V method and EPC are both the third generation of physical forming casting technology introduced in China at the same time. EPC technology has been promoted and developed rapidly with a good momentum of development. The quality of castings and the level of process and tooling technology have been greatly improved, and the economic scale of enterprises has been expanding and improving. In recent years, due to the limitations of environmental protection, energy consumption and labor force, a large number of foreign castings have been produced in China. At the same time, the domestic demand for castings is also increasing. Customers are constantly improving the internal quality requirements of castings as well as the surface quality requirements of castings. However, the prosperity of China’s foundry industry has also brought about a series of problems such as increased environmental pollution, increased energy consumption and shortage of heavy labor resources. For this reason, China has increased the restrictions on the foundry industry, raised the threshold of access for foundry enterprises, and promoted the upgrading of domestic foundry technology and foundry enterprises.
V method casting and EPC casting are known as “new casting technology in the 21st century” and “green casting technology”, which not only meet the national “green manufacturing” industrial policy, but also meet the needs of enterprise benefits and customer product quality. EPC technology has been widely applied and promoted in the field of cast iron, and the quality of cast iron castings has been greatly improved, which has made customers’ expectations for the quality of steel castings continue to increase, prompting steel casting enterprises to invest more and more exploration and practice in V method casting and EPC technology, especially in small and medium-sized steel casting enterprises. Due to the higher access requirements of the state for foundry enterprises, the expansion of new and existing foundry enterprises are subject to the restrictions of national industrial policies, and the review on environmental pollution and energy consumption is particularly strict.
The innovation of enterprise casting technology not only improves the level of casting technology, but also is easy to obtain national support for high-tech enterprises. As a result, the advantages of V method casting and EPC as “green casting technology” are more prominent, and they become the first choice for new casting enterprises and expansion of casting enterprises. There are differences between V method casting and lost foam casting in terms of application. Steel casting enterprises choose more V method casting technology. In recent years, the assurance ability of V method casting complete equipment, tooling and mold manufacturing level, and key raw and auxiliary materials (EVA film, coating, etc.) has been constantly improved. More and more casting enterprises have invested in V method casting production practice, and V method casting technology has made great progress.
At present, domestic equipment manufacturers still have real deficiencies in the design and production of highly automated V-method production lines, and they can not solve some problems in some systems, which has caused some helplessness to foundry enterprises.
At the same time, the high automation system is huge and complex, the connection requirements of various systems are strict, the design is difficult, the production cost is high, and the investment scale is naturally huge, which is suitable for large casting enterprises, and small and medium-sized steel casting enterprises will be deterred; In addition, the production efficiency depends on the product structure, production process and the number of online molds. It is inconvenient to simply calculate and compare. Once the operation is not smooth, the production efficiency is not very high.
The highly automated V method production line has high requirements for operation, repair and maintenance. The requirements for high-quality operators and equipment maintenance personnel will undoubtedly greatly increase the cost of human resources for small and medium-sized steel casting enterprises, and even cannot meet the requirements of the production line for these personnel. In addition, it is easy to stop the whole production line in case of a link failure, or even collapse of the sand mold. The operation cost of the highly automated V method production line is also expensive. The unit manufacturing cost of small and medium-sized casting enterprises has risen. What is the market competitiveness of the products? Therefore, small and medium-sized enterprises should see fit for their own development.