Aluminium foundry VOIT Automotive saves 5.5 million kWh per year with the StrikoMelter PurEfficiency
Klaus Deckarm and Petra Berwanger are responsible for energy and sustainability management at VOIT Automotive and emphasise in unison: “Our aim is to reduce the waste we produce and to utilise everything we produce in order to reduce our dependence on valuable resources. It is important to choose suppliers and technologies that share our vision of sustainability – StrikoWestofen does this, and we are delighted with what we have already achieved with their help.”
The company, based in St. Ingbert in the German state of Saarland, casts over 100 million parts a year for its global customers. That’s a lot of aluminium to melt, so for the sake of cost and CO₂ efficiency, choosing a furnace that optimises uptime and quality whilst reducing energy consumption and emissions is crucial.
For VOIT, choosing the right melting solution offers further advantages. When deciding to replace two existing furnaces with a StrikoMelter PurEfficiency from StrikoWestofen, the projected energy savings and emission figures were so impressive that the company even received a 40 per cent government grant towards the purchase. That was a truly worthwhile investment.
Significant savings
With the StrikoMelter PurEfficiency, VOIT saves around 5.5 million kWh of gas annually , thereby exceeding expectations. “And that’s not all,” explains Andreas Schorr, a state-certified mechanical engineer at VOIT Automotive, “by introducing our StrikoMelter PurEfficiency furnace, we have reduced CO₂ emissions by more than 40%. That’s enormous.”
The secret to the furnace’s success lies in its unique design. Every angle is engineered to optimise energy utilisation, with the exhaust gases produced during the melting process being used to heat the aluminium ingots entering the furnace shaft. “The insulation materials used are also of extremely high quality,” adds Andreas Schorr, “both in terms of thermal performance and the service life of the furnace system – the latter means that we can factor in a longer service life and reduced maintenance requirements as part of the operational benefits we derive.”
Sustainable innovation for the future
When it comes to technologies and approaches that support a more sustainable future, VOIT is at the forefront, as the focus is equally on industry and the planet. For the company, investments in solutions such as the StrikoMelter are part of a bigger picture.