Foundries are a critical component of the manufacturing sector, providing essential materials for a wide range of applications. There are different types of foundries, such as iron, steel, and aluminum foundries, each serving specific market segments such as automotive, electrical and construction, industrial machinery, and agriculture.

• The global foundries market size grew from $174.07 billion in 2022 to $188.51 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3%.
• Foundries are essential to the manufacture of automobiles, pipes & fittings, agricultural machinery, electrical equipment, machine tools, and much more.
• Metalcasting is a $48 billion industry in the U.S. alone, directly providing more than 160,000 jobs, with an additional 300,000 jobs indirectly supported across the supply chain.
• States with the largest number of foundries include Ohio, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
• The industry is incorporating advanced technologies such as radar and laser positioning for automated crane scheduling, which offers precise vision while requiring less hardware.
• There is a growing demand for semiconductor foundries due to the surge in demand for chips for mobile devices, high-performance computing applications, and automotive applications.

The industry faces challenges, such as environmental concerns and the need for technological innovation, but also has promising opportunities in new product development and partnerships. 

Fluent Conveyors is proud to partner with foundries to enhance throughput and efficiency with custom conveyor systems.

How our conveyors help foundry operations

Conveyors play a key role in foundries, including the following applications:

1. Transport raw materials such as sand and scrap metal to storage silos and bins. Our conveyors efficiently move large volumes of sand, metal scrap, flux agents etc. from railway yards, trucks to large holding areas and bins.
2. Feed molding machines. Sand and binder is accurately metered out on belt feeders and conveyed to high pressure molding machines to make molds. 
3. Transport molds to pouring stations. Flat belt conveyors or roller chain conveyors move molded frames to multiple pouring stations for efficient workflow. 
4. Transport hot ladles with molten metal. Roller chain conveyors transport and position heavy ladles full of red hot molten iron, steel or non ferrous metal from furnaces to pouring stations.
5. Feed castings to shaking out, shot blasting, and cleaning stations. Conveyor belts push castings in batches through shakeout systems to reclaim sand, then through abrasive blasting cabinets for surface finishing preparation before inspection and warehousing.

Our conveyors minimize manual material handling and enable automation for accurate process flows in high throughput foundry operations.