Spinner hanger tunnel and tumble belt blast machine for Fundición Gatti, Argentina

A foundry makes parts of very different sizes and shapes, and all of them leave the mold with sand stuck to them. Large or delicate castings cannot be tumbled: they have to hang. Small parts in quantity are best processed in bulk.

And there is a foundry-specific problem: the molding sand that comes in with the parts mixes with the abrasive, contaminates it and wears the machine.

The tunnel indexes step by step: loading and unloading take place with the conveyor stopped, and each hook rotates and stops at three positions in front of the blast wheels so the blast reaches the whole part. It has a double manganese and high-chrome lining, and rubber-curtain vestibules at the inlet and outlet.

The tumble belt is loaded by a hydraulic loader that tips a full bin of up to 1,800 kg. The belt tumbles the parts under the two blast wheels and, at the end of the cycle, reverses to unload them onto a vibrating conveyor, which separates the abrasive and returns it to the machine.

Both machines have the same abrasive cleaning system, designed for foundries:

• Magnetic separator that removes molding sand from the abrasive.
• Abrasive curtain with automatic adjustment by sensors, with an alarm on the screen.
• Abrasive valves with electric actuators, which set each wheel's abrasive load to the amperage entered on the screen.

With clean abrasive and each wheel working at full load, blasting is even and machine wear goes down. Dust is captured by cartridge dust collectors.

After a year running the tunnel, Gatti chose CYM again for its second blast machine. Both machines now work at its plant in Pilar.