Benefits of industry 4.0 in foundry engineering’s greensand moulding process

Abstract: There is a need to introduce modern technologies to address inefficiencies in foundry engineering. The foundry industry is very old dating back as far as 1479. The early foundry engineers produced metal castings which were mainly cannons and bells. Foundries have been slow to adapt to disruptive technologies. However with the 4th industrial revolution foundries cannot afford to miss out. Foundry Engineering which is metal casting is under a lot of pressure from other competing manufacturing technologies. Forging, fabrications and 3D metal printing, plastic and composite materials are competitors to metal casting. The most common and cheapest way of producing castings is in greensand. This is due to the fact that it uses low cost raw materials. Though the process is cheaper than other casting processes. There is always a need for improving efficiencies in the means of production to compete with other manufacturing technologies. The 4th industrial revolution has become a pillar of improving competiveness in the metal casting process. This paper evaluates how the first cloud based green sand data analytic software Sandman plays a role in contributing towards the achievement of the sustainable development goals in African foundries. The greensand data analytic programme has been seen to be a key resource in driving for responsible consumption and production. This study will provide knowledge on the benefits of using a data analytic software in greensand moulding