Background
Our customer’s hydrometallurgical process for the electrochemical refinement of nickel had not been updated since their facility was built over 50 years ago. It is a labour intensive process of moving and placing; 1400 lb. casts of Nickel Ore with an overhead crane. The challenge was to modernize the process to improve efficiency and eliminate the potential dangers of employees guiding these heavy casts into position.
The Opportunity
Replace existing placement nests (Hardwood planks) with a non-conductive dimensionally accurate placement furniture that can with stand the harsh environment and weight loading demands of the process. These parts would be used in conjunction with an Automated Robotic Overhead Crane.
The Solution
Baytech put a team together composed of material supplier, tooling source, our customer, and ourselves to modify the conceptual designs and select a material. The designs were of 8 parts, ranging from 5’ to 6’ long, which were a solid 1.75” thick. We spent 5 months refining the part design’s to make the parts moldable and functional. Several materials were qualified, molded, and tested to determine the best overall material for this application.
The Result
Our parts are the first of their kind in a hydrometallurgical process and we are ramping up to fill customer requirements.
In addition to providing parts that met the requirements are in depth Engineering Team was able to modify the tooling configurations to allow the 8 parts variations to run in 4 tools reducing the overall tooling costs.