Our energy resources are becoming less reliable, more scarce and more expensive. In order to be competitive in a global market we must learn to use energy more wisely. The goal of this paper is to nudge us in that direction by: 1. Building interest in energy conservation and energy recovery. 2. Providing guidelines for conducting energy consumption surveys. 3. Demonstrating ways of presenting collected data for energy recovery project justification. 4. Reviewing potential energy recycling schemes. We, in the investment casting business, are not energy experts. We may not be aware of just how much energy is used in the production of castings or how much of this energy is wasted. A superficial assessment of energy use in the casting process can be misleading. I found that one thing I shared with energy experts, was a preconceived, erroneous notion that the hot castings carried much of the energy in the casting process. As we shall see, this assumption is wrong. After considering the information in this presentation, I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and will proceed more efficiently to evaluate energy recycling possibilities in your facility. The energy survey, on which this paper is based, was conducted at Hitchiner Manufacturing Company, a steel investment casting foundry, producing high-volume automotive, military and aerospace components. At the Automated Casting Facility colloidal silica molds are cast using the counter-gravity supported shell process. We shall briefly review the counter-gravity casting process and how it differs from ladle-poured casting as far as energy use is concerned. After the review, you will be able to better judge how much of the following discussion applies to your foundry.
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