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THE JOURNAL OF ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING
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CONTENTS 1
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Volume 30 No. 3 – May/June 2017 Editorial Editor: Nadine Bloxsome Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855115 nadinebloxsome@quartzltd.com
COVER NEWS
2
AEROSPACE
ROLLING
LEADER
TRANSPORT & HANDLING
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Consulting Editor: Tim Smith PhD, CEng, MIM Production Editor: Annie Baker
www.aluminiumtoday.com May/June 2017—Vol.30 No.3
UPDATES 5 2 MINUTES WITH... Fiona Solomon 6 Focus on South Africa 10 ASI progress update 12 INDUSTRY 4.0 - The next revolution
THE JOURNAL OF ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING
Sales
NEWS
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Advertisement Production Production Executive: Martin Lawrence
AEROSPACE 16 Commercial aerospace:
Managing Director: Steve Diprose Chief Executive Officer: Paul Michael
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Cover picture courtesy of EGA
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ITALIAN SUPPLEMENT 1 Introduction 2 Focus on: Italian aluminium 5 Practical infrared thermometry
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PRIMARY PRODUCTION
SPOTLIGHT: ALERIS
THE STORY OF CENTROAL
ALUMINIUM CHINA
ASSOCIATION UPDATE: CIAL
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I TA L I A N S U P P L E M E N T
THE JOURNAL OF ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING
The story of Centroal
BUYERS’ GUIDE Taster page 33
TRANSPORT & HANDLING 35 Handling solutions 40 New Combilift fleet for Kawneer
SPECIAL CHINESE ISSUE I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H A L U M I N I U M C H I N A 1 9 - 2 1 S T J U LY 2 0 1 7 P I C K U P YO U R I S S U E AT T H E E X H I B I T I O N Picture courtesy: Pixabay
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ROLLING TECHNOLOGY
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CHINESE LANGUAGE ISSUE
Aluminium International Today (USO No; 022-344) is published bi-monthly by Quartz Business Ltd and distributed in the US by DSW, 75 Aberdeen Road, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville, PA. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Aluminium International c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437. Printed in the UK by: Pensord, Tram Road, Pontlanfraith, Blackwood, Gwent, NP12 2YA, UK
ROLLING 20 Let the good times roll... 23 Surface finishes for automotive sheet 27 Rolling back the years 31 Investing in growth
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CHINESE ISSUE 45 Potline technology: Case study 49 All about aluminium
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2 COMMENT
TOP STORY
New US rolling mill
The future is now There appears to be a theme running through this month’s news pages and that theme is ‘good news’. Rolling mills being built, automotive lines launched, recycling boosted; all positive stories, which show the industry is investing in a lightweight and sustainable future. The efforts to work more towards a closed-loop recycling system are paramount and something that aluminium producers and processors worldwide can take steps to achieve. At a recent conference I attended, the environment and the impact of the aluminium industry was a main focus. It was quite astounding to hear that the world’s aluminium industry produces 500 million tonnes of CO2 annually, which is 1% of the world’s total CO2 emissions. Another fact I took away was that 60% of the power used to produce aluminium today comes from coal - it was 20% in the 1950s, so we are going in the wrong direction! All these issues are heavy on the agenda for the ASI as it works to deliver a system of Standards for the aluminium value chain. More of which you can read about on page 10 in an Association Update. You’ll hopefully notice that this issue is also packed with a dedicated Italian Supplement to coincide with the METEF event, the Chinese language issue and all the usual technical articles, features, interviews and market analysis from across the aluminium industry. Enjoy!
Braidy Industries Inc. will spend $1.3 billion to build the highest quality, lowest cost auto body sheet and aerospace plate aluminium rolling mill in the U.S. The Braidy rolling mill seeks to become the nation’s low cost producer of high quality auto body sheet aluminium, plate and ultra-high strength alloys for the Aerospace industry. The mill will open with capacity of 370,000 tons per annum, producing series 5000, 6000, and 7000 aluminium sheet and plate products. Braidy is also exploring new scientific nano-crystaline technical advances capable of improving molten metal-based manufacturing.
“Braidy Industries’ decision to locate in Eastern Kentucky has the potential to be as significant as any economic deal ever made in the history of Kentucky,” said Gov. Bevin. “This $1.3 billion investment will create enormous opportunity for people in the region, and would not have been possible without our recently passed rightto-work legislation. I look forward to the success of Braidy Industries as they leverage the incredible work ethic found in Eastern Kentucky. The ripple effect of this investment will be significant and will produce positive change in the region for generations to come.” Ground breaking at the 370 acre
South Shore site will occur in the first quarter of 2018. Over $1.3 billion will be spent on the mill located in Greenup County Kentucky, close to the city of Ashland. The mill will be 2.5 million square feet under roof, with an ideal location on the great Ohio River, and already-permitted barge capacity. The CSX railroad runs through the property, and highway I-64 connects the mill site to some of the nation’s largest auto-making and aerospace customers. The State of Kentucky exports more than $10 billion per year in aerospace products, ranking it second among all states in the U.S.
Recycling boost Constellium N.V. has installed a new recycling furnace at its Muscle Shoals, Ala. facility in an effort to expand recycling capabilities in North America. The now fully operational furnace is expected to increase the total recycling output by 170 million pounds, or about 5.2 billion additional used beverage cans per year. The Muscle Shoals facility will then be expected to recycle the equivalent of nearly 20 billion cans per year – almost one-fifth of the cans sold in the United States. “This new furnace is a major step for our Muscle Shoals facility, great news for our customers and an exciting step forward in our commitment to promote recy-
cling and sustainability,” said Mike Tanchuk, president and CEO of the plant. “This increased recycling capacity will enable us to better leverage aluminium’s infinite recyclable properties.” Joe Pampinto, Muscle Shoals’ plant manager, added: “I am proud of the team who delivered this state-of-the-art equipment. The furnace is now fully operating and this added recycling capacity will increase the molten metal supply required for customer deliveries.” Using advanced technologies, the new furnace, which meets the Best Available Control Technology (BACT) environmental requirements, is expected to improve the
safety, energy efficiency and environmental footprint of the plant. Known as Element 13, the recycling facility at the Muscle Shoals plant is one of the largest recyclers of used beverage containers in the world. This capacity, which enables the plant to recycle products at their end-of-life (EOL) as well as scrap from customers, contributes to Constellium’s overall engagement to ‘close the loop’ in beverage can recycling. Constellium is part of the Sustainable Committee of the American Aluminum Association and works closely with the Can Manufacturers Institute to raise environmental awareness and promote recycling within communities.
Rusal: Alumina production increase UC Rusal has announced the launch of a new digestion train at the Urals Aluminium Smelter (UAZ). The total amount of investment in the project exceeded 1.1 billion rubles. Upon commissioning the new digestion train that consists of 82 units, the refinery will expand alumina production by 130 thousand tonnes per year. Total annual output of UAZ will reach 900 thousand tonnes of alumina. New equipment will increase the safety
and energy efficiency of the production process resulting in cost reductions of alumina. The construction of the new digestion train lasted two years and became a major investment project within UAZ‘s refinery 1.5 billion rubles modernisation programme. The opening ceremony of the new facility was attended by Vladislav Soloviev, CEO of Rusal, Yakov Itskov, director of Rusal’s alumina division, and Yevgeny
Kuyvashev, governor of Sverdlovsk region. “During the course of the modernisation of our production sites, we have introduced up-to-date technologies and equipment. “It is important to notice that the commissioned digester primarily consists of equipment that has been designed and made in Russia and as such, surpasses its foreign counterparts”, Vladislav Soloviev, CEO of Rusal commented.
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Aluminium International Today
10/05/2017 12:43:54
Hydro launches automotive line
INDUSTRY NEWS 3 NEWS IN BRIEF Alba shut down
Hydro opened a EUR 130 million automotive line in Germany on May 4. Aluminium from the facility will help lightweight millions of new cars each year – enabling them to further curb emissions. The new automotive line in Grevenbroich, Germany is one of Hydro’s strategic investments in European industry. Car makers increasingly use aluminium to lightweight their vehicles and curb emissions. As a consequence of this industry megatrend, Hydro has over the last few years made several strategic investments in Norway and Germany to meet this demand and at the same time secure the viability of high competence industrial jobs
in both countries. The new automotive line in Grevenbroich is a prime example of this. “I look forward to showing the result of great efforts made by our sharpest engineers, leaders and operators. It has taken years of research, experience, ingenuity, in close cooperation with Europe’s world-leading automotive industry, to reach this level of cutting-edge development. Our new automotive line will help lightweight millions of cars each year and strengthen aluminiums’ position as a building block of modern society – which from our new automotive line comes with quality stamp “Made in Europe” – “Mit Leichtigkeit!” says Hydro President & CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg.
The new automotive line investment is closely linked to investments Hydro have made further upstream in the company´s value chain in Norway. Over the last couple of years, casthouses in Sunndal, Høyanger, Årdal and Karmøy have been upgraded with new innovations and equipment, specifically designed to meet the requirements of car makers. Altogether, these investments are worth close to NOK 150 million. New casting technology is under implementation in Høyanger and Årdal, where Hydro produce sheet ingot which at the plants in Germany can be rolled into plates and used in so-called hang-on parts such as doors, hoods, roofs, and trunk lids.
Advanced stretcher online Arconic has announced that the installation of its new manufacturing technology – the Very Thick Plate Stretcher (Stretcher) – is complete. The Stretcher produces highly-differentiated aerospace and industrial plate. The investment in the Stretcher is backed by customer contracts, including one with Airbus, valued at approximately $1 billion. The project was completed on time with an investment of approximately $150 million, approximately $40 million under budget.
Located at the company’s facility in Davenport, Iowa, the Stretcher improves the performance of thick aluminium and aluminium-lithium plate in aerospace and industrial applications. The stretching process reduces stress introduced into the plate as part of the manufacturing process, resulting in a part that is more easily machined and processed by customers. In aerospace, the Stretcher will not only enable Arconic to service the existing plate market, but also allow airframe builders to make
large wing ribs, fuselage frames and bulkheads in new sizes and thickness. For example, one of the challenges composite wings face as they get larger is strength and stiffness, and the aluminium plate from this Stretcher will allow aircraft manufacturers to make aluminium wing ribs to address that issue. In the industrial market, plate from the Stretcher can be used in manufacturing moulds and chambers for applications such as semiconductors.
On Wednesday April 5, 2017, Alba experienced a power station outage that resulted in a temporary loss of power in all five Reduction Lines for approximately three hours. The company estimates the incident will result in a loss of 3% to 5% of its total production for 2017 and the losses from the incident will be part of an insurance claim.
Mechatherm expands Mechatherm Services continues to grow, adding both a Junior Service Engineer position and a Mechanical Engineer to the team. The UK service division now employs eight people in various roles and will work to add yet more to the team as the company expands into the Middle East with its first branch office.
Kleinfeld steps down
Arconic has announced that Klaus Kleinfeld, by mutual agreement with the Arconic Board of Directors, has stepped down as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Arconic and has resigned as a Board member. David P. Hess, a current Board member, has been appointed as Interim CEO of Arconic and will remain on the Board.
GARMCO: New CEO
Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill (Garmco), the Bahrain-based international aluminium rolling mill, has appointed Mohammed Essa, the current general manager of operations, as its interim chief executive officer. Aluminium International Today
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4 INDUSTRY NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF LME Leadership Structure Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) and the London Metal Exchange (LME), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HKEX, have appointed Matthew Chamberlain as Chief Executive of the LME effective immediately subject to the approval of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the UK. Mr Chamberlain will remain on the LME Board and will continue as a member of HKEX’s Management Committee.
TALEX Aus expansion UAE-based Taweelah Aluminium Extrusion Company (TALEX) has announced its expansion into the Australian market with Melbourne the first city selected in its international expansion.
TALEX believes the expansion offers “substantial opportunity” to promote the company’s exclusive hard alloys, which are suitable for sophisticated engineering applications and supply the market directly via its soon-to-be established local warehouses and distribution network.
EGA opens China office
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Taxi! The London Taxi Company has opened a new £300m UK factory to make 5,000 aluminium-bodied, electric black cabs per year. The site in Ansty, Coventry, is the first vehicle manufacturing facility to be built in Britain for more than a decade.
The fully integrated factory will also become a globally connected research and development centre in electric vehicle powertrains and lightweight aluminium body structures, which will be applied in all vehicles made at the plant.
GLAFRI joins ASI The Global Foil Roller Initiative (GLAFRI) has become a member of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) to further strengthen its position as a global voice for responsible and sustainable aluminium foil market growth, worldwide. GLAFRI will join 42 other members of ASI, including several national Aluminium Associations, Foil Converters as well as Industrial Users and International Civil Society Organisations. Oliver Hommel, president of GLAFRI confirmed the decision to join had been reached following strategic discussions at the 2016 Global Foil Roller Conference in Shanghai and its annual webinar early this year, “We are very glad to join ASI as one of the key objectives of GLAFRI is to promote sustainable growth for our sector. We
are convinced that a close cooperation with ASI will encourage our members to enhance even further their responsible management programs and will contribute to positioning aluminium foil best in the sustainability debate.” Adding his comments Stefan Glimm, director general of GLAFRI said, “ASI is a customer driven initiative along the whole aluminium supply chain. It aims to achieve similar values to those GLAFRI promotes and represents through our logo: capable, responsible, sustainable. So it is a logical consequence that GLAFRI joins and promotes ASI within the membership and beyond, towards foil rollers worldwide. It could be seen as re-confirmation of the key targets of GLAFRI, which are to promote foil and sustainability,” he further explained.
