Three Benefits to Remanufacturing
Bühler Brescia, a remanufacturing specialist in Bedizzole, Italy, covers everything from smaller machines with 2,600 kN locking force, up to the largest at 22,000 kN. The purpose-built facility offers a choice of full remanufacturing or partial remanufacturing that may focus on upgrades to the control, injection, drive or closing units, and safety devices.
In the last five years, Bühler Brescia in Bedizzole and its sister plants in the US and China have fully or partially remanufactured over 300 machines.
Giovanni Triulzi, Managing Director of Bühler Brescia, says that remanufacturing’s growth in popularity is due to three key benefits. “Customers usually approach us because they are beginning to see a decline in product quality or cell uptime, which is compromising their overall output. With years of die casting experience, we know how remanufacturing can effectively reset the production clock to zero and get them back to the reliable performance they enjoyed when a machine was new. Secondly, technology in die casting has moved at an incredible pace over the last 10 to 15 years. Being able to introduce innovations, such as the intuitive DataView control unit or improved operator protection can help foundries transform overall performance. Thirdly, remanufacturing saves resources – our analysis shows that remanufacturing an existing die casting machine saves about 60 % in CO2 emissions, compared to manufacturing a new one.”
How does the Process Work?
Once a customer commits to remanufacturing, the machine is shipped to Bühler Brescia’s state-of-the-art facility in Bedizzole. Here the machine is stripped right down to its component parts. Once each part has been cleaned and inspected, Bühler’s expert engineers make a detailed analysis. Triulzi explains: “We will already have agreed a strategy with the customer before we start. Once we have the machine stripped, we invite the customer to visit. Together, we then agree a detailed plan of what will need to be replaced, upgraded or renovated to give the best possible future performance.”