Predictive Control: One Step ahead in Automated Pouring with a

Stopper
Herve Doisy, Asia Product Manager
Foseco Thailand
Herve.Doisy@foseco.com
Abstract: Automatic mould pouring systems have gained from successive innovations and
efforts to thoroughly understand the process of pouring with a stopper, so that today they are
very close to fully meeting founders expectations. This paper explains why some foundries
remain skeptical about automatic pouring, before focusing on the innovative approach proposed
by SERT Metal (VESUVIUS group) in the field of advanced pouring control, with a predictive
controller that makes it possible.
misunderstood, and even sometimes misused.
We will also try to explain why some foundry
users remain skeptical about it. We will then
focus our attention on the innovative approach
proposed in the field of advanced pouring
control, with a novel predictive controller that
makes it possible to generate significant
savings. The example presented later will
illustrate the relevance of this approach and the
value it can deliver.

1. INTRODUCTION
Automatic mould pouring systems have
benefited from successive innovations and
efforts to thoroughly understand the process of
pouring molten iron using stopper technology;
today we are very close to fully meeting foundry
users expectations. These systems can now be
applied in the vast majority of situations and
their performance is constantly improving,
providing reduced and stabilized pouring times,
optimized dosing and adherence to process
control requirements.

There are various suppliers in this market, who

propose solutions which are similar in terms of
equipment. Electric actuators for stopper driving
and optical sensors are well established. The
difference between the various systems
available is associated with intelligence,
autonomy and response to the variety of
situations found in the metal pouring process
(see figure 1).

Automatic Pouring: Definition

An
automatic
system
should
function
autonomously, and should do so for a long
period of time. Operators assistance should
only be required to input the set point
parameters. The system should then manage
the pouring operation according to the process
requirements previously input into the system.
These process requirements will have been
previously defined by the experts of the process.
Analogy can be made with an airline pilot who

This paper will start with a definition of

automatic pouring, as the phrase is often

inputs the destination into his automatic pilot; the

automatic pilot then manages the flying of the
plane with only occasional monitoring from the
pilot. A similar situation should be experienced
in the foundry in association with automatic
pouring.

Full Automatic Pouring with Sensors and

Predictive control
The measurement and control of molten metal
flow in iron & steel plants and foundry
processes, has been our specialty for about 30
years. Among our solutions dedicated to
foundries, we offer a system for automatic mould
pouring that meets the criteria defined above,
i.e. autonomous and loaded with complex
algorithms that are fit to respond to process
variations without requiring constant attention
from the operator. The requirement on the
operator is limited to inputting some pouring
targets specific to the pattern under production,
particularly the metal level in the cup after
pouring. The system then self-adapts and
quickly adjusts to meet those objectives together
with maintaining standard quality requirements,
such as rapid opening and closing, minimized
and steady pouring time, and optimized dosing
of additions.

Automated Pouring without Sensors

Due to the complexity of supplying a fully
automatic pouring solution, some pouring
machine manufacturers offer pouring systems
which they call automatic, but what they actually
supply are only Teach In systems, i.e. systems
that can endlessly repeat a stopper opening
curve, without any control. Logically, they should
be referred to as semi-automatic pouring, which
is the proper term for this technology, the
limitations of which are well known.
The most important of these limitations relates to
operator competence; the pouring quality that a
Teach In system will deliver is dependent on
the quality of the pouring operator and their
input. A Teach In system can temporarily free
the operator, provided it is working with a high
quality stopper actuator and on a steady
process, but there are many variables inherent
to the process that will need operator
management. These variables include clogging
of the nozzle/stopper valve, fluctuations in
metalostatic height and variations in iron
temperature that will cause the operator to have
to return to the control station

Since its launch in 1996, about 80 of UCERAM*

automatic mould pouring units have been sold to
approximately 40 foundries in Europe, Asia and
the USA.
UCERAM comprises of the following elements:
an electric actuator for stopper driving
an advanced pouring controller
an optical sensor, based on a multi
measurement image analysis device that can
provide the controller with realtime information
on the pouring area (iron level in the cup, stream
width, nozzle leakage etc).

Semi-automatic Pouring with Sensors

and Basic Control

In addition, several options are available that

contribute to improve iron control, traceability
and quality:
automatic positioning of the pouring machine
measurement and control of the metal level in
the channel
temperature continuous monitoring (in-stream,
in pouring box or tundish)
in-stream inoculant feeding
in-stream inoculation checking
adjustment of iron temperature at the pouring
point.

Equipment is available, described as automatic

pouring systems where the control is
undertaken by a sensor. For many of these, the
adjustments necessary to obtain quality pouring
are too numerous and complicated to be done
properly, or it becomes a Teach In type system
which is later controlled by the sensor.
In both those cases, human involvement
remains very important in defining the quality of
operation of the machine, and should not be
defined as an automatic system.