Sapa wins Alstom contract
The office in Shanghai of EGA’s wholly owned Chinese subsidiary will source raw materials and other supplies in China. The office will also deepen commercial ties by developing sales opportunities for bauxite from EGA’s under-development mine in the Republic of Guinea.
Companies combine Quaker Chemical Corporation (NYSE: KWR) and Houghton International Inc., have executed a definitive agreement to combine the companies.
May/June 2017
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Sapa will deliver to Alstom structural aluminium frames, solebars and end-wall profiles for rail carriages in high-speed trains that will be used by Amtrak in the United States. The aluminium solutions that Alstom has ordered from Sapa cover extrusion, machining, welding and kitting – in total, about 1,000 metric tons of extruded aluminium solutions. Deliveries will
begin in May 2017 from Sapa’s upgraded operation in Lichtervelde, Belgium. “This is the first major contract we have won since our press upgrade in Lichtervelde. We would not have been capable of meeting Alstom’s specifications without the investment,” says EVP John Thuestad, who is responsible for Sapa’s aluminium extrusion operations in Europe.
2017 DIARY June 20 - 24 Aluminium Two ThousandICEB Conference held in Verona, Italy, alongside METEF, the expo of customised technology for the aluminium and innovative metals industry. www.aluminium2000.com/ www.metef.com
21 - 24 METEF* Expo of customised technology for the aluminium and innovative metals industry. Held in Verona, Italy. www.metef.com
July 19-21 Aluminium China* Asia’s professional aluminium industry platform, annually held in Shanghai. www.aluminiumchina.com
September 07-09 ALUEXCON This event will showcase the entire aluminium value chain. www.aluexcon.com
25-27 32n International Aluminium Conference* Bringing the global aluminium industry together for 32 years. Held in Bahrain. www.metalbulletin.com/events
October 02-05 ICSOBA 2017* Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium Industry in Europe and New Global Developments. Held in Hamburg, Germany. www.icsoba.org/icsoba-2017
05-07 Aluexpo 2017* Hannover Messe Ankiros Fuarcılılk A.S brings together all suppliers producers and buyers of the aluminium sector. Held in Istanbul, Turkey. www.aluexpo.com *Pick up a free copy of Aluminium International Today at this event
For a full listing visit www. aluminiumtoday.com and click on Events Diary Aluminium International Today
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Fiona Solomon* 1. What are your first and last jobs of the day? Being based in Australia, morning and evenings are when I often have calls and teleconferences with other time zones, sometimes at rather unsociable hours. 2. What should change in the aluminium industry? I would like to try and expand recognition of social and human rights issues in metals value chains – sustainable development is not only about environmental issues. The UN Sustainable Development Goals illustrate the collective challenge for all industries and communities to work towards. 3. What do you enjoy about working with aluminium? People in the industry are very passionate about this metal, and sustainability is increasingly seen as core business. When talking about ASI’s sustainability standards with producers, users and stakeholders, there is a palpable interest and investment in what might be achieved in this sector. 4. Your best piece of advice? At the moment, “Make that your favourite” is getting a lot of humorous currency in our household. It comes from the movie “Elf” where a manager tells Will Ferrell’s character to stop singing and ‘make work his favourite’. We use it to generally mean ‘just get on with what has to be done, and/or make do with what is to hand’. We are finding it a very versatile phrase, with just the right amount of irony, for quite a range of situations. 5. Something we don’t know about you? I was part of the Australian Womens Team at the World Ultimate Championships in 1994! For those who don’t know, ultimate disc is a frisbee team sport, which for some unknown reason does not have Olympic status… 6. Who is an individual you most admire? There are many public figures who achieve vitally important things, but the people I most admire tend to be among those I know well. You are able to see their achievements in the context of a closer knowledge of the constraints and challenges in their lives. � *CEO, Aluminium Stewardship Initiative
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6 SOUTH AFRICA UPDATE
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Focus on: South Africa The South African aluminium industry is one of the industrial pillars of the South African economy. Along with the economic impact and contribution to the fiscus, the industry generates significant foreign exchange revenues and provides an estimated 11 600 employees in the sector with decent jobs. The multiplier effect takes the number to 28,900, and dependencies to 55,700. Mark Krieg* explains South Africa is fortunate to have the complete aluminium value chain in the country (other than bauxite mining and refining). Alumina is imported by the smelters in Richards Bay and Maputo (in Mozambique). There are companies in: � Aluminium metal production, both primary and secondary � Semi-fabrication including extruded and rolled products � Castings � Surface Finishing � Powder and deoxidant production � Distribution and � Suppliers of services and consumables to the industry. The downstream industry produces aluminium rich products in the automotive, aviation, road and rail transport, marine, packaging, general fabrication, mining, power distribution, general electrical, agricultural, water, building and construction, furniture and art sectors.
ratings agencies. Despite this, demand for aluminium products continues to grow ahead of GDP year on year, illustrated in Fig. 1, as has the per capita usage see Fig 2 (against a rapidly growing population, now estimated at 55.5 million inhabitants). From Fig 3 Flat Rolled Products and Fig 4 Extruded Products, it is clear that much of the growth has been filled by imported semi-fabricated products. SA aluminium growth in usage has been driven by, amongst other things, the switch from steel bodied beverage cans to all aluminium beverage cans, and the introduction of the aluminium bodied Mercedes Benz C-Class. Demand for extrusions, of which 60% is used in the Building and Construction
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Current economic climate in South Africa The South African economy has stalled over the past few years, with GDP growth well below forecast at 0.3% in 2016, and a marginally better 0.7% anticipated in 2017 following the downgrade by two
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sector, has grown apace as well. Again, the automotive sector is an important user, as is the electrical sector. In some cases this has been a consequence of a flood of low priced extrusions, especially for the Building and Construction sector. Here the attack has been on high volume, fairly basic profiles. In the case of auto body sheet (ABS), the rolling mill will need to invest in additional plant to meet the requirements of the OEM’s. This is under evaluation. Currently the only aluminium bodied vehicle produced in South Africa is the C-Class, however, BMW has announced that they will commences manufacturing of the new X3 model in 2018, which will include aluminium body sheet.
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*Executive Director Aluminium Federation of South Africa May/June 2017
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10/05/2017 11:32:01
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8 SOUTH AFRICA UPDATE
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Trade barriers Prior to 1994 when South Africa became a democracy, the economy had been closed and highly self-reliant. Post 1994 the local manufacturing sector was exposed to global competition overnight. The new government favoured free trade and compliance with WTO rules. This, coupled with globalisation, impacted the aluminium industry, particularly the foundry sector. From 9 engine plants only two remain, with one of these importing their casting requirements. Many foundries, including the piston manufacturers, closed down as the OEM’s followed global sourcing strategies. Purchasing decisions are often taken outside South Africa, and large scale producers are able to offer more competitively priced products. Secondary smelters have been similarly affected, several shutting down. The global demand for aluminium scrap and consequent high prices has further compromised the secondary smelters, who had exported remelt alloyed billet. Secondary smelters produce aluminium powder, much of which is used in explosives for the mining industry, and deoxidant for specialised steel production. Despite these developments, the local companies in the aluminium sector have reacted by adapting their marketing strategies, product offerings and production efficiencies. Overall, companies are managing well under very difficult conditions. Investment Contrary to a number of other sectors In South Africa, the aluminium industry continues to invest in productivity enhancing and emission reducing plant and processes. Notable investments include: � A desalination plant at the Hillside Smelter Plant of South32 in Richards
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Bay. This has eliminated the reliance on municipal water, which is very important in a country often facing droughts. � An additional remelt furnace was installed at the Hulamin Rolling Mill, suited to recycling light gauge scrap, such as beverage cans (UBC’s). � The first vertical powder coating line � And many other investments, which may be smaller in size and cost, but contributes to the ongoing success and profitability of these organisations. Transformation Transformation of the economy through Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a major topic for the Government and Business. The aluminium industry has worked actively to support this agenda, and the education and development of young people and entrepreneurs that wish to enter the industry. A very significant BEE development was the acquisition of the Bayside Cast House by Bingelela Capital in a j/v with Hulamin to produce rolling slab. The South32 Hillside smelter supplies the Cast House with liquid aluminium which provides them with a cost advantage. There are important initiatives to train especially young people and provide mentoring and support as they enter industry. One of the earliest initiatives is the Downstream Aluminium Centre of Technology (DACT) in Richards Bay, with a focus on casting. They have expanded their training offering to include welding and associated skills. An extensive Entrepreneur Centre sponsored by South32 has been established adjoining the Hillside smelter where entrepreneurs can base their operations which often supply services to the smelter, and industry in the area. Another important initiative is a school run by one of the extrusion company Wispeco, where the production of window and door frames and business
basics are taught. Hulamin and South32 have set up the Aluminium Beneficiation Initiative (ABI) which has an ambitious goal to identify and nurture 100 entrepreneurs and assist them to reach 1000 ton aluminium output per annum. These initiatives are all funded by the private sector. Government has a broad range of training and Black Business development programs doing excellent work. These include research and development and fundamental research, and support for e.g. foundries in the field of casting simulation. The Aluminium Federation of South Africa (AFSA) is planning a Research and Development Mini Conference 11 to 12 July 2017. The venue will be announced in due course, but it will be in the Johannesburg/Pretoria area. It is our intent to establish the range and scope of R&D programs being undertaken at universities and research organisations in South Africa. Our hope is to obtain a clear overview of the activities and the local capabilities, and see to what extent these activities can be coordinated and matched to the industry requirements. This may show a gap between requirements and capabilities. 3-D printing has enjoyed great attention in South Africa, and while the current emphasis has been on titanium (printing jaw bones, hips etc), the Department of Science and Technology (DST) initiated the development of a South African Aluminium Roadmap (SAAIR), in which 3-D printing of aluminium products features strongly. The technology is already in routine use to print tooling for aluminium castings. Should you be interested in this event, please contact the AFSA Information and Office Manager Rentia Malan at rentiam@afsa.org.za or call us on +27 (0)11 455 5553. � www.afsa.org.za
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10/05/2017 11:32:03
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10 ASSOCIATION UPDATE
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ASI progress update These are exciting times on the road to responsible production, sourcing and stewardship of aluminium. The first four months of 2017 have seen significant progress made in the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative’s (ASI) work program, not only in the standards development work, but also in governance and membership. We are on track to delivering a system of Standards for the aluminium value chain by the end of 2017. Governance progress: Second ASI Annual General Meeting The major highlight took place in April, when over 80 representatives from aluminium producers, users, civil society, associations, government and other stakeholders came together at the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative’s (ASI) Annual General Meeting (AGM). The event was held at the Centre for Sustainable Development in Montreal, Canada and was supported by the Government of Quebec, Rio Tinto and the Aluminium Association of Canada. The event included formal AGM proceedings for members and a public program that included keynote speakers Steven Guilbeault (Co-founder and Senior Director of Equiterre), Chris Coulter (CEO and Board Member of Globescan) and Michael Liebreich (Chairman of the Advisory Board and Founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance). These keynotes highlighted several challenges that initiatives such as ASI face on the route to successful implementation, as well as future trends, particularly in energy, which inspire all of us to think how we can do more to accelerate a more sustainable development path for the planet. Focus on impacts ASI Directors formed a panel to discuss ASI’s strategic direction and what success would look like from different stakeholder perspectives, and ASI CEO, Dr Fiona Solomon, provided an overview of how ASI is designing and delivering its program to achieve impact, with a particular focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Participants got a window onto the intended impacts of ASI’s two standards in development during afternoon parallel sessions. First, a technical session provided insights into a minor update to the Performance Standard and the latest consultation feedback on the Chain of May/June 2017
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Custody Standard. The session then took a deeper dive into the Assurance Manual and Assurance Platform that is under development, as well as the Claims Guide, all of which will be critical for the upcoming pilot phase. Presentation slides from the ASI AGM sessions are available on the ASI website. Following the day of engaged and energising discussion, the ASI Standards Committee shifted from inspiration to perspiration to make three days of solid, focused progress on the Standards, normative documents, and other issues requiring resolution in anticipation of the forthcoming consultation period, to start in May.
