Contents
I. Introduction
II. UCF Production capacities.
III. UCF Production facilities.
IV. Production process control.
V. UCF management system developments.
VI. UCF mission, vision, policies & values.
VII. UCF products.
VIII. UCF Energy efficiency strategy
IX. Reference list.
I. Introduction:
UCF is one of the CITADEL companies group. United Company For Foundries ( UCF ) had been established in 1989 under the name of Aresco – United for castings and heat treatment . Aresco – United had been subdivided into 2 separate companies:
I. Aresco which had been specialized in metal sheet work and machining operations and located at El– Tabbin, about 30 km south of Cairo.
II. United Company For Foundries (UCF) which had been specialized in production of castings and heat treatment and located at 10th of Ramadan City , about 60 km eastern north of Cairo.
What is UCF?
UCF is a company specialized in producing all ferrous wear resistant as well as heat resistant castings that mainly serve cement industry.
II. Production capacities:
Ä 22000 tons of grinding media / year
Ä tons of wear resistant castings / year (needed for cement mills, crushers and mines)
Ä 2000 tons of heat resistant castings / year
Thus, UCF overall production capacity is 30 000 tons / year.
III. UCF Production facilities:
Ä Melting shop :
9 Induction melting furnaces:
Ø 1 furnace of 6 tons capacity.
Ø 4 furnaces each of 5 tons capacity.
Ø 4 furnaces each of 2 tons capacity.
Ä Molding lines :
Ø 2 line of jolt squeeze machines
Ø 2 lines of DISAMATIC machines
Ø Flour molding line
Ä Core making shop:
Ø Sodium silicate & CO2 cores
Ø Cold box cores.
Ä Pattern making shop:
It is equipped with all necessary machines and tools for manufacturing wooden patterns and araldite patterns.
Ä Heat treatment shop:
Ø 4 Continuous furnaces
Ø 7 Tempering furnaces
The heat treatment facilities allow conducting:
ü Annealing
ü Normalizing
ü Hardening
ü Tempering.
Ä Machining workshop:
It is equipped with all the necessary machines and tools for conducting machining operations as per customer requirements.
The machining workshop has a forging line for producing bolts necessary for fixing mill liners. Bolt threads are made by thread rolling machine.
Ä Laboratories:
UCF has a group of laboratories that satisfy the needs of process control plans implemented during production running as well as the needs of inspection and testing activities of finished products.
UCF laboratories include the following:
v Sand testing laboratory:
For testing new sand supplies and molding mixtures before being used in making moulds, The following tests are normally carried out:
- sand sieve analysis
- green compression strength
- green shear strength
- moisture content
- compatibility
- permeability
v Spectrometer laboratory:
For assuring compliance of our products with the specified chemical analysis, the lab has two spectrometer devices covering all the chemical elements ( C, Si, Mn, P, S, Cr, Ni, Mo, Ti, V, W, B, Al, Co, Cu, Sn, Sb … etc. ) that should be examined in the wear and heat resistant castings.
v Hardness testing laboratory:
For checking hardness of heat treated castings. Hardness could be measured in HB, HV, and HRC as per customer requirements.
In addition to the stationary hardness testing devices, our inspectors use the portable devices for the heavy liners.
v Microstructural investigation laboratory:
For examining compliance of the heat treated grinding media, cast high Cr liners as well as the Mn steel castings to their acceptance criteria.
The lab has devices needed for samples preparation and an optical microscope that allows magnification levels up to 1200 X.
The high magnification is necessary in order to be able to investigate the existing matrix phases, morphology of secondary and eutectic carbides, and to confirm full absence of the undesired phases. Retained austenite, being one of these undesirable phases, is quantitatively measured to assure that it is lower than a definite limit.
v Other tests are carried out at all work stations , e. g. :
- Dye penetrant testing to assure full absence of any of the invisible cracks.
- Dimensional checking to assure compliance with drawings.
- Destructive testing of some pieces to check soundness.
- Ultrasonic or radiography, when needed, is conducted as an outside source paid service particularly for complicated new products.
IV. Production process control system:
The following main points are strictly controlled during production of grinding media and liners for cement mills:
1- Verification of new patterns by producing prototype and zero lot castings ( design and dimensional check ).
2- Adjustment of both chemical analysis and liquid metal temp. just before tapping
3- Adjustment of pouring temp. Of liquid metal from ladles to moulds. Also, controlling no. of moulds poured from each ladle.
4- Controlling mould rigidity. The normal practice at UCF foundry is to use sodium silicate moulds for high quality surfaces and tight dimensional tolerances.
5- Great significance is normally given for the shaking out time, since it is well understood and kept in mind of all UCF foundry men that start of heat treatment success is the castings cooling duration inside the moulds. Therefore, for each type of castings, there is a specified shaking out time that is highly respected and maintained.
6- Conducting chemical analysis once again for samples cut from a casting from each melt no. after shaking out.
7- Continuous measurements of hardness, retained austenite and microstructural investigation
are normally practiced along with heat treatment operations.
8- Castings dimensional check (marking off & use of gauges). For balls, calculation of ovality is a must.
9- Invisible crack detection testing.
10- 100 % visual inspection check.
V. UCF management system developments.
Ä On 2002, UCF was ISO 9002: 94 certified.
Ä On 2003, UCF was ISO 9001 : 2000 certified
Ä On 2005, UCF was ISO 14001:2004 certified
Ä On 2009, UCF was ISO 9001 : 2008 & ISO 14001 : 2004 certified
Ä On 2010, UCF management has adopted new specific policies and values that enable UCF to satisfy international market requirements.
VI. UCF mission, vision, policies & values :
Ø UCF Mission:
Contributing to the national economy and society welfare through striving to achieve world class results based on continual improvement of UCF products and processes performance as well as provision of high quality and reliable castings.
