Subsidy of over 6 million Polish zloty from the EU funds for implementation of an innovative project has been granted to Kutno Foundry within the Operational Programme Smart Growth. 

The Project’s subject is to develop a process innovation in a form of machining technology for thin-walled iron castings of complex shape and developed surface, supported by advanced quality control techniques.

It will be conducted by industrial research and experimental development within the scope of metallurgy and casting, machining, processes automation, quality control methods and techniques, as well as expert software based on AI elements. The final outcome of the planned R&D works will be a complete and verified technological process covering the stages of initial quality control of rough casting, comprehensively supervised and monitored machining of cast iron components along with tailing recycling, as well as a final measurement review of castings. The main deliverable of the project will satisfy needs related to technologies, both currently used and planned to be used in production practice. Furthermore, those technologies emerge as an answer for the market needs expressed by the automotive branch, vehicles and special machines manufacturers – such solutions facilitate production of geometrically complex and thin-walled iron castings made of grey and ductile cast iron by casting into bentonite moulds and further machining combined with quality control, what will close the entire production process.

The said process innovation will not only allow for radical improvement of cost-efficiency of currently applied technological processes, but above all – for production of entirely new assortment of products made in a “ready-to-use” manner, i.e. machined to their final form, designed for automotive branch, vehicles and special machines.

Process innovation will involve the following stages:

Rough casting quality control, in some cases being the final step performed right before dispatching castings to client or an intermediate procedure – after which casting will be classified for machining.
Transport of castings from the quality control node to machining stage.
Machining of rough castings into “ready-to-use” components.
Recycling of tailings – shavings being a by-product of machining.
Final quality control, including, among others, shape and measurements revisions.

Estimated budget of the project

Total cost of the project: over PLN 13 m

Subsidy granted: over PLN 6 m