4% Downstream supporters
28% Production & Transformation
31% Associations
15% Civil Society 4% General Supporters
ASI Membership
Consultation followed by piloting A major consultation phase to gather public feedback on the minor revision of the Performance Standard, the updated draft of the Chain of Custody Standard, the Assurance Manual, and Claims Guide will begin in May and run through June 2017. This is part of a final push to work
out any remaining issues in preparation for when members begin the piloting phase in September 2017. Stakeholders interested in providing feedback are encouraged to consult the ASI website for more information, or sign up for the newsletter for timely announcements. Most members have committed to piloting one or both of the ASI Standards from July through September 2017, as a final major test before the ASI certification program is launched at the end of the year. The pilot phase will include hands-on use of all of the normative documentation through the Assurance Platform. At the same time, auditor accreditation will be taking place in anticipation of their critical role in monitoring and evaluating the Standards’ implementation. Growing and engaged membership Since December 2016, when ASI welcomed major aluminium value chain players Apple Inc., Arconic, and SAPA, ASI has continued to attract stakeholders in support of its mandate. Five additional members: Aluminium Federation of South Africa, Emirates Global Aluminium, Global Aluminium Foil Roller Initiative, Fromageries Bel, and Amcor have brought ASI’s membership to 47, covering all six membership classes (see diagram for statistics). � ASI is delighted to have such a deep base of support and breadth of coverage within the value chain, and from civil society. Their active participation in these last critical steps in 2017 will ensure that the ASI program that is launched will be market-ready and have the anticipated impact of responsible production, sourcing and stewardship of aluminium, starting in 2018. For more information, visit the ASI website: aluminium-stewardship.org Aluminium International Today
10/05/2017 12:02:31
Going downhill at last ‌
12 INDUSTRY 4.0
www.aluminiumtoday.com Photo courtesy of SAP
The next revolution By Myra Pinkham* The aluminium industry appears to be on the cusp of going through a very exciting transformation period as it takes advantage of what many describe as the fourth industrial revolution – the digitalisation of manufacturing. This revolution, most commonly referred to as Industry 4.0 (a term originally coined by Germany Trade and Invest, the economic development agency of the Federal Republic of Germany and pushed by the German machinery industry), but sometimes also called the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), especially in the United States, could enable the global manufacturing industry to take a quantum leap in productivity and efficiency. This, John Lichtenstein, managing director of natural resources for Accenture Strategy, says is being helped along by the convergence of a number of new digital technologies. Tom Garinis, senior advisor for Deloitte Consulting, describes this as a marriage of information technology (IT) and operational technologies that have become more prevalent with the combination of the recent increase in the data being captured through the growing number of sensors being used in the production process and the lower cost of computational power available today. “Industry 4.0 combines the connected technologies inherent in the Internet of Things (IoT) with relevant IT and operational technologies, including
analytics, additive manufacturing, robotics, high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, cognitive technologies, advanced materials and augmented reality,” Deloitte writes in a recent report. This, Garinis says, is part of what has become known as “the smart factory” or “smart manufacturing,” where companies could optimise their maintenance spends and improve asset efficiency through such things as predictive maintenance of their equipment, equipment communicating with other production equipment and new forms of human-machine interfacing. Digitisation has moved from being a “nice to have” or augmenting capability for aluminium and other metals companies to something that is vitally important for companies to be able to differentiate themselves from each other, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC (PwC), states in its Industry 4.0: Building the Digital Enterprise report, that such technologies are becoming a disruptive force, delivering supply chain agility, deeper process understanding and higher production utilisation. Because of this, “companies are planning for a future where much greater horizontal supply chain integration with customers and suppliers is possible across the whole product life cycle,” PwC writes. Every company has their own list of technologies involved in Industry 4.0, Lichtenstein points out, noting that the benefits don’t just come from the individual disruptive technologies and
having equipment that through sensors on that equipment gathering information or “Big Data,” but in their interconnectivity. “For the first time it gives companies the ability to link the flow of information from a multi-stage manufacturing process from the upstream all the way downstream,” he says. “Instead of having discrete or separate control systems for the melting, casting, rolling and other operations, everything could be linked together so the information that is generated upstream is immediately available to downstream operations. He says this, especially when combined with other emerging technologies, such as 3D printing or additive manufacturing, robotics, advanced simulations and augmented or virtual reality, has the potential for making manufacturing much more continuous from a real time information standpoint. “It gives companies greater speed and tremendous flexibility to adjust things on the fly. As a result, it gives them higher quality, greater productivity or throughput and greater efficiency in the conversion and utilisation of materials, as well as higher yields. This could be viewed as a quantum leap forward in what manufacturing could look like in the future.” The aluminium industry, however, is still in the early stages of incorporating Industry 4.0 into its operations, observes Stefan Koch, global metals lead for SAP SE, with certain segments of the industry
*US Correspondent May/June 2017
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14 INDUSTRY 4.0
making more advances than others. He says that the bauxite mining industry has made some inroads in using IIoT for such things as tracking the different qualities of different bauxite deposits at different locations, creating virtual models of the ore bodies at their mines. Lichtenstein maintains that the combination of a number of digital technologies, such as the use of Big Data, autonomous machinery, analytics and 3D digitalisation, has been completely changing the way that people mine. Koch agrees, noting that such technologies have been used to run a mine as a factory. This includes collecting and analysing maintenance and logistics information,
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have been delayed until commodity prices pick up and instead many companies have been focusing on the “need to haves.” This has definitely been true of the upstream aluminium sector, which, Garinis says is one of the few industries today that is still talking about the global financial crisis and has gone through successive cost reduction efforts since 2008. “The aluminium industry is on a journey,” he explains, noting that while it has been looking at digital technologies for a while and has begun their adoption, it is still in the very early stages of doing so. But there have been signs that the pace is about to pick up now that the aluminium industry is starting to come
Photo courtesy of SAP
as well as other data that could be used to ensure the safety of the company’s workers. Many downstream operations, including operations involved in the rolling, forging, casting and fabrication of aluminium, have been recently making moves toward integrating more of the Industry 4.0 concepts. But further upstream, alumina refineries and aluminium smelting operations have been slower to do so – even slower than certain other, somewhat similar, processing industries such as the chemical and petrochemical industry, Garinis maintains. The metals industry as a whole is not as far along in making IT investments as it had expected to be three to four years ago, when most companies had bigger capital investment budgets says Mike Tomera, PwC’s U.S. metals leader, noting that some “nice to have” investments May/June 2017
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out of its difficult times, Garinis says. “I believe this year is the year that aluminium companies will be taking a longer look at what Industry 4.0 could mean to them,” now that companies are at least a little less starved for capital. “Generally when people talk about Industry 4.0 they are talking about manufacturing rather than about mining or process industries such as aluminium making or steelmaking,” Lichtenstein admits, but he says there has been growing awareness that you could take these technologies into a mining, refining, smelting or downstream aluminium setting and get significant benefits as well. While the application of Industry 4.0 varies at the different stages of the aluminium production process, Koch says much of it revolves around the production equipment and the sensors and other measuring equipment that
tracks such things as the health of the various machines, what settings are being used and the status of the production process. But the key is to analyse this data and use it to plan, run, steer and correct the equipment to improve the production process and the quality of the product being produced. There are many different types of data that could be collected by the sensors. Koch says some common types of data include temperatures or material hardness such as the width or length of the product. Companies are also increasingly using optical systems to screen the surface to, for example, detect defects in a coil after it is rolled. Koch notes that this data could be used to create a simulation; a virtual world of three dimensional twin of what is going on in the physical world with the physical machine or even a virtual representation of the product that the company is looking to produce. That lets the company make conclusions about such things like production performance and product quality. “This is important because companies aren’t paid to run machines. Rather, they are paid for their products,” Koch says, although he admits that there are a number of other equipment-related benefits that the aluminium industry is looking to reap from Industry 4.0. He points out that these new digital technologies not only heighten companies’ ability of companies to do more predictive vs. reactive equipment maintenance, but could also enable greater machine learning, which involves the machine taking over the role of making assumptions to predict the future. Koch says that Industry 4.0 technologies and algorithms could be used to pick up certain patterns, therefore speeding up this kind of prediction. But even though a great deal of data is currently being collected at just about every production line, currently it isn’t necessarily being utilised in the most optimum way. According to Garinis, many companies only store the data in a repository from which it could go back and analyse it later, which results in a more reactionary way of doing business. Meanwhile by using technologies that convert the data into a format that they can actually use, analyse and that could even talk with the company’s industrial systems or process control systems, certain parameters or settings can be adjusted. Lichtenstein says this is made possible because Industry 4.0 technologies could enable all the disparate pieces of equipment and different processes to be completely integrated and optimised with less direct human intervention. While this could have some employment Aluminium International Today
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implications, with some functions now done by humans being done by machines, he says the goal isn’t the elimination of labour, but rather to improve efficiency and productivity and to lower costs. In fact, companies say that this could free up workers from doing certain mundane, repetitive tasks to do more value-added, creative work. “Other benefits of these digital technologies are increased product quality and an increased ability to make products right the first time, Lichtenstein says, noting that all of these benefits are interdependent. “By having better, more timely maintenance, a company not only has fewer unplanned shutdowns, but also more consistent, more reliable operations. That, in turn leads better quality, less wasted raw materials and less use of machine time to rework or redo orders.” Root cause analyses of problems discovered either further downstream in a company’s production process or even by its customers could also be made easier by Industry 4.0 technologies. In fact, Lichtenstein says the machine that picks up the problem downstream could automatically communicate with a machine upstream to automatically change its settings. All of this could be accomplished while also reducing cost, which, while key throughout the entire aluminium supply chain, Garinis says it is particularly vital for upstream operations, given the amount of energy consumed in alumina refining and aluminium smelting. Lichtenstein agrees, noting that by getting more detailed information about what’s going on during the alumina refining and aluminium smelting stages, helped along by better control mechanisms and analytics, a 10 percent cost reduction is considered to be a very reasonable target. When it comes to downstream aluminium operations, Koch says the main focus has been how Industry 4.0 and IIoT could help companies to improve both their product quality and the reliability of their production process. This, he says includes getting their technological processes as stable as possible, to achieve a certain quality level and to produce the exact products that their customers are looking for, and doing all of this while reducing their generation of waste and scrap and speeding up the production process. “The next step is for aluminium companies to use new digital technologies to grow their core businesses,” Lichtenstein says, noting that this could be achieved in several different ways. Companies might be able to use these technologies to develop more refined alloy grades. They also would be able to change from one alloy grade to another more quickly and/or to be able to more precisely fine tune settings at their rolling mills to match specific applications. While digital technologies have already helped aluminium companies to improve the quality, reliability and consistency of their products, Lichtenstein says certain new, disruptive technologies, such as 3D printing, has the potential to enable them to better control their inputs. “I think that Industry 4.0 and IIoT have a very interesting future,” SAP’s Koch says, with more and more digital technologies coming into play with greater capabilities both on the hardware and software side. “A big topic will be machine learning and artificial intelligence as you continue to see processes that are not currently in place today. You will see more automation, more prediction and more flexible production.” As far as aluminium’s acceptance of such technologies, Garinis says he is optimistic that, based on what Deloitte has seen with the chemicals sector, which he sees as a good benchmark for the aluminium industry, it is very likely that its adoption of Industry 4.0 and IIoT will only accelerate. “It is still just in the infancy of integrating these technologies, but we believe that its rate of adoption will accelerate as companies look to invest in wßays to improve their productivity, lower their costs and make better use of both their workers and their capital.” �
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16 AEROSPACE
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Commercial aerospace: Is aluminium still relevant?
