Atlantis Foundries have recently achieved a notable milestone in the company’s history when it recorded the casting of its two-millionth heavy-duty engine block (HDEP) since the foundry cast its first sample just over 16 years ago. What is more remarkable is that the two million mark has been achieved in just six years since the company recorded its first million castings of HDEPs, which took the company just over 10 years to reach.
Atlantis Foundries has always specialised in manufacturing medium to heavy-duty engine blocks and originally began as a machining facility back in 1979 when it was known as Atlantis Diesel Engines (ADE). The company was established by the South African government to produce diesel engines for the South African commercial and agriculture markets, including vehicles such as the Ratel, Buffel, Casspir and Samil. Subsequently the company had obtained a license to manufacture Mercedes-Benz and Perkins diesel engines.
Pieter du Plessis (CEO) and the Management team of Atlantis Foundries
“The foundry was only established in 1982 and it concentrated on producing engine blocks for truck, bus, industrial and marine applications. One of the first blocks the foundry cast was for the ERF model 66 truck,” said Atlantis Foundries’ CEO Pieter du Plessis.
“This particular milestone that we have reached is for what is known as the Daimler Truck Heavy Duty Engine Platform Block. The grey cast iron castings are produced in two variants – OM471/DD13 and OM472/DD15 – and the main truck applications are for Mercedes-Benz (Europe), Freightliner (USA), Western Star and Fuso trucks.”
“One of our key customers has always been Daimler Truck AG, which is also our holding company. Another important customer is Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) in the USA, which is also owned by Daimler Truck AG and was acquired by them in 2000. We ship blocks to Detroit Diesel Corporation in the USA and to the Daimler plant in Mannheim, Germany. Atlantis Foundries has been the only supplier of OM472/DD15(16) crankcase castings to DDC for the entire life of the HDEP engine.”
Daimler Truck AG is a German multinational automotive corporation, headquartered in the Stuttgart region, Baden-Württemberg and is one of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers. The Detroit company manufactures heavy-duty engines and chassis components for the on-highway and vocational commercial truck markets. Detroit Diesel has built more than five million engines since 1938, more than one million of which are still in operation worldwide. Detroit Diesel’s product line includes engines, axles, transmissions, and a Virtual Technician service.
During the month of July 2024 Atlantis Foundries welcomed new CFO Benjamin Benzhaf, pictured here with CEO Pieter du Plessis (left)
“We cast our first sample in 2007 and by 2013 we were producing 100 000 blocks per annum. This shot up to in excess of 150 000 blocks per annum in 2014, hence the acceleration to the one-millionth mark, which we achieved in 2018. These blocks range from 430kg to 450kg in weight and are fettled, reference machined, powder coated, preserved and packed.”
“This is a notable achievement as it is only for the one type of the many different engine blocks that we produce.”
“We have a very strong relationship with Daimler Truck in Germany and have been supplying them product for many years. This resulted in the South African operation Daimler Mercedes-Benz South Africa (then called DaimlerChrysler), taking control of the company in 1999, and incorporating Atlantis Foundries into the Daimler Trucks Powertrain business unit.”
“Atlantis Foundries had embarked on a process that has paved the way to becoming a Smart Foundry by embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The project, which is continuous, aims to combine various technologies available to gather and analyse process data, with the purpose of improving product quality and cost efficiency.”
“The basic building blocks for such a concept are robotics, process instrumentation, and the tracking of components using RFID and other software applications. With all the data available and it being traceable to individual castings, the door has opened to enable the use of Artificial Intelligence for process control and inspection of components.”
The Production Managers of Atlantis Foundries. From the left Bonus Tomose – Mould Line, Mark Fester – Finishing, Barney Newman – Core Shop and Elwin Braaf – Melting
“The corner stone of the project is the programme of automation in the foundry. The Fanuc robots installed by Robotic Innovations have become the workhorse to carry instruments that acquire data while handling or performing its operations. All the data collected throughout the process by the robots and the variety of inline instruments will be linked to specific castings. At the end of the process, the entire set of process parameters, including operator information, will be available for each casting.”
“This process data is analysed using Artificial Intelligence to predict various aspects of the castings such as material properties and sub-surface defects.”
Robot assembly starts in the core shop
“Our Smart Foundry ambitions have been the core of the dramatic improvements at Atlantis Foundries. But you can’t reach these high goals that we have set by only making improvements in a few areas of production and manufacturing. You have to look at every step of the process, analyse, decide on a solution and then implement the improvements into the process, whether it is main line or supporting, and realise the benefits. And there are many different steps in a foundry that need to align.”
“The assembly of core packages for heavy-duty engine blocks has traditionally been done manually at Atlantis Foundries. We have now installed a fully automated Fanuc robot handling and assembly process, where individual cores are taken directly from the core making machines and assembled by robots before being handed over to the subsequent processes of the core shop.”
The assembly of core packages for heavy duty engine blocks has traditionally been done manually at Atlantis Foundries. They have now installed a fully automated robotic handling and assembly process, where individual cores are taken directly from the core making machines and assembled by robots before being handed over to the following processes of the core shop. The system has been fully commissioned and is already running at the planned production volumes. The system is capable of processing more than 700 assemblies a day
“The system has been fully commissioned and is already running at the planned production volumes. The system is capable of processing more than 700 assemblies a day. That is going to help us get to our next million HDEPs even quicker than the one we have just achieved.”
Green production
Last year Atlantis Foundries contracted Energy Partners to engineer, finance, construct and operate a ground-mounted solar energy system at Atlantis Foundries’ production plant in Atlantis, approximately 50kms north of Cape Town, along the West Coast of South Africa, comprising more than 20 000 solar panels with a total rated capacity of 13.5MWp.
In addition to the photovoltaic system, Atlantis Foundries are also working on projects targeting LPG and water usage.
For further details contact Atlantis Foundries on TEL: 021 573 7200