Predictive Control Approach

Until a few years ago the UCERAM system
functioned through the evolution of some key
attributes to pouring, based on self-teaching
mould after mould. The principle is to react to
variation in the height of the metal in the pouring

The confused language and play with words

which we have mentioned above partly explains
why some foundry users are still skeptical and
dubious about automatic pouring.

perfect pouring schedule to each casting with

very little operator input.

cup, and adjust the stopper actuation to maintain

a constant metal height in the pouring cup. For a
mould that had a long pouring time the stopper
would be moving to correct the metal height.
This system is therefore designed to
compensate for variations in the flow
requirement in a reactive manner. In addition,
there is a significant lapse in time between the
stopper movement and the resultant adjustment
of metal height in the pouring cup: this time
lapse can be up to 1 second and can generate a
loss of control and pumping in the pouring cup.

Case Study
Waupaca Plant 4 is a foundry located in
Marinette (Wisconsin, USA). It belongs to
ThyssenKrupp Waupaca group, which has 6
foundry plants in the US, producing automotive
parts. Waupaca Plant 4 produces nodular iron
safety parts on 6 vertical moulding lines, each
equipped with a pressure furnace. Between
2003 and 2005, Waupaca Plant 4 equipped their
6 lines with one automatic pouring system
UCERAM each (on the whole, Waupaca group
has 20 UCERAM systems on 5 plants).
Early 2011, Waupaca Plant 4 decided to
upgrade the UCERAM system. The latest
generation, including the predictive control
technique, has been implemented on the six
moulding lines. After a few months, production
results demonstrate a very positive impact, at
several levels:
operators involvement has been
drastically reduced and simplified.
Considering that the same operators are
busy with coring and driving the
moulding machine and the furnace, that
gain is all the more significant in that
plant
pouring times have been reduced and
stabilized, and the end levels are clearly
closer to the setpoint, as shown in figure
2. In this case, the standard deviation on
pouring time (in red) goes down from
0.8s to 0.3s and the standard deviation
on iron level in the cup (in blue) goes
down from 15 mm (37%) to 5 mm (14%)
the new system as a whole is very
simple to troubleshoot. 100% of the calls
from operation to maintenance are now
related to a refractory issue or improper
mounting of the stopper/nozzle part
system reliability is at top level: since
the upgrade, there has been no
downtime due to pouring machine
maintenance.

It was considered that a system that can

anticipate the variations and compensate for
them before they even occur would be highly
beneficial. An example of where this kind of
system could be really valuable is in the pouring
of nodular iron castings which usually have a
high feeder neck. Consequently we undertook
some research work in 2007 in cooperation with
an advanced Automation Research Centre. The
initial purpose was to reduce the number of
settings that had to be input by an operator on
the pouring machine. The work naturally led to
the design and development of a controller that
can detect the ideal pouring requirements
(pouring schedule) throughout the casting of a
given mould and automatically input it into itself
as the setpoint to follow mould after mould.
The ideal pouring schedule is defined by the
UCERAM system by initially pouring a few
moulds using a classic controller and saving the
pouring schedule in the systems memory. This
schedule is then used by the UCERAM system
and constantly improved as moulds are poured,
by corrections in real-time, until the ideal pouring
conditions and schedule for the mould have
been defined to maintain a consistent metal
height in the pouring cup. This system can now
be defined as predictive and compensates for
any mould related variations in metal height in
the pouring cup before they occur.
The modern UCERAM system now integrates a
predictive and reactive approach to providing a
novel solution to ideal mould filling. The
predictive approach provides the ability to define
and deliver the ideal molten metal pouring
condition for a specific pattern; the reactive
approach allows the system to compensate for
fluctuations in the pouring process caused by
metal temperature, wear or clogging of the
stopper and nozzle, sand humidity etc. The
UCERAM system can now provide a virtually

Tim ALLEN, Plant Manager at TK Waupaca

Plant 4, testifies:
All of our pouring related quality and
productivity indicators show significant and
steady improvement since the upgrade. As a
foundry, we can see the impact of this upgrade
on our bottom line.

The presentation will focus on UCERAM and

integrated auxiliary components key rule at
the pouring deck, and what level of
performance and reliability we reach,
finishing by an Economical Value for
Customer case.

This particular project has not only met but also

exceeded our expectations in a way that few
projects do.

Figure 2. Comparison with/without predictive

control on a sample of 1800 moulds of the same
pattern

Conclusion
This application example shows that this
predictive approach applied to foundry automatic
pouring brings very significant gains. Since the
first trials with this innovative technique, some
ten installations have been commissioned and
have obtained a very quick return on investment
(usually less than 6 months).
The predictive controller is particularly adapted
when the pouring time determines the moulding
rate or when the pattern being produced is
subject to important flow variations in the course
of pouring.
When it is implemented, the immediate result is
the repetitive production of quality parts, while
minimizing the pouring times and the quantity of
metal poured.
This new approach is going one step ahead in
pouring control. The autonomy it brings to the
system provides real meaning to the phrase
automatic pouring.