Image courtesy of Boeing
By Bill Bihlman*
Aluminium dominated aircraft design for 75 years. Starting with the Boeing 247 in 1933 – followed shortly by the Douglas DC-3 – aircraft were essentially aluminium. And that was the paradigm. Over the past decade, however, both Airbus and Boeing have introduced predominately polymer composite aircraft. Given this dramatic shift, what can we expect from these companies going forward? Specifically, what will the configuration of the next generation narrow body aircraft entail? In short, is aluminium still relevant? Aircraft structure are basically designed to transfer the bending movements from the wing and empennage into the fuselage. Meanwhile, this cylindrical pressure vessel is being cycled during take-off and landing. These stresses within the aerostructure are shared between the frame/stringers and the outer skins in a design methodology known as “semi-monocoque.” Older aircraft were especially parts and labour intensive. A majority of the assemblies were built from manipulated aluminium sheet, fastened together with an impressive number of
rivets. These fasteners were scrupulously “bucked” (i.e. set) by hand. Consider the evolution of the Boeing wide body aircraft. The company introduced the world’s first “jumbo jet” in 1970, namely the 747. This aircraft contained roughly six million parts – the majority were rivets. Approximately 25 years later, the company introduced the 777, a smaller twin-engine widebody. Boeing designers strived for part consolidation, and the concept of “monolithic” parts became more prevalent. Former assemblies were now being built from entire metal plate or bar that was extensively milled using an automated five-axis computer numeric controlled (CNC) milling machine. The result is a highly precise, three-dimensional part/component. The part count fell precipitously by 50% relative to the 747. The basic materials and the general build philosophy, though, were not significantly altered. In 2005, the company launched the 787 Dreamliner. This widebody aircraft was a considerable departure from previous designs. The 787 was principally carbon
fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite. Bonded CFRP structures helped to eliminate some fasteners, and the total part-count fell an additional 25% relative to the 777. The company’s composites experience was partially derived from the 777, where CFRP was employed for empennage and floor structure (mainly due to corrosion concerns). Airbus responded in kind with the A350 – its own largely CFRP aircraft. One important distinction is that Airbus utilises CFRP panels; Boeing filament winds the entire fuselage. Both methods allow for variation of skin thicknesses. These aircraft have enjoyed a relatively successful adoption as airlines acknowledge their operational performance and efficiencies. Aviation is a conservative industry. The prohibitive costs – both real and imaginary – of a catastrophic failure make it unlike any other industry save, perhaps, nuclear power. And the industry is unique with its obsession for lightweight structures. Fuel cost historically represents between 25 to 50% of the direct operating costs of typical narrowbody or widebody aircraft; consequently, any weight savings directly
*Aerolytics LLC, USA May/June 2017
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18 AEROSPACE
translates into increased profitability for airline operators. The aircraft original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as Airbus and Boeing, painstakingly reduce weight by using impeccably qualified materials, coupled with judicious design practices. Perhaps somewhat disquieting, the industry actually has one of the lowest design margins of safety: 1.5 to 1. This helps minimise weight. In other words, to support a load of 1000kg, for example, aviation components would be designed to carry an ultimate load of 1500kg. The automotive industry, by contrast, would use a 3000kg rated component. Rest assured, however. The inferior margin is safely offset by exacting quality control
Image courtesy of Boeing
of materials and processes that have to conform to governmental requirements - some of the most stringent of any industry. Safety is furthermore upheld by an unparalleled preventative maintenance regiment. Aircraft are required to undergo thorough routine inspections. This, too, is strictly monitored by a governmental authority. Like any industry, cost is a primary design consideration. Increasingly, the emphasis although is shifting from acquisition cost to total life-cycle cost as operators and OEMs become more sophisticated in cost accounting and data analytics. For aircraft OEMs, the second design constraint for material selection is predicated upon a material’s strength versus weight. This is known as specific strength. The third design objective is manufacturability. Since aerostructures in particular are parts and labour intensive, much effort is directed towards increasing production efficiency, while enhancing quality/reliability. May/June 2017
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CFRP helps to reduce labour content. Nevertheless, current CFRP designs still involve a semi-monocoque configuration and are therefore colloquially referred to as “black aluminium.” This paradigm results from conservative engineering notions/norms, as well as legacy tooling and assembly practices. In light of the variability of CFRP final mechanical properties in comparison to a more isotropic material such as aluminium, it is envisaged that CFRP designs will continue to be optimised going forward. Design criteria for gas turbines is rather different. Naturally, cost is still a principle concern. The second and third order design targets are operational efficiency vs weight and maintainability. Lightweighting, now standard industry parlance, is particularly critical for rotating parts. This includes the inlet fan and turbine/compressor disks and attached blades. And with increasing inlet diameters – which afford a higher “bypass ratio” and, in turn, greater fuel efficiency – lightweight inlet fans are imperative. For this reason, steel has given way to titanium fan blades over the years. And more recently, titanium’s primacy has been challenged. Aluminium has relatively poor performance at high temperatures. As a result, it is used sparingly within the engine and is limited to the “cold section.” This is the front half of the gas turbine. Engine OEM Pratt & Whitney has partnered with Alcoa for its newest engine. The P&W Geared Turbo Fan employs an aluminium-lithium forged fan blade with a titanium leading edge. This is the company’s response to GE’s CFRP fan blades developed for the CFM LEAP engine. These engines are powering the Airbus and Boeing narrowbody derivatives (i.e. A320 NEO and 737MAX), while delivering a 15% decrease in fuel burn. Nearly 700,000 tons of total material is consumed annually in aerospace. Almost half is aluminium; a large majority is plate mill product. As previously discussed, plate consumption will continue to increase at the expense of sheet due to the decline of sheet-fabricated assemblies. Surprisingly, 80-85% of aluminium is lost during its conversion from a molten state to final part. Much of the inefficiency results from the fact that aluminium is inexpensive (about $6/kg for 7xxx plate) and can be easily recycled. On the other hand, CFRP has a much greater yield with approximately 70% of the material used in the final part. This rate-of-conversion is capture in the aerospace lexicon “buy-tofly.” The 10-year forecast for aluminium is not bullish with the onset of CRFP aircraft. It is projected to remain flat; in contrast, CFRP will grow at 6.5% per annum, according to US-based ICF.
Notwithstanding, the aluminium industry has not remained completely dormant. Emerging materials include fourth-generation aluminium lithium, alloyed with silver, and various derivatives of 7000-series heat-treated aluminium alloy. These are custom alloys for niche airframe applications to better manage stresses. Fibre reinforced aluminium – known as GLARE – has substantially better damage tolerance and fatigue life; it was employed by Airbus on the A380 fuselage. And finally, metal-to-metal bonding is under further investigation. The hope is to increase aluminium’s relevance for the next generation narrowbody. Research emphasis for non-metals surrounds out-of-autoclave thermoset composites and highly versatile thermoplastic, for stringers and keel beams, for example. Holland’s Fokker Technologies is a leading researcher in this space. Both metals and non-metals are being evaluated to more effectively mitigate crack propagation along bond lines. Apart from CFRP, there has been only modest adoption of significantly new materials in commercial aerospace. Indeed, aviation is a conservative industry. Most changes inevitably result from incremental gain, and potentially highly disruptive materials and processes such as additive manufacturing (or 3D printing) are not aggressively embraced. New materials are costly to develop. A highly advanced alloy could cost US$10M and a decade to successfully market. Accordingly, most aeromaterials such as TI 6-4, IN718, 174PH, and 7xxx aluminium were developed in the 1960s and early 1970s during the Cold War; even carbon fibre and its associated resins were developed in the early 1980s. Most of the industry’s efforts is currently directed towards cost reduction and efficient execution on a healthy order backlog. In terms of next generation narrowbody, the consensus favours a hybrid – an aluminium (or aluminium lithium or GLARE) airframe with a CFRP wing and empennage. One of the single greatest challenges of CFRP structures is damage detection and repair. Thus, a metal fuselage would be much easier to maintain. On the other hand, a metallic wing involves extensive use of machined plate and fasteners. Using CFRP, engineers can obtain unique geometries and smoother surfaces – free of fasteners – along with high aspect ratios, due to the stiffness of the material. It appears likely that Boeing will make an announcement in 2017, since the product development cycle is typically eight to 10 years. We aviation enthusiasts, meanwhile, can only surmise… � Aluminium International Today
10/05/2017 12:05:47
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Let the good times roll… Having recently celebrated the second anniversary of its formation, it seems that the only way is up for Aludium. Nadine Bloxsome* visited the Alicante plant and spoke with Arnaud de Weert** and Manuel Ruano*** about what has changed and more importantly, what has stayed the same. I’m the first to jump at an opportunity for a bit of ‘winter sun’, so when kindly invited to visit Aludium in Alicante, I was on a flight quicker than you can say “Easyjet”. The reason is that over the past two years Aludium has been transformed. The company has made the change from being a small part of a multi-national, to a fully independent business with a global outlook and the result is a full order book. “The reason we are growing is because we are servicing our customers,” says Manuel Ruano, Chief Operating Officer. He joins the interview in a flurry of excitement, fresh from a phone call with a customer, “And I am part of the service!” “We were in bad shape back in 2014 and now we are growing, just by taking care of our customers and being dedicated to our markets,” he continues. “It is not solely about maintaining a customer relationship, but by improving the service, we keep the relationship!”
In the beginning While Aludium is a new entity, it benefits from more than 60 years of experience in the sector. The company comprises three former Alcoa mills; two in Spain, one in France and a research and development centre in Spain. These assets have been consolidated under the Aludium brand by Atlas Holdings, a global industrial holding company with an approach to growing industrial companies with a long-term investment horizon. Aludium is committed to the building and construction, distribution and specialities product markets. Whilst the recent industry trend is for aluminium companies to focus on automotive and aerospace markets, the company’s focus is to continue to provide know-how to the core markets. “We are very proud to have been born out of Alcoa. The Alcoa operational excellence legacy is something we want to continue, but we want to take it to the
next level,” says Arnaud de Weert, Chief Executive Officer. Investing in development “When we started, the first thing we had to do was become standalone,” says Arnaud. “The next thing was to grow selectively with our customers through short lead times and co-engineering to also help them grow.” One of the main ways Aludium is working towards its focus is with continued investment in new services and tools to help its customers. And while the facilities have deep industrial pedigree, having been established since the 1950s, it is for this very reason that the most attention has been paid to the assets when it comes to investment projects. “We want to become the best performing mill in Europe and to do this, we are driving a number of debottlenecking projects across the three locations,” says Manuel.
*Editor, Aluminium International Today **CEO, Aludium ***COO, Aludium May/June 2017
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Manuel Ruano, Chief Operating Officer
“Our goal is to reach an output of 300,000 tonnes, with the same level of assets,” he continues. “To put it into context of where we are currently; in 2014 we were at 145,000 tonnes. In 2015 we had reached 185,000 and by 2017 we will produce 229,000 tonnes. The expectation is to increase the output again by 15% taking us nearer to our goal.” Back in the autumn of 2016, the Aludium Board approved a new investment. One of the projects will focus on the reduction of non-rolling time in the hot mill and is being implemented at Easter, with the second phase planned for the summer. The second bottleneck area that required attention was the annealing capacity. Last year, Aludium invested in a new furnace at Alicante and a new furnace has just been commissioned in Amorebieta, which will result in 20,000 extra tonnes of output across both. “Finally, we have to update our finishing lines,” says Manuel. Some of the technology in this area Aluminium International Today
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dates back to 1998 and there has been a lot of progress during the last 20 years, so Aludium is investing in the electronics here to improve the quality and to increase the output by approximately 30%. This will be carried out in both Alicante and Amorebieta over the coming months. Arnaud tells me that the investments in technology are part of the move towards ‘Aludium 4.0’, which takes us off on a tangent. This is an area I am interested in knowing more about how it will be applied to the aluminium industry… “What does Industry 4.0 really mean? Everyone is trying to find that out,” says Arnaud. “What we are doing, which is relatively new for us, is finding a whole new way of looking at and utilising data we are capturing in production using the latest technology. We are actually working with an artificial intelligence company based in the UK to take every piece of data and examine the patterns, behaviours and the way we measure the business to define new ways of improving our production processes and workflows.” Sustainability While ‘Industry 4.0’ seems like the latest buzzword, the aluminium industry is more dedicated than ever when it comes to sustainable manufacturing and reducing its carbon footprint. The Alicante plant is surrounded by a lot of rural land that cannot be built upon, so Aludium is working closely with the local community and Council to build a forest for the city. “This is a very exciting project that we are working on to remove the carbon footprint,” explains Manuel. “It is part of our commitment to the community and sustainability.” Another way that Aludium is working towards a sustainable future is by helping customers to close the loop. The company has invested in its rotary furnace, which enables the re-use of dirty scrap and more
Arnaud de Weert, Chief Executive Officer
investments are planned in this area in the future. “We are investing in recycling, but we also want to invest in our service, so we are working to help our customers close the loop by collecting scrap from them to bring back to Aludium,” says Manuel. This is a very important area for Aludium and the company is investing time and money into ways to recuperate the scrap from smaller customers, who only have 50 – 100 tonnes of scrap and compact this scrap for re-use in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. “Post consumer recycling is a very important point, but I also see so many opportunities for aluminium when it comes to lightweight technology,” adds Arnaud. “People are going to get fed up with plastic and see the benefits of the can and all the sustainability aspects. We don’t do a good job at selling that as the aluminium industry and the lobby is very small compared to what the plastics guys do, but the story is very good and ultimately, the facts will win.” May/June 2017
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Cindal As part of its portfolio, Aludium operates the Cindal R&D centre, also based in Alicante. The team of experts includes specialists in all aluminium technology areas, products and processes. I was lucky enough to be given a guided tour of the facilities by Antonio Quereda, Director of Innovation and Technology. As well as taking responsibility for optimising Aludium’s own products and processes, Cindal R&D provides valuable support and advice to customers. There are advanced laboratories for the development of new products and to satisfy customers’ requirements for testing and new product development. The Cindal researchers regularly work with customers to co-engineer new products and over the years, Cindal R&D has amassed an extensive reference library covering all aspects of aluminium metallurgy and processing. The R&D centre also holds a constantly growing number of patents. “The co-engineering approach is part of our DNA,” says Antonio. “We don’t just supply metal, we want to be a real solution provider for our customers.” The Cindal R&D centre has also just
opened a new facility dedicated to exploring aluminium solutions for the automotive industry. To be known as Aludium Transportation, the facility will become a centre of excellence within the company and identify opportunities for Aludium to further its involvement in the sector. Antonio explained that the centre could provide sample characterisation, metallographic analysis, thermomechanical analysis and on-site
Molten Metal Level Control
assessments when required. There is also a plan in place to become more involved in the development phase much earlier. The future “The next step for us is more investments to lower our metal costs and creating closed loop recycling for our customers,” says Arnaud. “Our start-up success really comes down to the proximity and intimacy we have with the customer and driving that forward is a priority.” �
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Surface finishes for automotive sheet New technology and equipment for roll texturing developed by Pomini Tenova has opened up possibilities for designing and engineering of surface finishes to optimise the performance of the work rolls, rolling mills and the subsequent processing of the sheet material. By Massimo Cavallari, Paolo Gaboardi, Rick McWhirter & Claudio Trevisan*
The characteristics of the surface texture on the work roll and the texture transferred to the rolled sheet surface have a significant effect on the performance of both the work roll and the rolled sheet. The characteristics of the surface texture for optimum performance during rolling, forming and painting are measured by a variety of parameters such as Roughness average (Ra), Peak Count (Rpc), Skewness (Rsk) and Waviness (Wa). Another very important aspect of the work roll surface texture is the ability to transfer the desired surface texture to the rolled sheet during the various rolling operations. Most producers of aluminium automotive sheet use textured rolls in their existing Cold Rolling Mill with typical reductions of approximately 5%. While EDT has been used for many years in steel applications it has only become commonplace for aluminium producers in recent years due to the increased use of aluminium sheet for automotive applications. The typical roll roughness and other requirements for aluminium sheet rolling are quite different to those typically used for steel mills. In addition as it involves adapting an existing rolling mill the optimum textured roll requirements can vary greatly from mill to mill While the current texturing processes have the ability to control some of these important parameters, they cannot always control the parameters independently of each other to create the optimum surface texture for each different application. Pomini has developed a new process; Pomini Digital Texturing™ (1) that has the ability to individually control the surface texture parameters with great accuracy and consistency. This provides the opportunity to engineer the surface texture on the work roll to give the best combination of features for both the sheet producer and sheet user.