Ø UCF Vision:
UCF vision is to be recognized worldwide as a supplier of superior quality products and services with in – time delivery and unmatched value.
Ø UCF Policy:
ü The following main points represent UCF policy, firmly adopted by its management:
ü All UCF products should satisfy requirements.
ü Full customer satisfaction
ü UCF is committed to continual improvement of all its processes and its integrated management system. This commitment is the only way for realizing its customer satisfaction and expectations.
ü Considering the customer expectations as the most valuable opportunity for improvement.
ü UCF operates with firm goals in mind:
a. Protecting the environment.
b. Minimizing health and safety hazards.
c. Updating its practices in light of advances in technology and new understandings in health and environmental science.
VII. UCF Products:
UCF offered to cement company’s complete spectrum of engineering castings that cover all the applications in cement industry.
1- Cast grinding media:
Ø Grinding balls from 17 : 110 mm
Ø Cylpebs from 13 x 16 : 35 x 40 mm
They are cast from various high Cr iron alloys as per the customer requirements or according to our suggestions to satisfy predetermined conditions at the customer mills.
Ø Balls of 17: 40 mm diam. are cast from various high Cr alloys containing 12 up to 33 % Cr satisfying a hardness of 60 – 67 HRC.
Ø Balls of 50: 100 mm diam. are cast from various alloys containing 17 up to 30 % Cr satisfying a hardness of 58 – 63 HRC.
2- Wear resistant castings:
UCF has a complete system to cover the whole mill with cast liners :
- Inlet and head liners.
- Shell liners (of first & second compartments)
- Diaphragm (slotted & blind) liners
- Outlet liners
Both alloy chemical composition and heat treatment vary in accordance with the liner application.
3- Heat resistant castings:
UCF standard alloys for heat resistant applications include more than 20 alloys that withstand temperatures up to 1200 °C. These alloys have various Cr contents up to 30 % & various Ni contents up to 50 % in addition to other elements that render higher heat resistance for special applications.
4- Heat resistant castings:
a. Bolts for fixation of liners.
b. Sorting machines to classify balls in cement plants according to their diameters.
c. Slotted and blinded diaphragm plates manufactured from 42CrMo4 hot rolled steel sheets.
d. Nuts, washers, pins, rods …etc.
VIII. UCF Energy efficiency strategy:
Material properties play a central role in controlling efficiencies of almost all industrial processes. Materials cause many planned and unplanned process interruptions in which productivity and energy are lost.
For such environmental requirements, improving lifetimes of the supplies to cement plants has become an imperative duty of the suppliers.
The use of grinding balls and liners of improved designs or improved wear resistance should yield decreased wear as well as decreased energy consumption.
Increases in the surface hardness of grinding media and wear resistant mill linings are believed to be a potential for reducing wear as well as energy consumption.
Activating the research & development role in the supplier organization is strongly recommended for meeting the cement plant demands of more efficient energy consumption.
UCF provides quality products and services necessary to maximize the return on your grinding equipment investment.
We will work with you from initial conception through the life of your project. With continued partnership and sound management, our cooperation can result in positive progress in cement industry in the most economical way.
This is not the end of the process, but a beginning, since the continued partnership incorporated with effective research capabilities are a key to help provision of high quality, cost effective products with satisfactory results and hence could be the way for building trust in permanent effective mutual cooperation.
IX. Reference list:
A. Local market :
All cement companies in ARE , in addition to other Egyptian companies that need wear resistant castings in different industrial fields such as mining , fertilizer, petroleum, bricks, glass … etc. ) .
B. External market :
Company name / CountryAl-Mogher Cement Company / Ethiopia
White cement Company / Jordan
Raysuit Cement Company / Oman
Atbara Cement Company / Sudan
Altakamol cement plant
AlSalam cement plant
Aslan cement plant
Om El- Kalil / Tunisia
Benzert Cement Company
Ain El-Kabira Cement Plant / Algeria
Tebissa Cement Plant
Ain al-Touta Cement Plant
Hama Bouzian Cement Plant
Chlef cement plant
Morocco Cement Company / Morocco
Al – Sakia Alhamra Cement Company
Bouskara Plant
Casablanca Plant
Aghadir Cement Plant
Safy Cement Plant
Mekknas Cement Plant
Adra Cement Company / Syria
Hamma Cement Plant
Arab Company For Manufacturing Cement at Aleppo
Al-Shahba Cement Company
Tartous cement plant
Rastan cement plant
National Cement Company ( Souk Al- Khamees ) / Libya
El-Zanjabeel Joint Stock Company
Libyan Cement Plant
Alhawary Cement Plant
Lebda Cement Plant
White Cement Company / KSA
Geddah Cement Plant
Tabuk Cement Company
Eastern Province Cement Company at El-Dammam
Arabian Cement Plant
Al Safwa cement plant
Bajel Cement Plant / Yemen
Amran Cement Plant
El- Barh Cement Plant
National Cement Company
Arabian Yemen Cement Plant
Union Cement Company
Tourabet El-Sabie Cement Plant / Lebanon
SINOR in / Mauritania
Ankara Cement Plant / Turkey
Trakya Cement Plant
Heidelburg Cement Plant
Estanda Plant / Spain
Italcementi Group / Italy
Fushe Kruge Cement / Albania
Azerbaijan cement plant / Azerbaijan
Cementrade / Russia
La farge Pakistan Cement Factory / Pakistan
La farge Emirates Cement Factory / Emirates
La farge Cement / Egypt
La farge Tasluga Cement Plant / Iraq
La farge Bazian Cement Plant
Al- Kaiem Cement Plant
Northern Cement Company