German press maker KBA has celebrated progress on its new US$19 million foundry with a traditional ‘topping out’ ceremony.

Due to be completed by the end of the year, the project is one of the biggest KBA has implemented in recent years at its Würzburg facility, and brings the total sum invested in new buildings there over the past ten years to subtsantially more than $55.1 million, reaffirming the company’s commitment both to print and its main production plant.

The last six months have seen a new shell been built around the existing 200-metre long production hall, allowing production to continue virtually without interruption while the old hall was demolished. Cranes positioned 235 concrete parts including outer supports for two crane rails each weighing up to 51 tonnes which had to be inserted through the roof of the existing hall.

The new hall with its crane capacity of up to 50 tonnes is several metres higher and 50 per cent broader than the old hall. This will enable it to produce large press parts such as side frames and substructures much faster and more efficiently.

It will also be able to handle workpieces with technological or metallurgical properties which meant they previously had to be processed externally. These include spherical cast iron, which alongside normal cast iron with flake graphite is used increasingly for contract work.

A large-core production capability with two blenders will be added to the existing small-core line. Materials flow and space utilisation will be optimised to allow additional productivity-enhancing and cost-cutting potential to be exploited and a larger number of workpieces to be processed.

KBA says the new hall and equipment upgrade will not only improve the working environment for foundry staff, but also cut emissions, while heat recovery from the furnaces and sand-cooling plant will be expanded to enhance the energy credentials of the entire factory.