GLOSS
DOI
ORANGE PEEL
SHAPE
Fig 1. Surface wave length components 0.001
0.01
0.1 1 Wave length (mm)
10
Human machine interface
100
Digital texturing Internal
Pomini
ethernet Fibre optic
Texturing head
Fig 2. Pomini digital texturingTM system
Background information During the rolling process the transfer of the Ra and Rpc from the work roll to the rolled sheet are two of the main measures of the work roll performance. In addition, to the useable campaign life of the work roll and the generation of “mill fines” during the rolling process are two important attributes when producing textured aluminium sheet.
Previous investigations of sheet steel surface topography and the influence on the forming of automotive panels concluded that a texture comprising “many peaks and valleys” with a Ra in the range of 1.4 - 2.0 µm provided good forming performance. Formability is also considered to improve with increased peak density, up to a limit when the “valleys” become too small to hold sufficient
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Ra vs RPc (Band width +/-0.5)
160 140 120 100 RPc 80
Fig 3. PDTTM Ra controlled independent of Rpc
60 40 20 0 0.0
0.1
0.2 0.3
0.4 0.5 0.6 Roughness Ra
lubricant and wear debris. The overall painting appearance is determined by such factors as; gloss, DOI and orange peel, each of which relates to a specific area of wavelength components in the surface texture on the rolled sheet as shown in Fig 1. Several studies of the effect of surface texture on the paint appearance have concluded that for stochastic textures, such as Shotblasting (SB) and Electrodischarge Texturing (EDT), there is a correlation between low Ra and high Rpc and improved paint appearance. A low roughness of approximately 0.75 um Ra in combination with high peak count, in the range of 74 peaks/cm, provided the “maximum” image clarity for a 50 µm paint film.(2) While Ra and Rpc are important for good paint appearance these investigations also revealed that they alone don’t always produce good paint appearance, but that the Waviness (Wa) also has a strong correlation with the paint appearance. A reduced Wa improves paint appearance with typical values on the rolled sheet of amplitude below 0.35 μm 0.45 μm are requested by the automotive industry. It is also considered that deterministic texture patterns, such as Electron Beam Texturing (EBT), have improved forming and painting characteristics due to the higher level of closed voids and the more regular appearance, which leads to less galling and orange peel.(3) Rolled sheet
Random spacing, Open surface and minimal crater overlap
0.7
0.8
0.0
with a topography having low waviness and negative skewness was found to be an optimised profile to achieve a high quality paint appearance. Investigations have also found that the paint appearance of deterministic surfaces is less sensitive to the actual Ra and Rpc of the rolled sheet.(4) From these multitude of investigations it can be seen that there are a number of desirable features on the work roll and sheet surface texture that improve the performance during cold rolling, forming and painting. More than 3 years of testing has proven that to achieve the required texture on the work roll it is beneficial to use a process such as Pomini Digital TexturingTM which can accurately and independently control the Ra, Rpc, Rsk, Wa, volume of closed voids and degree of deterministic /stochastic of the texture matrix. New texturing process The process is referred to as Pomini Digital Texturing™ as it relies extensively on software technology to generate the texture matrix and control the high frequency lasers that apply the texture to the roll surface. The Pomini Digital Texturing™ System, as shown in Fig 2, incorporates an “off the shelf” high frequency Laser, which is controlled by the digital texturing system developed by Pomini. This combination creates an accurate, flexible and efficient texturing system with the benefits of a laser source with high reliability, low
Random spacing, higher crater density increased overlapping
maintenance and proven in a large number of industrial applications. The surface texture can be designed using computer simulation to achieve the desired matrix and then the dimensions of craters, such as depth, diameter and shape and proportion of the peaks can be controlled by the software operating the laser system. By controlling these features the Ra, Rpc and Rsk can be adjusted independently from each other. Fig 3 shows in independence of the Ra and Rpc as produced by the process whereby a range of roughness from 2.0 to 8.0 can be produced with the same crater matrix and Rpc of 80 by increasing the crater depth and rim height to increase the Ra. Because the surface texture matrix is software controlled, it allows a wide range of surfaces to be produced ranging from Deterministic to Stochastic and by altering the spacing parameters the density of the surface texture can be changed to produce “open” or “closed” surfaces as shown in Fig 4. Varying the matrix of craters textured onto the work roll allows the degree of uniformity, Wa, quantity of closed voids and ratio of valleys to plateau produced on the rolled sheet to be controlled, all parameters that previous investigations have determined as affecting both the formability and paintability of the rolled sheet. In addition the broad peaks produced by the PDTTM process are highly desirable to provide very good texture transfer to the rolled sheet and wear characteristics of the work rolls without the need for any form of “post processing” to modify the surface after the initial texturing, as is a common practice by many sheet producers using the EDT process. The Pomini Digital Texturing™ process has the ability to produce a wide range of surface texture and after testing in user’s rolling mills the performance of the surface textures was sufficiently verified to design and manufacture the first production machine. This machine has been in operation for 18 months texturing
Random spacing, larger craters and increased overlapping
Evenly spaced orderly arragement
Fig 4. PDTTM Crater Matrix
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mill types and the different rolled sheet produced require different textures with particular combinations of parameters to optimise performance of the roll and the rolled sheet. The PDTTM process also allows new surface textures to be developed that were not possible to produce with accuracy and repeatability in the past.
Fig 5. PDTTM surface texture
Fig 6. PDTTM textured roll
both production and trial rolls for rolling mills.
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1.8 1.4 Roughness Ra
Results Various types of PDTTM surface textures have been developed for specific applications, primarily with the aim of producing the requested surface on the rolled sheet while improving the work roll performance. Initially, PDTTM surface textures replicating the overlapping matrix craters of EDT have been produced while also improving specific attributes such as Ra consistency, transfer of Rpc and work roll life. A typical PDTTM surface is magnified in Fig 5, where the random and isotropic arrangement of uniform craters can be seen. A roll after texturing can be seen in Fig 6 to be uniform and consistent in appearance. This particular surface has a degree of crater overlap to simulate a typical EDT arrangement but with much better crater and rim definition resulting in discrete craters and broad peaks, due to the raised nature of the crater rim this surface also has a “positive” skew value on the roll. The broader more rounded shape of the roll peaks results in improved resistance to wear and reduced drop in the Ra of the rolls at the start of a campaign. This allows rolls with an initial Ra approximately 20% lower than EDT rolls used to achieve the same strip Ra. The initial Ra drop for PDTTM rolls occurs during the first few meters of rolling and the Ra is then very stable throughout the first and subsequent coils as shown in figure 7 which compares the head end, middle and tail end roughness Ra values of the first coil on new work rolls. As Wa is a function of texturing process and also proportional to Ra, a lower roll Ra has been previously found to produce a lower rolled sheet waviness, which is significant for paint appearance. The improved transfer rate is possibly due to a combination on the work roll surfaces, textured with PDTTM, of positive skew
Strip roughness first coil
1.0 0.8 0.4 0.0 Head end
Middle
Tail end
Conclusions In the past there have been a large number of investigations looking at the various aspects of the textured surface on work rolls and its performance. Typically these investigations were limited to considering one or two aspects of the surface texture and the effect on performance of the work roll or rolled sheet for a particular application. With very limited control over the irregular, stochastic type surfaces textures their performance is very sensitive to the parameters of Ra and Rpc. Until the development of PDTTM process it has not been possible to accurately control so many of the surface textures parameters, including the degree of irregularity, to optimise the performance of both the work roll and the rolled sheet. �
Fig 7. PDTTM Ra of first coil
and a greater uniformity of the peaks. In the production of sheet using textured rolls the generation of excessive mill fines or dust is a common problem. This excess dust can lead to a variety of surface defects and also block coolant filters. It has been reported that the use of PDT textured rolls has generally resulted in less fines generation, with has been attributed to the use of lower Ra rolls with a more rounded peak shape. Future development There has been a general trend to reduce Ra and increase Rpc on the rolled sheet surface, as this has been shown to improve paint appearance for stochastic type surfaces such as EDT. On stochastic type surfaces decreasing Ra and increasing Rpc is known to reduce the waviness amplitude on the rolled sheet, which leads to the improved paint appearance. Equally, it has been shown that for deterministic type surfaces the paint appearance is also improved due to the more regular nature of the surface. An optimum result for formability and paintability may be achieved by using a surface with a degree of irregularity between stochastic and deterministic. This high degree of control of PDTTM has the ability to optimise the performance of both the work roll and the rolled sheet for each particular application and rolling process. It is known that different
Contact www.tenova.com
References [1] Quaglia D., Boselli G., McWhirter R., Gaboardi P., Bavestrelli G. and Trevisan C.: The Latest Available Technologies In Designing Modern Roll Shops; AISTech 2014. [2] Nilan T.G. et al., Relationship of sheet surface roughness texture to painted sheet appearance. Proc. 19th Mechanical Working and Steel Processing Conf., Pittsburgh, Pa., 1977. pp. 148-157. [3] Miller W.S., Zhuang L., Bottema J., Wittebrood A.J., De Smet P., Haszler A., Vieregge A.: Recent development in aluminium alloys for the automotive industry; Materials Science and Engineering A280, 2000, pp 37– 49 [4] Scheers J., De Mare C., Iron and Steel Society; Mechanical Working and Steel Processing Division: The use of ‘finedeterministic’ steel sheet textures to improve the drawability and paint quality of high strength body panels; 40th Mechanical Working and Steel Processing Conference Proceedings, Pittsburgh, USA, October 25-28, 1998, Volume 36, 93-99.
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THE STORY OF CENTROAL
ASSOCIATION UPDATE: CIAL
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ITALIAN SUPPLEMENT 1
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With the return of METEF and the Aluminium 2000 Congress to Verona in June this year, Aluminium International Today has dedicated a section to Italian manufacturers and processors. METEF is an international event in the metals sector offering a comprehensive exhibition on raw materials, processing, machining, technologies, machinery and plants, products and applications as well as on state-of-theart technologies for metals recovery and recycling and the most original solutions for the automotive industry. While, after nine editions, Aluminium 2000 has become a very important and irreplaceable meeting point for all the operators working in the aluminium industry. These events bring the Italian aluminium industry together, along with international players to do business,
Front cover image courtesy of Pixabay
All eyes on Italy exchange contracts and focus on technical innovations. This Italian supplement features a number of articles from Italian aluminium companies and highlights their products and upcoming projects. There is also an update on CentroAl (the Italian Centre for the Aluminium Industry) on its formation and ongoing work with its members. For those of you attending METEF or Aluminium 2000, you can pick up your free copy of Aluminium International Today! I hope you enjoy this supplement and success if you are attending the upcoming events.
Nadine Bloxsome, Editor, Aluminium International Today
CONSARC ENGINEERING Ltd are world leaders in the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of vacuum and controlled atmosphere furnace equipment. Over fifty years of experience have gone into developing our vast thermal processing technology product range to process the most advanced materials for critical and demanding applications. Consarc Engineering Ltd 9 Woodside, Eurocentral, Holytown, Scotland, UK ML1 4XL Tel: +44 1698 730430 Fax: +44 1698 730431 Email: sales@consarceng.com www.consarceng.com
HERTWICH SMS group Hertwich Engineering is active worldwide with the design, supply, construction and commissioning of speciality machinery and equipment for Aluminium casthouses. The product range comprises the following technically advanced equipment: Continuous and Batch Homogenizing Plants, Sawing Plants, Horizontal DC Casting Machines, Ultrasonic Inspection Stations and Melting Furnaces for Aluminium Scrap. Hertwich Engineering GmbH Weinbergerstr. 6 A-5280 Braunau Tel. +43 7722 806 112 Fax. +43 7722 806 122 www.hertwich.com
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Focus on: Italian aluminium
In this article, Bruno Presezzi summarises recent developments and challenges that the aluminium industry will be facing, with a focus on rolled products.
