MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC Changes for the Better
Slovenia

Foundry Casting

  • Monitoring the mold temperature with a thermographic camera
  • Checking the quenching process with a thermographic camera
  • Identifying the cause as soon as possible when an error occurs in a die casting machine

Solution overview

IssuesSolutions 
Monitoring the mold temperature with a thermographic cameraMonitor with a thermographic camera.
Checking the quenching process with a thermographic cameraMonitor the temperature and emission color during quenching with a thermographic camera.
Identifying the cause as soon as possible when an error occurs in a die casting machineRecord all operation status data with the system recorder.

Solution details

Monitoring the mold temperature with a thermographic camera

Use the thermographic camera to constantly monitor if the mold is kept at a certain temperature to prevent the casting from cracking due to low mold temperature, improving casting quality.

The casting quality is improved by displaying temperature data detected by the thermographic camera as pseudo-color images on the GOT, enabling visualization.

128 temperature-monitoring areas are settable. Data such as the average temperature of an area and locations of the hottest/coldest spots is outputted.

Key Points 

  • Recording with a thermographic camera allows to measure the temperature of objects on which thermometers cannot be placed.
  • The MELSEC iQ-R series C intelligent function module can be directly connected to a thermographic camera via a switching hub, making it easy to integrate infrared thermography.

Checking the quenching process with a thermographic camera

Monitor the quenching temperature and emission color with the thermographic camera to eliminate quality variations resulted by the workers' skill-level differences during the quenching inspection for shafts, enabling workers to evaluate the products quantitatively.

Integration of the thermographic camera enables automated operations and quantitative evaluation of quality and prevents quality variations.

The MELSEC iQ-R series can be directly connected to a thermographic camera via a switching hub.

Key Points

  • A single thermographic camera accurately measures the temperatures of multiple locations making pass/fail decisions based on the temperature information, enabling automated
  • inspection.Images of temperature distribution are displayed on the GOT, allowing abnormal locations to be detected visually.

Identifying the cause as soon as possible when an error occurs in a die casting machine

Monitor the equipment in real time with an operation status monitor.Identify the cause immediately and reduce downtime with the system recorder which records the entire record of the log data, videos of the equipment, and the screen operation log.

The system recorder is a post-maintenance solution which significantly reduces machine downtime through "complete recording" and "easy analysis" of the system operation status during error occurrence.

Operation data collected by the PLC such as operating signals, stop signals, and non-stop signals are monitored, and they are visualized as time-series graphs.

Key Points

  • Accumulation of graphs enables comparison of operation status before and after an improvement.
  • The error cause is identified by synchronizing the time of the video, program transition, and waveform data, and reproducing it.

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Competencies