Betz Industries, in Grand Rapids, MI, is a modern gray- and ductile-iron, no-bake foundry specializing in large dies, patterns, and machine beds for the automotive and heavy machine manufacturing industries. Owners Karl and Ken Betz, both degreed metallurgists, set out in 1984 to reclaim their disposal sand, so they tested their chemically-bonded lumps with various manufacturers’ reclamation equipment. After careful analysis, they selected a rotary lump crusher/sand reclaimer from Didion International Inc. (www.didion.com).

Originally, the sand that Betz reclaimed was processed further in pneumatic scrubbers, until later it was determined that the quality of the reclaimed sand was acceptable before the secondary scrubbers. "This discovery resulted in substantial savings in energy, operating, and maintenance costs. The new system uses 300 less horsepower. with double the production of the previous system," according to John Keener, a foundry engineer at Betz Industries.

To read the complete report, subscribe to the Foundry Management & Technology free digital edition.