The world aluminium market is in continuous turmoil, driven mostly by financial and political factors: As a part of the whole, Italian market is as well looking forward to its future and shaping up to tackle upcoming challenges. A brief review of last year’s trend shows that volumes have been on the rise when compared to 2015, even though sales have still not reached a fully satisfactory condition. There are big tensions in the market, due to some players trying to bring home as many orders as possible whilst compromising on prices, which is obviously dragging down margins and therefore cannot be afforded for long periods of time, at least without negative impact. Small players will find themselves in big trouble if this continues, as they are the ones with less possibility to survive for long periods with low incomes or, in some cases, even negative margins. Everybody is trying to cut down manufacturing costs, to reach a feasible condition in which low margins are not excessively affecting operations and long-term aspirations. As of early 2017, aluminium prices continue to rise, powered by LME value and yet some players are keeping low margins to try winning orders, surprisingly. This could force others to do the same and create more problems than benefits, in particular if the LME stops its rally. Investments are obviously very low, since there is lower income due to “artificially” low prices, therefore new production capacity is very difficult to see coming in the short term. Anyway it’s safer to be cautious, since China’s decision to evaluate shutting down a few plants, to help fight pollution and over production, might have a serious impact on world markets and, in sequence, also the Italian one market. Specifically, we might find ourselves looking for more automotive stock, if this decision is made and it’s a fact that a lot of players are looking for wider strips, well over 2m and, in some cases, over 2.5m: Extreme dimensions, a clear sign of the target. In continuous strip casting, industry players are more or less stationary in terms of their product mix, being linked to ups and down related to financial factors: Building sheet and all of its accessories (same can be said of extruded profiles for facades and roofing) have been stagnating for some time and the housing market does not show any sign of an imminent rise. More generally in Europe, some companies are installing new capacity or replacing obsolete lines with new technology, again maximising the width of strip coming off the casters, but this is not happening in the Italian market: No enquiry for new lines has been issued recently. May/June 2017
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Painted sheet is one of the most popular products of the local market, but is traditionally linked to its “seasons”, with periods of high demand and others in which it’s difficult to bring home orders to fill the production path fully: This is still happening today. A few manufacturers are trying to move in opposite directions, moving in uncharted territory, going towards niche products in order to increase their income, without sacrificing prices. In the foil market, a big customer like Tetrapak qualifying Chinese metal for his application has been dramatic for Asian markets, causing a lot of competitors to reduce production: They chose this alternative over a reduction in price, so as not to lose money.
Zinc caster line revamping by Bruno Presezzi – Spring 2015
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ITALIAN SUPPLEMENT 3
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Europe and Italy are really far away from China and Asia, but this is anyway certainly scaring our producers and in the medium to long term might prove to be difficult to overcome, as this product is really critical to manufacturing, with low recoveries and high rolling costs. Bruno Presezzi SPA, based in Northern Italy, in between the industrial areas of Milan and Bergamo has achieved a good reputation for the supply of twin-roll continuous casting systems for the production of aluminium strip. The core business being the supply of roll cores and shells: High tech consumables. The company, founded in 1954, occupies a manufacturing plant in Burago Molgora, providing a covered area of 6,500 sqm. The plant provides
Bruno Presezzi Caster line TT 1000
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employment for more than 100 people. Although Bruno Presezzi manufacture a wide range of industrial machinery, the aluminium division now represents a very important sector of the company’s business. Extensive engineering experience in the design and construction of such machines has led to a comprehensive understanding of the twin-roll continuous casting process, especially in the context of rolls technology. The first version of the Presezzi TT 1000 caster was commissioned in May 2003, at the Profilglass plant in Fano, Italy. The customer is a world-leader in the manufacture of spacer bars and decorative profiles for insulated windows. The success of this layout led to an order for four more lines, which were brought into production between 2006 and 2009. The main technical features of these TT 1000 layouts, which include a state-of-the-art AGC system, are as follows: Maximum castable strip width, 1,750mm before edge milling and minimum strip width 800mm, with a thickness variable from 3 to 8mm. The maximum casting speed is 6m per min. The maximum coil weight is 13 tonnes and the maximum diameter 2,000 mm. Maximum torque available for each roll in continuous mode is 380,000 Nm whilst the total force available is 2,200 tonnes (@ 260 bar). The casting rolls (in Presezzi patent configuration) have a diameter of 970 mm and the roll table has a length of 1,900mm. Between 2004 and 2012, Bruno Presezzi SPA commissioned several more lines to different customers and also decided to explore other non-ferrous materials: In 2012 the company successfully installed a new continuous casting line for Zinc. Bruno Presezzi is currently manufacturing a second casting line for Zinc, which will be installed and commissioned in early 2018 and will have a series of new features coming from the continuous R&D efforts: Automatic start up is the pinpoint of all developments recently achieved. It allows the line to start up with minimum effort from operators thus preventing them from heat exposure (a characteristic of the “human� start up procedure). From a technical standpoint, it provides repeatability to start up operations, removing the constraint of operators experience and makes every start up equal to the other, thus improving quality. Another goal achieved by the R&D team is the development of a version of the parting agent applied to rolls during casting, preventing molten aluminium from sticking to the rolls: The R4 graphite based release agent entered the market in September 2016, more and more encountering the tastes of customers. May/June 2017
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A few special features included in the recipe of the product are making it a top end product quality wise. During recent years (2014 and 2015) the company specialised in yet another service to the customers: Revamping of lines. In 2014 Bruno Presezzi provided this service to Eurofoil in Luxembourg, transforming their line 4 from a 4 high caster to a more standard 2 high. The revamping process took approximately one month on site and helped them to increase their yearly production by 5,000 tons. In 2015, the same service was made for a Zinc producer, rebuilding completely their line upstream of the casting stand: Brand new equipment (and technology) was installed from furnace spout up to head box and tip. A 12% increase in production was achieved after our intervention. In the field of rolls and shells, the company is constantly evaluating new possibilities and in the next months will be ready to launch a new shell material that customers will appreciate. As of today there is a variety of shell materials available, ranging from the standard steel to a special grade with much improved thermal exchange properties, allowing for higher casting speed, to finish with the power horse, which is a well designed compromise between heat exchange and durability. Presezzi’s skilled technical team provides a worldwide customer service, available to both existing and potential customers. This ensures prompt delivery of spare parts, including commercially sourced parts, simple or special configured spares and special or dedicated assemblies. The team is also available to provide engineering technical assistance for the study and implementation of modifications and /or improvements to existing machinery. As far as R&D is concerned, Bruno Presezzi has dedicated plenty of resources over last couple of years (both human and monetary), bringing home a couple of really important projects, but we are still in the hunt to make sure we the company is always at the forefront of technology in the field, and not left behind in the face of future challenges. �
ALUMINIUM STRIP CONTINUOUS CASTING LINES Bruno Presezzi SpA supplies complete continous casting lines for aluminium and zinc strip from engineering to construction. Today featuring new developments: - automatic system for reliable start up - improved shell material for enhanced performance
TWIN-ROLL CASTERS SHELLS, CORES AND ROLLS
Special steel grades for shells
93.SQ.13: base grade since 1993 CMYV: softer grade for excellent casting speed (also suitable for zinc)
MO22: excellent casting speed + high tonnage production ASG2: excellent casting speed + improved strip microstructure
NEWS: after many years invested in R&D, Bruno Presezzi SpA
is now in a position to provide parting agent features which set us apart from competition: - prevent sticking of aluminium strip to shell - suitable for all alloys - higher concentration for improved realising action - reduced consumption - less sedimentation than competition, accept lower storage temperatures, although not recommended - self-cleaning additive to clean spray circuit (less material waste due to clogging guns) - suggested dilution ratio: from 1% to 1.5%, in accordance to industry standards - container size: lt.1 - lt.2 - lt.5 (gal.0,26 - gal 0,52 - gal 1,32); other on demand
BRUNO PRESEZZI SpA’s PATENTED CASTER ROLLS
Cores with flat surface and shells with grooved ID for: - improved productivity - better temperature uniformity - reduced fatigue - very short working time for cores reconditioning - rolls assembly completely interchangeable with existing casting lines - transformation of your existing standard rolls in Bruno Presezzi’s Patent Rolls also available.
www.brunopresezzi.com - aluminium.dept@brunopresezzi.com May/June 2017
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ITALIAN SUPPLEMENT 5
Picture: Pixabay
Practical infrared thermometry for aluminium hot rolling
Dr. Fiona Turner, Physics Section Manager for AMETEK Land, the leading non-contact temperature measurement specialist, will speak at the Aluminium Two Thousand Congress 2017, June 20-24, 2017, in Verona, Italy. Dr. Turner’s topic is “Practical Infrared Thermometry for Aluminium Hot Rolling”. Dr. Turner, a Chartered Physicist, specialises in instrumentation and metrology and manages AMETEK Land’s in-house optical and radiometric development work and academic collaborations. Her presentation will look at how aluminium presents significant challenges for accurate infrared temperature measurement due to its low processing temperatures and low emissivity, which varies with wavelength, alloy grade and surface condition. “I am looking forward to speaking at the event. Aluminium Two Thousand is one of the major international conferences within the aluminium industry,” comments Dr. Turner. “My presentation is based on extensive site trials of AMETEK Land’s SPOT AL EQS (Extrusion, Quench and Strip) infrared pyrometers mounted on the hot strip reversing mill at Bridgnorth Aluminium Limited. At a reversing mill, a single pyrometer mounted at a fixed point will see the oxidised preheated slab surface as well as that of freshly rolled aluminium and all stages in between.” “Thanks to our collaborators at Bridgnorth Aluminium, we have been able to link the variation that we see in the infrared radiance to the nature of the oxide surface. Understanding the origin of an effect means we Aluminium International Today
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can predict future behaviour and configure our instrument algorithm to accurately interpret complex and changing
emissivity in real time.” AMETEK Land also will exhibit at METEF 2017 that runs alongside the Aluminium 2000 Congress. It will demonstrate its SPOT AL EQS, an innovative “three-in-one” infrared pyrometer that enables accurate temperatures to be taken at extruder press exit and quench position, as well as at mill entry and exit positions in hot rolling mills. AMETEK Land will demonstrate at the exhibition how the SPOT AL EQS pyrometer, a flexible instrument with pre-configured algorithms, provides an effective temperature measurement solution that will optimise efficiency and achieve cost savings for aluminium producers. For more information, please visit https://www.landinst.com/events/ aluminium-two-thousand-congress-2017 and https://www.landinst.com/ events/metef-2017. � Contact land.enquiry@ametek.com website www.landinst.com
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The story of Centroal
CentroAl (the Italian Centre for the Aluminium Industry) represents the producers and processors of aluminium who are members of ASSOMET (the Italian Association of the Non-ferrous metals industry) came into being in 1946. CentroAl was created as a separate organisation in 1954 to represent the technical, commercial and communications aspects of the production, processing and usage of aluminium in Italy throughout the entire industry chain and is a member of the European Aluminium Federation, based in Brussels. The Italian aluminium sector comprises around 500 companies employing some 15,600 direct staff with a total market value of 11.2 billion Euros (based on 2016 figures). The sector values are broken down as follows: Euros 3.6 billion – castings Euros 2.6 billion – rolled products Euros 1.9 billion – extrusions Euros 1.4 billion – secondary products Euros 1.6 billion – plates & billets Euros 0.1 billion – wire and ropes History of the aluminium industry in Italy The first plant for the production of aluminium in Italy was built in 1907 in the Abruzzo region, close to the bauxite mining area. Between 1915 and 1919 demand for primary aluminium grew markedly due to its increased use in military transport and aviation. A second plant was then built in the northwest of the country in the Valle D’Aosta region. However, the strongest surge in growth in aluminium demand in Italy was experienced during the industrialisation period following the end of the First World War. The Swiss company Alusuisse and the Italian firm Montecatini between them built a total of six plants in the North of the country whilst in the South the Laminazione Sottile company was established. In the early 1940s wartime requirements saw an increase in aluminium demand, primarily from the aviation sector but also helped by the burgeoning automotive and engineering sectors. The immediate postwar years saw the beginning of aluminium recycling based on obsolete equipment. Dozens of recasting companies sprouted up during this period, who, through the use of advanced sorting technology, automated analytical equipment and an advanced network of scrap recycling, were able to produce the first so-called “secondary alloys” for a wide variety of industrial applications. In the following “economic boom” years, many May/June 2017
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Italian aluminium total use (000t)
private companies entered the aluminium industry. In addition to working in the aforementioned recycling sector, they also began manufacturing semi-finished products, which in turn led to the appearance of scores of companies operating rolling and extrusion plants for the aluminium sector. The foundry castings sector also grew rapidly, to the point that there were already more than 200 such organisations, both medium sized and small, in this field by the early 70’s. In 1972 a large alumina manufacturing plant was built in Sardinia with a production capacity of 700,000tpy together with a smelter with a production capacity of 120,000 tpy. These two plants sadly ceased operations in recent years. The smelter, which was bought in 1995 by the American company ALCOA ceased production in September 2012 due to the inability to cope with the high cost of electrical energy supply in Italy. However, the Italian aluminium industry continued to show growth up until 2007. The subsequent financial crisis, which began in the U.S.A but rapidly spread throughout the world, hit consumer activity hard in Italy and caused a major contraction in many manufacturing industries, including that of aluminium. The fallback in consumer spending was initially felt in the automotive sector, one of aluminium’s major consumer markets. This was followed by a collapse in the construction sector, which badly affected the extruded products market. Today, the Italian aluminium industry is made Aluminium International Today
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ITALIAN SUPPLEMENT 7
Picture: Pixabay
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2015
2016 2017
2018
GDP 0.7
0.9
0.9
1.1
Private consumption
1.3
1.0
1.0
1.5
Investment 1.3
2.1
2.3
2.1
Unemployment rate
11.5
11.3
11.1
11.9
Italy: Macro economic situation (source: Bank of Italy and Istat)
Consistency
2016
Employees
15,600
Companies (without indirect) ab.
