Mexican foundry Tisamatic has benefitted from a significant reduction in downtime at its new facility in San Luis Potosi after upgrading one of the company’s existing blast machines with new Wheelabrator components.

A subsidiary of the Grupo Industrial Saltillio (GIS) conglomerate, Tisamatic produces precision grey and ductile iron castings for the automotive industry, including engine blocks and parts for drivetrains, brakes and chassis systems. The company opened a second foundry in San Luis Potosi in the summer of 2014 following a $65m investment.
Tisamatic has three identical tumblast machines from Wheelabrator, which are crucial to the operation and used mainly to clean driveshafts and brake discs. An ambition to ramp up production prompted Tisamatic to contact Wheelabrator to analyse the performance of one of the three machines and ensure blast operations would cope with increased output targets.
The 30-year-old machine’s performance had dipped, with high abrasive consumption and large amounts of sand in the operating mix causing high wear and, consequently, a lot of unplanned downtime.
The Wheelabrator team recommended an Equipment Modernisation Programme (EMP) to address these issues and improve the machine’s productivity. An assessment showed that upgrading the two blast wheels to a dual 50HP EZEFIT wheel arrangement and installing new magnetic separators would bring significant benefits. A new, larger upper screw conveyor and rotary screen were also installed to improve the condition of the abrasive mix.
Since the upgrade, maintenance time has been successfully reduced, with machine availability up by 60%. Furthermore, cycle time has been cut by almost a fifth, creating headroom in production capacity for Tisamatic.
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