As well as our commitment to save energy we also needed to reduce aluminum melting times to enable a constant flow of material to be prepared to meet our high production demands. We have managed to save in the region of 30% on gas prices and also bring melting times down in line with these figures.
8 Gas Fired Aluminum Melting Furnaces
We currently run eight gas fired tilting furnaces with a capacity ranging from 300kg to 600kg per melt, we also have an electric holding ladle which has a capacity of 850kg to allow the option to merge two furnace loads of material and enable the technicians to carry out rotary degassing in a controlled time frame.
Rotary Degassing to improve casting quality
Rotary degassing machines are extensively used throughout the foundry to enable an automated metal treatment system for the environmentally-friendly degassing and cleaning of our aluminum.
Rotary degassing units use the impeller principle with a fixed rotor which distributes nitrogen gas bubbles through the molten aluminum and mixes them with the melt. These fine bubbles are distributed homogenously throughout the melt without disturbing the surface, maximising the contact area between the gas and the melt to drive out hydrogen gases that need to be removed.
This coupled with the density index inspection that is carried out enables the technicians to fully control the melting processes, to record, monitor and have confidence of continued effectiveness in presenting clean, defect free molten aluminum to the production lines.