Re-Use of Waste Foundry Sand By Shaun Lindfield – Safety & Environmental Engineer Precision Disc Castings Ltd

Employees – 198 Turnover £24 million Capacity 50,000 ton castings/year 5-6 million brake disc castings/year 90% ventilated discs & 10% solid discs OE & Aftermarket Customer base Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology Who are we? We are a cast iron foundry based in Poole, Dorset that manufactures brake discs for the automotive industry.

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology How do we make brake discs? Melting – We melt 1500T per week of scrap material in 4 medium frequency induction 1,530 o c.

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology Moulding – We make approx 65,000 greensand moulds each week out of sand, clay, coal dust and water on each of our 2 Disamatic Moulding Lines How do we make brake discs?

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology Core Making – We make approx 105,000 sand cores per week, using virgin sand (from the Congleton area in the UK) resin and a catalyst in one of 7 cold box core machines. How do we make brake discs?

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology Casting – We add core’s to each mould and then pour molten metal into the mould using a laser guided pouring system on our Calamari Holding Furnaces. How do we make brake discs?

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology Fettling – We fettle/grind approx 110,000 castings per week ready for dispatch. How do we make brake discs?

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology The Problem Because the material can’t be economically reclaimed for core making we have approx 275 Tonnes of material (equivalent to 105,000 cores sacrificed in the process) excess in the sand system each week, which must be removed. All the materials used in the moulding/casting process can be re-used within our own sand system, but they can’t be re-used for core making. There is also 40 tonnes per week of dust extraction fines that have to be dumped to Landfill. A further 100 tonnes per week of material that is natural spillage from the moulding lines goes to landfill.

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology The Solution - Past In 1996/97 PDC formed a partnership with Tarmac Southern Ltd, which meant that most of the excess waste greensand would be used by Tarmac manufacture asphalt. This original partnership meant that PDC would send the excess greensand to Tarmac for re-use rather than landfill. This was approx 4,000 tonnes/year and saving £59,000/year. PDC made modifications to their plant to allow sand batches to be dumped direct into rigid lorries rather than onto indirect production line belts & skips. Tarmac also made some modifications including building a covered storage bay.

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology The Solution - Current PDC and Tarmac’s partnership has continued to flourish since 1997, which has allowed PDC to provide Tarmac with more material for re-use. As more material became available, Tarmac increased the number of sites using PDC’s surplus sand to include three of their South Western asphalt plants, with a fourth coming online during PDC have increased the amount re-used by Tarmac by: - Installing blow over units from the dust extraction plants Installing a Pre-conditioning plant. Installing a Sand Reclamation belt

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology The Solution - Current By installing these afore mentioned items of plant PDC have increased the amount of material re-used by Tarmac from 4,500 Tonnes/year to 12,500 Tonnes/year.

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology The Solution - Current As a result of this initiative, PDC has managed to save a significant amount of money as shown below. Cost of Re-use = £8.75 per tonne Cost of Disposal in 06/07 = £14 per tonne & £80 transport per load Cost of Disposal in 07/08 = £15 per tonne & £92 transport per load YearTonnesTarmac CostDisposal CostSaving 2006/20079,165£80,193£180,681£100, /200812,664£110,810£273,180£162,370 As you can see from the above table PDC saved £162,370 through our partnership with Tarmac in 07/08.

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology The Solution - Future PDC hopes to further increase the amount of material re-used internally before eventually being transferred to Tarmac for re-use in asphalt. A pneumatic fines blow over system is currently being installed, which allow approx another 500 tonnes of material per annum to be re-used. This will mean that Tarmac will soon be re-using 13,000 tonnes of PDC excess waste greensand PDC will therefore, re-use/recycle 14,500 tonnes per annum of the total 17,000 tonnes of waste generated = 86%.

Precision Disc Castings Ltd Leading the world in brake disc technology Summary PDC and Tarmac’s partnership has gone from strength to strength since its beginnings in Tarmac originally took 4,500 tonnes/year in 1997/1998 compared to 12,500 tonnes/year in 2007/2008, giving considerable environmental and economic benefits to them. This has had a massive positive impact for PDC’s Environmental Performance, compliance with ISO and economy of operation.