In-Cell Melting Is Made for Modern Foundries

Foundries investing to produce large, single-piece structural castings; or to improve throughput, safety, and reduce overall cost per casting, face a growing list of challenges, regardless of the casting process they select. Rising energy and raw material - aluminum - costs, managing sustainability targets, greater variability in production demands, and difficulties finding capable operators and maintenance personnel, all continue to determine how aluminum is melted, treated, and transported to the point of use.

There are common challenges regardless of the casting process selected: supplying molten aluminum at a consistent temperature and cleanliness while minimizing energy losses, minimizing labor inputs, reducing operator exposure, keeping equipment and floor personnel safe, and all while maintaining a high Overall Equipment Effectiveness.

In this context, in-cell melting is gaining momentum as a process-oriented solution that improves energy efficiency by reducing superheat and reheating requirements, lowers labor requirements through simplified metal logistics, and enhances safety by minimizing molten metal transport and operator intervention. As a result, in-cell melting offers a flexible and future-ready approach to supplying molten aluminum across a wide range of casting processes and plant configurations.

Standard melt logistics are limiting factors

It’s common to position melting furnaces in a central area, typically away from the casting line or cell, which requires liquid aluminum to be transported via ladles, launder transfer systems, or automated porter systems. While feasible for certain applications, the weaknesses of this layout become increasingly evident as the hourly metal demand increases. 

As casting cycle times continue to decrease and/or castings continue to grow in size, each cell consumes more metal per hour, which requires more ladle fills supervised by an operator, more manual intervention for skimming/degassing or fluxing these ladles, and more minutes per hour where forklifts are transporting ladles of molten aluminum around the plant.

A growing list of casters are investing in molding lines capable of >220 molds per hour, or chasing sub-60 second cycle times for giant castings >100 kg, fundamentally shifting the economics of producing castings and the competitive situation in the market. The challenge is not simply volume: it’s maintaining a strict temperature, quality, cleanliness, and consistency across each step. 

Introducing ‘in-cell melting’

Melting the necessary aluminum directly at the production cell addresses many of the challenges identified. By eliminating long-distance metal transfer and consolidating melting, holding, and treatment (if required) close to the point of use, foundries can significantly improve operational efficiency, melt quality and safety. While in-cell melting solutions are not new, StrikoWestofen has developed a modular line of in-cell melting solutions to combine the efficient and reliable StrikoMelter® melting furnace and a compact electrically heated holding and treatment furnace – named HBT (Hold, Bale, Treat) – flanged directly to the StrikoMelter bath.

This modular concept allows foundries to quickly configure their melt supply based on their unique application based on temperature, extraction method, temperature ranges, filtering, degassing, and integration requirements with other equipment suppliers.

The StrikoMelter shaft melting furnace - which has over 1,500 global installations - combines pre-heating, melting, and holding in one system.

By using hot gases from the melting and holding chamber to pre-heat cold charging material loaded in the furnace shaft, it offers melting energy consumption as low as <900 btu/lb., while also delivering a metal yield up to 99%. All this is arranged in a compact footprint typically requiring no more than a 2:1 ratio for holding bath size to hourly melt rate.

The exhaust gas energy recuperation takes place inside the furnace without a separate pre-heating chamber. In addition, the included charging unit system allows automatic charging of ingots and foundry returns at the optimal time to keep OEE and energy efficiency high. 

Connect, treat, transfer

The HBT furnace is an ancillary holding furnace flanged to the StrikoMelter bath. It serves as the final stage of molten metal treatment prior to extraction to various foundry processes. The HBT:
i) provides a consolidated area for metal treatment processes, including rotary degassing, filtering, and temperature recovery;
ii) provides the integration area for a customizable bail-out pocket opening for robotic ladle, pump, or other extraction methods.

By combining the StrikoMelter and HBT, the complete system provides:

• Ultra-low overall energy consumption, thanks to the highly efficient gas-fired melting with integrated heat recuperation in the industry-standard StrikoMelter
• Efficient and precise temperature control of the molten aluminum according to your specifications with the provided immersion heaters and control devices
• A high melting rate in a small footprint
• Excellent metal quality thanks to gentle internal metal transfer, internal treatment, and minimal exposure to air.

Modular delivery options for different foundry strategies

As part of the in-cell melting concept, the HBT furnace has a modular design to provide high flexibility, allowing foundries to adapt the system to their layout, automation level and casting process. After the StrikoMelter → HBT combination, foundries can select the most suitable delivery route.

Recently installed solutions include:
StrikoMelter → HBT → robotic ladle → high-pressure diecasting machine
This option aligns well with existing infrastructure or where ladle-based pouring remains preferred, while still eliminating long-distance melt transport and separate treatment steps.

StrikoMelter → HBT → pump transfer → sand molding line
For operations prioritizing automation, consistency, and minimal oxidation risk, pump transfer provides precise, controlled metal delivery to the point of use.

StrikoMelter → HBT → pump transfer to Westomat® dosing furnace → point of use
This configuration adopts an HBT furnace that uses a pump transfer system to feed liquid aluminum into the industry-leading Westomat dosing furnace, a crucible-free solution with over 5,000 installations worldwide.

This final option is particularly suited to giant casting applications, or those where part variability is high between one cycle to the next. Where this is the case, it is also important to consider dosing furnace capacity. For instance, while any StrikoMelter dosing furnace can be adapted for in-cell melting, the small footprint Westomat Duo (capable of holding over 4 tons of liquid aluminum) is ideally suited to giant casting applications.

Energy efficiency that meets end-user expectations 

Built on proven StrikoWestofen melting, holding, and dosing, LeanMelter in-cell configurations deliver high process efficiency with low overall energy consumption. The combination of shaft melting with integrated heat recuperation and electrically heated holding and treatment allows efficient use of energy throughout the melt cycle.

Eliminating long-distance metal transfer further reduces internal transport, handling effort, and associated energy demand, while improved melt quality and controlled delivery help minimize scrap.

These efficiency gains are increasingly critical as pressure builds for foundries to reduce their environmental impact. Automotive OEMs–major consumers of aluminum castings–have already committed to science-based targets (SBTs) and are now evaluating energy and emissions performance across their supply chain.

As part of Norican, StrikoWestofen shares this commitment, focusing on more efficient, compact, and automated melt supply solutions. As outlined here, the in-cell concept immediately provides advantages helping foundries meet growing sustainability expectations in the most effective way possible.