OREANDA-NEWS. On 07 May 2009 OMZ (Uralmash-Izhora Group) (RTS: OMZZ; LSE: OMZD; OTC: UHMVY), one of the largest heavy machinery company with assets located in Russia and the Czech Republic, announced that its OMZ Foundry Production has completed one of the biggest modernization programs in the history of foundry operations at the Izhora Industrial Site.

The first stage of the modernization program of the medium-sized casting section was completed after installation and start up of a new mold knockout and sand reprocessing plant. The new plant placed into operation allows the use of over 40% regenerated foundry sand in place of newly purchased sand. The technologies of manufacturing of medium size foundry molds for castings with 300 kg – 5 tons weight have been fully updated.

The new equipment was supplied by two German companies: Neuhof Giesserei und Fordertechnik GmbH and Dantherm Filtration GmbH. The total cost of the equipment was ?925,000. The aggregate cost of the mold knockout and sand reprocessing plant including cost of metal frames and construction and assembly works amounted to over RUR45 million.

Implementation of the modernization program allowed OMZ to switch the production of medium and small sized casting products to 100% use of the latest molding mixtures based on synthetic resin using Alphaset Process Technology.

Alphaset Process Technology simplifies the procedure for mold knockout and significantly improves the quality of casting products. It also provides for close correspondence in size and configuration between casting products and finished products. The conversion to the latest technology became possible after replacement of all mixers and molding machines with modern units.