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The
Corporate office of SAM, a four storeyed
building in the heart of Coimbatore, is an industrial
powerhouse that designs and manufactures premier slurry,
chemical process and water
pumps.
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Corporate
Office |
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pumps are manufactured at two facilities - the slurry pumps
at Mettupalayam Road and chemical pumps at Neelambur in Coimbatore.
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Neelambur
Works |
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us tour the larger production facility, adjacent to the captive
steel foundry and see how SAM makes these big, high performance
slurry and chemical / process and water pumps. |
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It
all starts with a string of ideas generated by
SAM's Design Engineering
Department. Here, engineers, drafts
people, and metallurgist - armed with revolutionary
hydraulic, industrial, and structural programs.
By incorporating technology garnered from hundreds
of hydraulic wear and test, SAM designs pumps
that can sustain production, decrease downtime,
and lower energy consumption. They optimize efficiency
by avoiding pitfalls and selecting the right material
for each pump.
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Design
Wing |
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The
drawings are then
given to manufacturing, where quality control department
monitors every stage of the production process. It begins
in the pattern-making department, where a sifting of
sawdust blankets the floors. To the sound of buzzing
rows and whirring sanders, small groups of craftsman,
form large wooden patterns used to make the moulds,
into which hundreds of kgs of molten metal will later
be poured.
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The
patterns
are made in two separate halves, depending upon
the model of the pump. The pattern makers also
craft core boxes. Later in the process, they will
be used to form the sand cores that keep the molten
metal from entering the area within the pump where
cavities form. Once the patterns are complete,
they are spray painted with a graphite material.
Markings on the patterns detail the drawing number
on which the pattern is based as well as the material
from which the pumps will be made.
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Pattern
Shop |
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pattern makers work with special rulers called Shrink
rules, which take the shrinkage of various metals into
account. The final patterns are built to accommodate the
shrinkage that takes place as the metal cools. |
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The
completed patterns are moved to the mould-making
section of the foundry. The floors are a few inches
deep in black sand; the pungent smells of chemicals
combine into an odour remarkably like stewing
tomatoes and orange flames flicker in distant
recesses.
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Moulding
area |
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The
mould makers begin
by rigging the patterns with a spruce through which
the metals will be poured, runner bars to disperse the
metal throughout the moulds and wants to allow gases
to escape during cooling. Then they use the rigged wooden
patterns to form the chemically bonded black sand moulds
in which the pumps will be cast. They also erect cores,
made of clean white sand, to form the cavities within
the pumps.
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The
moulds are made in large two-part metal bones, called
flasks. The mould makers take one half of
the pattern and place it split-side down on a steel
plate on the floor. Then they put the drag half of the
flask around it.
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From
an overhead site, the chemically bonded sand is poured
through a hopper into the flask, while workers stamp
the sand like grapes, making it surround the pattern
and take its shape. Once the sand has hardened, the
flask is upped over so that the split side is now up.
The cope side of the flask is then bolted to the drag
side.
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Machine
moulding |
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The
other half of the pattern is placed in the cope
side of the flask, split-side down, and the two
pattern halves are aligned with pins, so they
form the shape of the pump. Then the cope side
of the flask is filled with sand and left to set.
Once the moulds hardened, the technicians unbolt
the flasks, separate the two halves of the mould,
and remove the pattern. White sand cores are placed
inside the moulds, and the moulds are sprayed
with a Zircon wash that keeps the sand from adhering
to the molten metal. |
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The
prepared mould halves are moved to the close up
area, where they are realigned with dowel pins,
and the assembled mould is now ready for casting.
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Finished
mould |
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