Multi-Million Project Uses Best Resources from Canada, U.S., Japan

Fast-track program is largest in Cyr history

Ford Motor Co. of Canada’s Windsor Casting Plant is an impressive study in the value of quality.  Built in 1934, it was closed in the early 1980s, then re-opened when studies showed that the quality of its product was virtually unsurpassed.

Windsor Casting manufactures iron crankshafts and cylinder blocks using shell and green sand molding.  Long a practitioner of “continuous improvement”, the plant most recently replaced its green sand jolt squeeze molding process with an air flow/ squeeze molding process for its cope and drag machines.  The result was a crankshaft that was more repeatable, closer to net shape and a reduction of machining for the engine plant.

Engineered and built by Sintokogio, with technical assistance from Roberts-Sinto (Lansing, MI), the system produces 180 molds per hour – three to five crankshafts per mold.

What is unique, however, is its ability to draw deeper than any competitive system: 1/2° of draft (angle) on the parts, as opposed to the standard 3° maximum.

The difference is an important one in that the 1/2° specification allows substantial reductions in engine machining, and thus, an improvement in productivity at the engine plant.

In the Sinto system, green sand is blown onto a pattern housed by a flask, then hydraulically squeezed, producing a cope mold out of green sand. A drag mold is concurrently produced then the cope and drag molds are closed and delivered to the pouring area and filled with molten metal. Metal solidifies and the part is removed from the flask.

“Cranks” produced by the Sinto system are extremely close tolerance. That “close-tolerance” specification also dominated every stage of installation, which comprised 40% of the total project value.

Ford awarded the installation work to R.J. Cyr Co. . The scope of the work included structural, mechanical, civil, electrical/piping, sheet metal fabrication and pneumatics / hydraulics.

Also included were the manufacture and rebuilding of several conveyors, which move the flasks and molds in and out of the system, that deliver (and reclaim) the sand.

What was most extraordinary about the project, however, was the sheer size of the system: 50+ tons, (with several modules weighing in excess of 15 tons each), and the lead time granted to complete installation: just six weeks.

Extraordinary tolerances, extraordinary coordination and fast-track performance. That’s what Ford demanded of this project, and once again, R.J. Cyr Co.  was proud to deliver precisely what was needed.

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R.J. CYR CO., INC.
Windsor, Ontario Canada
www.rjcyr.com

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