is on the up and the cost of our damage to the environment is being seen in a very negative light. We developed a 3-station cold box curing machine to recover the waste uncured cold box sand from the core shop. We cure the sand into half moon moulds and then reclaim the material and introduce the 95% recovered material back into the mainstream feeding the core shop. The scrap core sets are also being reclaimed through our primary reclaimers and then further processed through the Lauds Patented Secondary Reclaimer, yielding in results of L.O.I as low as 0.5%.”

For further details contact Lauds Foundry Equipment on TEL: 011 824 1238 or email sales@laudsfe.com / rob@msptrading.co.za or visit www.laudsfe.com