500
Turnover
11,2 bil Euro
Italian size of aluminium sector
up of some 500 companies of which around 400 are producers of foundry castings, 45 are extrusion plants, 17 are producers of ingots for plastics processing (re-melters), 15 are manufacturers of foundry alloys (refiners) and 13 operate rolling mills (of which four produce thin rolled products). The Italian aluminium industry in 2016 Since 2007, demand for aluminium had fallen short of the 2 million tpy level, but in 2016 this figure was finally reached again. The slow but sustained recovery of the Italian aluminium industry to make up the ground lost during the harshest of the financial crisis years – 2008/2009 – has finally borne fruit, even though not all sectors have recovered at the same rate. The shining star has been the growth of the rolled products sector, which has shown a consistent upward trend, especially last year. The extruded products sector and foundry alloys business have also both shown an upward trend, thought this was not as marked as in the rolled products business. The early figures for current production and consumption of aluminium appear to be generally positive, even though they are not yet confirmed due to the partial nature of the export figures within this component. Light metal usage in Italy in 2016 broke through the 2 million tpy barrier, reaching a high of 2,051,000 tonnes, an increase of 8.1% over the previous year. The use of base metal (not in alloy form) rose by 15.9%, the use of plates and Aluminium International Today
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billets rose by 9.3% whilst demand for foundry alloys showed an increase of 4.1% compared to 2015. A particularly significant factor in the production of semi-products – which rose by 10.8% to 1,147,000 tonnes – was the performance of the rolled products sector which grew by 20.3% to 579,000 tonnes, within which the packaging sector continued its previous growth as did the automotive sector, fuelled by a consistent increase in car sales and the strong development of additional applications for aluminium in automotive manufacture itself, leading to higher demand. The extruded products sector also made a strong contribution to the health of the semi-products sector overall in 2016 rising by 2.8% year-onyear to a new figure of 554,000 tonnes, despite the ongoing crisis in the domestic construction sector. Less spectacular was the growth of just 1.7% to 721,000 tonnes in the foundry alloys sector against the background of strong demand from the automotive sector. The foundry castings business fared better, buoyed again by increased demand from the automotive sector, rising by 4.5% year-on-year to a new level of 712,900 tonnes compared to the 2015 figure of 682,000 tonnes. Figures for the export sales sector, based on projections provided by ASSOMET relating to data from ISTAT for the first 11 months of 2016, show a notable increase in exports of semi-products, which contributed positively to the overall national production position. In 2016 export sales for this sector reached an impressive 565,000 tonnes – up 14.1% on 2015 figures. May/June 2017
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8 ITALIAN SUPPLEMENT
Num.
Companies
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KT
MIO Euro
1
Alumina 0
1
Primary 0
25
Billets and slabs
797
15
Foundry alloys
721
13
Foil 143
400 ab. 2
1.436
Extrusion 554
4
0 1.573
Rolling 579
45
0
2.046 1.914
566
Casting
713
3,637
Wire and ropes
15
46
Total 11.218
Production and turnover
2007 2017
Difference
Alumina
1 0
Primary
2 0
-2
Refining
30
-15
15
-1
Remelting 17 17
0
Extrusion
50 45
-5
Rolling
11 13
+2
Foil
4 4
Casting
610 400
0 -210
Number of plants 2007-2017 comparison
Major factors affecting the Italian aluminium industry Energy and environmental policies: A reasonable energy cost base is absolutely imperative to maintain the competitive nature of the Italian aluminium industry. It should be remembered that on top of pure energy costs, there are additional costs relating to environmental issues and sustainability to be calculated. Current CO2 emission certification is already having a negative effect on the sector in the form of indirect charges for electrical supply. The Italian government has still not given any assurances on the likelihood of reimbursement of certification costs to compensate companies for the indirect costs of ETS and the untenable costs of electrical energy have already lead to the closure of the two pre-existing smelters. There is a distinct need for the creation of a single European energy market which recognises the need for guaranteed base costs for metallurgical companies utilising electrical energy and regulates the pricing structure for long-term electricity supply at reasonable prices. Access to the raw materials markets: The spread of commercial restrictions in Third World countries and the illegal or semi-legal practices associated with them are having a damaging effect on the access to raw materials – in particular scrap metal – which feed the aluminium industry. Large quantities of recycled materials, gathered in the E.U are exported to countries where technical, environmental and working standards in the secondary products sector are well below those of Europe. Scrap metal generated by European industries has to conform to extremely exacting hygiene standards as dictated by forceful domestic policies and the exigencies of the consumer market. In their destination countries, this scrap material is being mixed with other sub-standard raw material and then re-imported into Europe in the form of sub-standard products, which then compete unfairly on a cost basis, with our own domestic products. The Italian aluminium industry – in concert with the other major European countries – is calling for the adoption of standards and measures, which ensure fair trading conditions for all in this sector. AFFG – Aluminium for future Generations Since 1998, CentroAl, together with other companies within the aluminium industry, has been promoting and financing the “Aluminium for future May/June 2017
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Generations” initiative as a means of communicating future strategy with related government and regional institutions. Initially launched as a panEuropean initiative, the programme was quickly taken up and managed by the Italian national association in line with the prevailing industry conditions within Italy. Through this programme, the industry is able to carry forward its specific proposals and the input from political stakeholders in an effort to contribute to the direction of future policies affecting the industry. Over the years the “Aluminium for future Generations” initiative has become a platform for ideas, proposals and activities which has brought the industry face to face with political and governing bodies of all parties during successive governments, stimulated contacts with a large number of environmental organisations and consumer associations and developed study groups with University research departments and environmental groups to look at the future use of aluminium in the transport sector. It has also encouraged interaction with policy makers on both a national and local level and with environmental organisations, journalists and companies within the sector to review at close quarters the issues of production, recycling and processing. It has prompted meetings with regional decision-makers throughout the country to discuss matters relating to the use of aluminium in the construction industry. Additionally it has allowed the industry to confront and resolve – with the help of the relevant bodies – the questions relating to the use of aluminium in the food and beverage industry. It has provided a platform for the industry to forcefully make its point to politicians regarding the issues surrounding the cost of energy, the importance of access to quality raw materials and of the trading and recycling of scrap metal. Finally it has enabled the organisation of a series of events at an international level, such as the European Round Table “A new deal for a European industrial Renaissance” held in November 2014 under the presidency of the Italian industry. The key issues right from the beginning of the launch of the initiative and throughout the subsequent activities of the programme have been clearly reflected in the annual Round Table when industry representatives meet in Rome with political decision-makers who have responsibility for the issues which the aluminium industry considers important. This vital meeting point provides an opportunity to discuss the industry’s problems and take on board various opinions in order to reach a consensual decision regarding the future development of the national industry. � Aluminium International Today
10/05/2017 12:40:44
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ITALIAN SUPPLEMENT 9
Association update: CiAl
Picture: Pixabay
CiAl is a non-profit Consortium representing the commitment of Italian manufacturers and users of aluminium packaging to research into new ways of reducing and reusing packaging which reconcile the demands of the market with the need to protect the environment.
The Consortium, the aims of which include guaranteeing collection and recycle of post-consumer aluminium wastes collected by municipalities in Italy, was established in 1997 and has increased the amount of aluminium packaging collected in recent years to meet and even exceed the requirements of European legislation. The results achieved so far in terms of separate collection, recycling and recovery of aluminium wastes have been very positive, making Italy an example for the rest of Europe. But important new goals are already on the horizon, and in order to achieve them CiAl aims to achieve a larger and more conscientious citizens’ involvement, particularly younger citizens, to reinforce today’s awareness of the importance of separate collection and recycling. Today and in the future, communication will play an essential role in producing positive changes in citizens’ behaviour. For this purpose CiAl has promoted in recent years a number of projects and campaigns providing in-depth information on aluminium and its countless uses. � Visit: www.cial.it/english-posts/
2015 Facts & Figures for CiAL � 203 member companies � Quantity of aluminium packaging placed on the Italian market: 66,500 tonnes. � 6,607 Italian municipalities undertaking the recovery of aluminium packaging, with the involvement of over 52 million people. � 455 members, 224 platforms and 11 smelting works that guarantee the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of aluminium across the entire country.
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ROLLING 27
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Rolling back the years Mark Rewaj* delves into the interesting history of metal rolling.
Early metal workers found that forging a shape with hammers from a simpler cast shape created objects far stronger than those formed by casting alone. However, hand hammering was laborious even for soft metals, so pressure grew to create machines to assist with the forming process. Early equipment for metal rolling The equipment that followed to create sheet products proved to be of very simple design. It is not known who created the first rolling mill. However, one of the earliest drawings is by Leonardo da Vinci. It even shows the need for larger diameter backup rolls to support longer, smaller diameter work rolls. 15th – 17th century In the middle of the fifteenth century small mills produced gold lace, and other decorative work, in soft metals. However, as these techniques became more widely known, demands for products coming from metal rolling increased. There is evidence for rolling of lead and tin on simple 2-high mills with cast-iron rolls at the beginning of the seventeenth century. At this point rolling mills did not process the high volumes of metal that we see today. In addition, the required quality of these early products was ‘poor’ if we measure it by today’s exacting standards. However, no-one had developed the applications that needed higher quality material. Energy was also a big consideration if this technology was to be expanded further. By the end of the seventeenth century, it was possible to cast larger iron rolls and therefore build heavier mills. Horses and then water wheels drove these mills. 18th – 20th century During the eighteenth century, 4-high designs appeared (300 years after da Vinci). This was because people discovered that
smaller diameter rolls required less load to reduce the metal thickness. Consequently, it was possible to use a lighter frame. At the end of the eighteenth century, with the availability of steam power, the mills started to resemble their modern counterparts. During the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, the size and power of mills increased with little change to the main design. Steam engines were capable of delivering in excess of 10,000 hp. One example of this is the 12,000 hp (8.9 MW) River Don Engine built by Davy Brothers in 1905 to roll armour plate. However, more efficient electric motor technology slowly replaced steam power in the twentieth century. Interestingly, we have our own connection with eighteenth century metal rolling here at Innoval. Dr Tom Farley‘s great grandfather, Reuben Farley, started a company in 1861 which manufactured rolling mills and rolls in West Bromwich, UK. The company was “Taylor and Farley” (Fig 1). Tom Farley is our expert in rolling mill vibration. I’m sure Reuben Farley would
Fig 1. Poster advertising the Taylor & Farley factory, 1888 (www.gracesguide.co.uk)
Entry belt wrapper
be very proud to know that metal rolling expertise still exists within the Farley family. Today’s rolling mills The basis of design for today’s equipment is not too dissimilar to early designs, particularly when you consider a basic 2-high mill. It just uses different types of materials and designs of roll stacks. However, today’s mills are now designed for processing a multitude of metals for extensive end-user applications. In some cases there are more than 20 rolls in the roll stack. This clearly demonstrates that mill designs and their requirements have moved on substantially from the early basic designs. Today we produce much higher quality products which have exacting standards in dimensional accuracy, surface and material properties. All of these need to be considered in the design of new mills, be it for plate or coil products. The mill in Fig 2 has the capability to produce high quality thick and thin plate and sheet (coil) products. The belt wrappers in this case are located on both entry and exit sides of the mill. These belt wrappers are designed to move in and out as and when required to produce either plate or coil products. With capacities in excess of 200 Kt per annum, this design represents a major leap in technology from where it all started back in the time of Leonardo Da Vinci. �
Exit belt wrapper
Fig 2. A ‘simple’ combination single stand 4-high reverse roughing and finishing mill design from Danieli
*Senior Process Consultant, Innoval Technology Aluminium International Today
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Some are Born to Lead
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www.ega.com
ROLLING 29
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Surface
Aluminium hot rolling In a trial opportunity, Quaker Chemical Corporation (“Quaker”), proposed the hot rolling oil, QUAKEROL® AHR 301, an ester based product with a reduced amount of soap content, which was specifically formulated to the aluminum manufacturer’s process requirements. Once implemented, the performance of QUAKEROL® AHR 301 resulted in improvements: � Better rolled aluminum quality � No occurrence of staining leading to reduced internal scrap and customer quality rejections
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� Cleaner mill which reduced mill cleaning downtime � Reduced specific emulsion consumption (Liters/Ton) resulting in less fresh water used and less waste created during partial dumps � No additives needed � Reduced Total Cost of Ownership Quaker was able to offer more extensive support throughout the trial with regular meetings and sample analysis to follow up the situation. �
CHALLENGES A manufacturer of aluminum sheets and coils requires high quality standards at all levels due to a focus on aerospace applications. In the breakdown mill process, a soap based emulsion was causing issues including: � Stains on the rolled aluminum � Dirt buildup in the mill � Tankside additives needed Additionally, the company did not have any product support from their supplier.
