Just over seven years ago I reported that Atlantis Foundries had embarked on a process that would pave the way to Atlantis Foundries becoming a Smart Foundry by embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This project aimed to combine various technologies available to gather and analyse process data, with the aim of improving product quality and cost efficiency. The basic building blocks for such a concept are robotics, process instrumentation, and the tracking of components using RFID and other software applications. With all the data available and it being traceable to individual castings, the door has opened to enable the use of Artificial Intelligence for process control and inspection of components.

It was the beginning of an era where Atlantis Foundries would be recognised worldwide as a leader. I still remember the enthusiasm and vision of CEO Pieter du Plessis and, with his help, we conveyed a message of forward thinking to the rest of the world that foundry owners were only dreaming of.

I always remember, and, continue to regularly ‘dine’ on the fact that the MD of the company involved in gathering and analysing the data so as to help Atlantis Foundries achieve the correct combination of process parameters during the production of the castings – DataProphet – told me that he had been summoned to Europe by influential foundry owners, once they had read the article in Castings SA.

“They were astounded to see that South Africa was so far ahead of them,” he said. “They wanted the same for their businesses.”

Atlantis Foundries produces engine blocks that weigh in the region of 430kgs and all of them are exported. To deliver them to the US or Germany, for example, with sub-surface defects is a costly exercise and reputation damaging. The brief to DataProphet was to determine the combination of process parameters that gave Atlantis Foundries the best results and reduce scrap. They were pioneers.

But it was not just the process parameters that Du Plessis and his colleagues looked at. They looked at the supporting systems and what it would take to have an overall operational improvement on processes and flows. They were not shy to engage Robotic Innovations, who would introduce a programme of automation using Fanuc robots that would become the workhorses to carry instruments that acquire data, while handling or performing their operations, aside from introducing consistency and relieving human stress and mistakes in the handling aspect.

If it meant moving equipment to accommodate the Fanuc robots, it was done.

Atlantis Foundries has not stopped looking at ways to improve. The latest project, which is reported about further on in the magazine, involves the introduction of Fanuc Robots for core assembly handling to do picking and placing, as well as performing core trimming. Again, in my opinion, it is a first in the world, because during my research I could not find anything related to the process on the web.

But it is not just in the foundry that new solutions have been sought. A new ground-mounted solar energy system and generator project is currently being installed to mitigate power loss and contribute to a better management of CO2 contributions, as well as supplement the power requirements. Prior to that a Watt Industries energy management and control system to ensure maximum saving and energy usage improvement solution, which is part of a wider effort to save on costs, was installed.

There are many others – too many to mention. Suffice to say Du Plessis and his colleagues are way ahead of the rest of the foundry manufacturing world and South Africa should be proud of them.