Bentonite Recovery System

About the Speakers:

Al Jacobson recently joined Minerals Technologies/American Colloid as Manager of Technical Sales after 33 years with Grede Foundries.  With Grede, Al held several positions including Industrial/Methods Engineer, Mold/Core Superintendent and for the last 20 years as Quality Engineer supervising the sand lab and control of St. Cloud’s two green sand systems.  Al has been an active member of American Foundries Society’s Twin Cities Chapter, serving on the board for 5 years culminating with him being chairman in 2018-2019.  Al holds an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Platteville.  Al and his wife Avis enjoy boating on the Mississippi River with their 2 dogs, Bailey and Chard.  They also enjoy visiting their son and daughter-in-law Andy and Bernice in California, so they can spoil their granddaughter, Serenity.

Jonathan Knafla joined AFS in 2021, right after joining Grede in the fall of 2020 as a process engineer.  Through this role, he worked closely with the sand lab and the green sand systems in Grede St. Cloud.  He had also helped with the setting up and early maintenance of the newly introduced Bentonite Recovery System.  In recent months, he has taken on more of a leadership role at Grede St. Cloud and has taken on more responsibilities as a result.  Jonathan graduated from St. Cloud State University in the spring of 2020 with a BA in Mechanical Engineering, and currently lives in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he grew up.

Don Scheele has worked with Grede St. Cloud, first as an environmental consultant, and later as an environmental engineer for over 25 years.  In his current role, Mr. Scheele is responsible for implementing the Environmental Management System for the plant, which is an ISO 14001 certified facility.  Don graduated in 1981 with a degree in Civil Engineering from UW – Milwaukee.  Don currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer for the AFS Twin Cities Chapter.  He lives in St. Cloud, with his wife and two dogs.  He enjoys fishing, camping and canoeing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area and the North Shore.

About the Topic:

In 2022, Grede St. Cloud installed a bentonite recovery system to reclaim bond material from a Disa sand system dust collector. The recovery system, designed by KB Foundry Services, adds water to the collector dust in a mixer and separates the higher density sand from the lighter bond materials being recovered.  The bond materials are added to the muller for reuse.

The Disa sand system dust collector generates over 4,000 tons of dust per year, which was formerly sent to the landfill.  About half of this dust is valuable bond material targeted for recovery.  The other half is fine sand grains, which  are still sent to the landfill in as a wet sludge.  After a slow startup, the system is now operating close to its design capacity, processing about one ton per hour of collector dust.

Al Jacobson, Jonathan Knafla and Don Scheele will present a discussion about the new recovery system.  Al will share his experience with installation and startup of the system, Jonathan will discuss the system’s current performance, and Don will present factors concerning waste aspects for the recovery system.

Schedule…

5:00pm      Social Hour – Cash Bar (on your own) & Hors d’oeuvres

6:00pm      Dinner

6:45pm      Presentation

7:30pm      Speaker Gifts & Announcements

Register below by Friday, April 7th at 5:00pm. No walk-ins.