The Illinois-based operation produces castings of all grades of nodular iron, from ounces to 60 pounds. The company decided to upgrade their tumble blast machine to the latest technology as a swift solution to reduce cycle times and help future-proof their operation.
The Wheelabrator EZEFIT wheel offered the perfect solution for the non-Wheelabrator machine.
The wheel conversion was simple to fit onto the old equipment, so Galesburg Castings could get straight on to seeing results, bringing down cycle times to increase output and reduce cost per part.
In addition to performance enhancements, ease of maintenance was at the top of the list for the Galesburg team. The new wheel had to be easy to take apart and reassemble to ensure fast maintenance turnarounds.
Chad Fox, Plant Manager, explains: "Two bolts off, then one more and everything starts sliding out. Your downtime is the biggest thing, you've got to get back up and running if something breaks in the middle of a shift."
The EZEFIT wheel has fully machined components. The well-balanced concentric fit results in less vibration during operation, cutting down time, wear and tear as well as noise levels.
The wheel conversion at Galesburg Castings followed Chad Fox's visit to the Wheelabrator booth at CastExpo in 2013, where he spoke to a team from Wheelabrator Plus about ways of improving blast operations.