AECI Industrial Chemicals is one of South Africa’s leading producers of phenolic formaldehyde (PF) resins that are used by the foundry industry as a binder for making cores. The company is known for its ability to re-imagine the traditional and to find new ways of approaching systems and solutions. AECI also recognizes this creative ingenuity in its people and recently gave Sabelo Mdlalose, a chemical engineer and company technical manager, the Innovation Award for Application Chemistry. The award recognizes his remarkable work in successfully converting one of the largest automotive foundries in South Africa into a superior polyurethane cold box (PUCB) resin system.

The Project

The project started in January 2022 and included extensive upgrades and modifications to the existing PF reactor system alongside formulation validation, application testing, and production trials at the foundry. In collaboration with HÜTTENES-ALBERTUS Chemische Werke GmbH, a technology partner based in Germany, Mdlalose and the AECI team worked with the AECI Durban and Johannesburg factories to ensure the seamless creation and delivery of the conversion project.

“Conversion to a PUCB binder system in the production of sand moulds for castings has subsequently improved efficiencies in the foundry’s core shop with lower scraps on core packages and reduced downtime,” says Mdlalose. “There are also the added benefits of core box parting agent consumption reduction and reduced cleaning downtime as the newly formulated resin system minimizes the time required for cleaning machines and tools.”

The Success Story

The project’s success story went beyond the technology and chemistry; it rested in the collaborative effort and teamwork across suppliers, technical and production teams in AECI, and the customer. As Mdlalose points out, “It is important to focus on providing solutions to solve customer needs and problems and so, products and services to customers have to be tailored to their needs in order to be successful.”

Thanks to the new superior cold box resin system, the foundry experienced improved sand core strength development and emissions reduction and auxiliaries consumption with the new formulated resin that reduced free phenol in the PF resin emitted during casing and the residual phenol in the reclaimed sand. It also resulted in lower volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions during core production.

Conclusion

The entire project was seamlessly managed and led by Mdlalose, and it was his efforts, alongside his innovative thinking and clear client focus, that landed him the award. For him, it was an unexpected recognition, but one that has inspired him to go even further.

“I feel truly honored for the hard work that I put into this project together with the team at AECI Industrial Chemicals,” he concluded. “It was a team effort. And with that in mind, I would also like to thank the Industrial Chemicals Executive and AECI as a whole for their support.”