Achieving the impossible: interview with Volvo
15 Jun 2023
Tightening environmental regulations are requiring foundries to adopt new and cleaner ways of doing things. That could mean more energy-efficient practices to reduce carbon emissions. Or it might mean switching to consumables that eliminate harmful substances (e.g., formaldehyde or fluoride) in the foundry environment and waste streams. And other times, it means meeting stricter casting specifications from end-users, who themselves are subject to tightening environmental demands.
The auto industry is a case in point. Electrification is delivering a seismic shift away from the internal combustion engine that will have profound impact on the types of casting required going forward.
But “even as e-mobility is taking off, the combustion engine is going to stay alive for some years yet, especially at the heavier end of the market,” said Tore Nilsson, Foundry Process Engineer at the Volvo iron foundry in Skövde, Sweden. Foundry operations in Skövde date back more than a century. Today, the plant is part of Volvo Group Truck Solutions and supplies the Volvo Group with components for heavy (11-17 litre) diesel engines.
It is however “critical that ICE continue to become cleaner,” continued Nilsson, who was speaking at the Foseco stand at GIFA 2023. This means engines that “operate for longer and more efficiently, and so consume less fuel. To achieve this, we have to achieve tighter tolerances, putting new demands on the castings and casting processes.”
Cleaner (and cleaner) castings
One particular area that Nilsson and his team have been working on is the inner cleanliness of castings to remove as much debris of the casting process (e.g., moulding sand, binder residues) from within complex cast pieces. The specific challenge here came from new EU regulatory restrictions on the use of lead in diesel engines. Lead is traditionally used in engine bearings to achieve satisfactory reliability, acting as a dry lubricant to protect bearings from particulate contaminants. Reducing the number of particulates remaining from the casting process is thus a key enabling factor in phasing out the use of lead.
But reducing particulate contamination also has a beneficial impact on overall engine performance – and thus environmental impact. For example, oil and coolant performance is improved and service life is extended. This raises engine efficiency, as a properly cooled and lubricated engine will run better than an engine with blocked channels.
To meet the inner cleanliness challenge, the Skövde foundry team worked with Foseco to develop the latest generation of SEMCO IC coating. “We have a long history of cooperation with Foseco, going back to the early 2000s,” said Nilsson. “And it has been a very productive partnership. We share our experiences from the foundry side, while Foseco share their knowledge of the products that go into the foundry process. By being transparent and working together, we have been able to develop products that are state of the art.”
Inner cleanliness is a case in point: “It has been an amazing journey with Foseco, getting it to a level that, ten years ago, I would have said was impossible. But we have done it,” continued Nilsson.
A continuing partnership
The SEMCO IC coating – with a video case study from Skövde – was one of 29 new products featured on the Foseco stand at GIFA 2023, which was organised around three key themes: sustainability, innovation and technology, and partnership and knowledge. The themes “represent the future of the industry, guiding discussions throughout the event,” said John Sutherland, International Marketing Services Manager at Foseco. “It was thus a great opportunity to highlight our collaboration with Volvo, which speaks to all three themes in various ways.”
The Volvo partnership with Foseco is also ongoing, with promises of much more to come. “We are currently working with Foseco on a product to significantly reduce the fossil footprint of green sand casting, while also reducing CO2 emissions,” concluded Nilsson. “If we can achieve the sort of results with this new innovation that we did on inner cleanliness, I’m sure it will win all of the environmental prizes at GIFA 2027!”
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