Almex Rejuvenates 30-year Old Pit for Aerospace Alloy Slab Production

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Buena Park, California, USA – September, 2012 – Almex USA proudly announced the successful commissioning of a retro-fitted slab line at Northeast Light Alloy Company, Ltd. (NELA) in Harbin, China.

Extensive furnace upgrades were made to the 25 tonne line by NELA in order to produce both soft and hard alloy slabs.  In an effort to save the customer undue expense, Almex undertook the challenging engineering task to retrofit new hard alloy slab tooling to the existing water frame and pit.

Various sets of slab tooling were provided to fit all of NELA’s existing and future customers’ needs. Sizes included larger slab sizes of over 500 mm thick and more than 2 meters wide for soft and hard alloys.  These new molds were designed to incorporate Almex’s state-of-the-art “soft-pulsating” water cooling system.

The 30-year old control system and filtration equipment had not been replaced, so extensive engineering was required along with meticulously-written casting recipes specifically designed for this system. The detailed technical data provided for each recipe included a) alloy specific chemistry upper and lower limits, b) pre-cast condition checklist, c) start-up instructions (procedures), d) all casting equipment parameter settings such as equipment set point & running  temperatures, flow rates for inert gases and grain refiner speeds, e) complete ramp style recipe steps for cast speed, old metal height and water flow rate, f) D.C. operator observation check list, vii) end of cast instructions, and  g) step-by-step homogenization and quenching practice.