May/June 2017
11/05/2017 10:38:21
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ROLLING 31
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Investing in growth Further expansion plans of Assan Alüminyum in the aluminium and aluminium packaging industries
Assan Alüminyum, a subsidiary of Kibar Holding, is planning to grow over the short and medium term through new investments. Important investment projects, as a part of the planned expansion of Assan Alüminyum, include the casting and foil rolling capacity increases. The company plans to start production on its two new casting lines and a universal foil mill, by the end of this year. Göksal Güngör, the General Manager of Assan Alüminyum, notes: “With its excellent barrier properties, formability and lightness, aluminium is a very resourceefficient material for packaging. Therefore, we firmly believe that aluminium will hold a special place among packaging materials in the future of the industry. Ultimately we are very determined to grow further in this sector. Our technological know-how and pioneering position in the aluminium foil market, will allow us to focus more on high-value-added flexible packaging products. With our new investments in our existing facilities, we are targeting to reach an installed annual aluminium foil production capacity of more than 110 thousand tons within a few years. As our core brand values are flexibility, innovativeness and reliability, we feel that our business approach is a perfect fit to provide customised solutions for our business partners in the packaging industry.” Assan Alüminyum, founded in 1988, currently has an annual installed production capacity of 280,000 t/a of flat-rolled aluminium and 60,000 t/a of aluminium coil pre-painting. It produces out of two facilities: Istanbul Tuzla and Kocaeli Dilovası. In 2016 Assan Alüminyum acquired a hydroelectric power plant to ensure that all necessary electricity is supplied from renewables. The company has become one of the worldwide pioneers of continuous casting technology, both in terms of production capacity and technical knowhow, with a strong focus on sustainability. With this perspective, the company has acquired an aluminium recycling facility a few years ago and continues to implement several energy-saving measures with new projects every year, in order to reduce the Aluminium International Today
ROLLING Assan.indd 1
overall carbon footprint. The company’s focus on R&D is also a significant contributing factor to the consistently high customer satisfaction and continuing growth trend. The highly qualified R&D Team, working as a part of the officially certified R&D Center of Assan Alüminyum, is dedicated to making continuous progress through process innovations, which sheds light on the industry through many papers and proceedings published and presented at specialised global conferences throughout the years. With a customer-oriented approach, the R&D projects are aiming to develop tailor-made products geared towards the specific requirements of each customer, ultimately contributing to the performance of the final product within the whole value chain. Another important project, which has started to bear fruit as of the year 2017, is the new ERP Integration Project. Assan Alüminyum aims to maximise customer satisfaction and corporate performance with its new fully integrated ERP system, which would provide the company with an important advantage in terms of Industry 4.0. In order to further increase process
efficiency, stakeholder satisfaction and to add value, other large-scale projects are being carried out in the year 2017, such as the Supply Chain Optimisation Project. Assan Alüminyum has further, largerscale investment plans as well. The most important one is the establishment of the first modern and high-width aluminium hot rolling facility in Turkey. This facility would aim to produce semi-finished goods for a wide range of industries, such as flexible packaging, aerospace, defense, aviation and transportation. The company is targeting to gain significantly improve its competitiveness by producing more high-value-added products and to play a key role in the advancement of the targeted strategic industries. � May/June 2017
10/05/2017 12:32:18
Al
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For more than 70 years, Wagstaff has been an integral part of the aluminum industry. Building the most advanced DC casting solutions for aluminum producers around the world has been a privilege and a challenge. Our mission has always been to push the boundaries of technology to help casthouses meet profit and quality targets in billet and slab casting. The hallmarks of our history stem from the core values of our founders - high quality standards, innovation, questioning the status quo, and keeping customer needs as our number one objective. We value your trust and your partnership, and we look forward to serving you in the next 70 years.
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The long standing problem of flatness measurement and control in aluminum hot rolling mills is now solved by ABB. Achievements in the field show yield improvements of 2 % and rolling speed improvements of 10%. Altogether this corresponds to millions of dollars on the bottom line. One reason for this is, as one of our customers put it, �Good tail-out from the hot rolling mill results in high quality head-in to the cold rolling mill�. The range of applications where the Stressometer system sustainably improves your business includes all kinds of cold rolling mills; and now also aluminium hot rolling mills. www.abb.com/stressometer
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ALUMINIUM Materials handling andɅliftingɅsystems
Storage systems
Centrifugal blowers
Ship loaders/unloaders
Bath and carbon recycling plant systems
Dense/solid phase and other conveyingǾsystems Potfeed e.g. HyperDense Phase SystemsǾ(HDPSTM) Dosing devices
PNT4332-ReelAlesa_Ad_Aluminium_Times_A4.indd 1
Pot process control systems Electrolysis handling equipment Carbon: rodding and anode handlingǾsystems; baking furnace liftingǾsolutions
2016-08-23 14:04
HANDLING 35
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Handling solutions Alexis Fredrich* and Guillaume Girault** highlight raw materials handling and processing systems for the aluminium industry
Dense phase
Raw material handling systems lie at the heart of any production process and as such can significantly influence their performance. The primary aluminium industry is no exception. From the unloading of the raw materials, through to storage, handling to the different shops and pre-processing, well-designed handling systems must add value at every stage of the production process. As a world leader in materials handling solutions, REEL ALESA goes beyond conveying materials. Serving the aluminium industry from its engineering offices in Switzerland, Canada, France and Australia, the company delivers fully integrated materials handling solutions that optimize processes and performance. Specialising in a broad range of technologies for handling bulk material, REEL ALESA works diligently to comply with the client’s specific requirements, systems, processes and products. The purpose of this article is to introduce some of REEL ALESA advanced handling solutions, with a specific focus on its pneumatic handling technologies.
Dense Phase Conveying System REEL ALESA provides customised dense phase conveying solutions for greenfield and existing plants in various industries worldwide. Dense phase systems are pneumatic-based technologies, which operate at high product concentration. The company’s fully enclosed design uses less air and power, delivering unbeatable economic performance and reliability. More than 600km of dense phase piping have been installed around the world. In the aluminium industry, it is typically used to transport alumina, crushed bath, carbon products and fluorides from the port to (and within) the smelter. Solid Phase Conveying System REEL ALESA’s solid phase system consists of specially developed pressure vessels, conveying piping and diverters. This breakthrough technology is an evolution from the Dense Phase solution. It reduces air consumption by up to 50% when compared to a standard dense phase system. Due to its extremely low conveying speed (similar to an air gravity conveying system), the system gently conveys the
product thus preventing attrition and wear. Both the solid and dense phase conveying systems can be routed in any direction, horizontally or vertically, making it readily adaptable to both existing plants and greenfield projects. Dilute Phase Conveying Systems & Pneumatic Elevators Typical applications for pneumatic elevators are silo filling or process equipment feed, and in most applications they use low-pressure air or high vacuum generated by blowers. With capacities of up to 1,800tph (tonnes per hour), pneumatic elevators provide a low maintenance alternative to bucket elevators and they achieve higher feeding elevations than inclined belt conveyors. REEL ALESA has developed pneumatic elevator technologies to handle fluidizable materials, such as alumina, as well as coarser-grained products such as pet coke or crushed bath. Air Gravity Conveyors (AGCs) AGCs are a well-proven conveying system for fluidizable materials for short
*Business Development Manager, REEL Alesa SAS, France **Technology & Engineering Manager, REEL Alesa SAS, France Aluminium International Today
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36 HANDLING
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Pneumatic elevator
Hyper-Dense Phase System
Dosing HDPS
distances as well as distances covering several hundred metres. REEL ALESA also uses these types of conveyors as a selfsupporting structure to cover large spans. The AGC functions on the principle of fluidization and gravity. This technology allows for the material to behave like a fluid and flow freely on a downward slope. Due to the elimination of moving parts in the material and the use of gravity to promote the material flow, REEL ALESA AGCs typically operate for decades without replacement of the material handling parts, and with no more than routine maintenance to the blowers.
Overall, the HDPSTM technology presents the following advantages: � The main air conveyor is perfectly horizontal, facilitating its integration in the potroom environment and minimising the cost impact on the building structures (potroom and fluorinated alumina silo towers). � It allows maintaining pot hoppers permanently and automatically full; no specific probes are required to monitor hoppers levels. � Due to the very low product velocity, it does not cause any attrition of the alumina. For the same reason, no scaling and abrasion occurs. � The HDPSTM operation is particularly safe and does not require any dedicated operators (fully automated). � After a stoppage, the flowrate during the restarting phase is several times the nominal flowrate, which guarantees a minimum time for refilling all pot hoppers. � No moving parts, such as rotary
feeders, are in contact with the alumina, which makes the technology extremely reliable with very low maintenance requirement. � The HDPSTM is equipped with specifically designed degassing columns, which ensure dust entrainment is minimised; as a result, a consistent alumina quality is provided to all pots along the potroom. � The HDPSTM is a low pressure system requiring very low air consumption. The needed air is produced by dedicated fans, which only produce the air used; no blow-off valves are therefore required.
Hyper-Dense Phase System (HDPSTM) Potfeed system The HPDS™ technology was developed in the 1980’s in order to provide the new centre-fed pots with an automatic and cost-effective alumina feeding system. In addition to being economically attractive, the continuous-feeding option allows for a safer pot operation – pot hoppers being always full – and a cleaner working environment, with minimal dust emissions. The Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne potline was the first smelter equipped with the HDPS™ in 1985. Since then, more than 25 smelters have been equipped, with some in brownfield conditions. The HDPS™ was designed to overcome the AGC limitations in a potfeed application. Similarly, it has two chambers, the upper one being full of fluidized material. The fluidization air is collected at the top of the upper channel, creating a layer of air of a few centimetres (the “bubble”). Contrary to the AGC, a hyper-dense phase conveyor is a closed-conduit flow system; in this configuration the driving force for the flow is the product hydrostatic pressure upstream of the conveyor. May/June 2017
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All these advantages, demonstrated on the thousands of pots fed by this technology, ensure both installation and operating costs are minimised during the life of the Project. Since 2007 REEL ALESA has pursued an ambitious R&D program, which aimed at continuously reducing its total
Storage facilities
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Ship unloader
the portal frame’s design. Vessel size and tide conditions dictate the boom and/or telescope’s length. REEL ALESA delivers its shiploader/unloader fully assembled and pre-commissioned therefore avoiding any disturbance to client port’s operations during installation. Railcar and truck loading / unloading REEL ALESA provides high-capacity dustfree loading/unloading stations for various products. These facilities have been proven in industrial applications over many years. Railcar or truck loading/unloading characteristically involves a short cycle time with high environmental standards in terms of dust prevention. REEL ALESA’s equipment and controls have been developed to meet these specific customer challenges.
cost as well as expanding its potential applications. As an outcome from these developments, two major new products are now available, based on the same Hyper Dense Phase technology. First is the HDPSTM siphon, which can couple both horizontal and vertical hyper-dense phase fluidized transport sections. As such, it can be used to avoid obstacles such as central passageways. This, in turns, allows for example optimising the overall materials handling flow sheet by mutualising storage capacities. Four of such systems are now fully operational in a recently commissioned smelter. Second is the High Flow HDPSTM, a horizontal airconveyor, which is used to convey fluidizable product over long distances at high flow rates. Hyper-Dense Phase System (HDPSTM) alumina dosing system for Gas Treatment Plants The HDPS can also advantageously be used to distribute the flow of alumina amongst the Gas Treatment Plants filters. This solution has the significant benefit of distributing and dosing the alumina extremely accurately, a sine qua none condition to achieve high scrubbing efficiencies, especially in difficult conditions such as in hot and humid countries. This solution has already been implemented in several plants, resulting in significantly lower stack emissions.
anti-segregation and blending equipment as well as fluidized and mechanical extraction systems. Shiploader / Unloader REEL ALESA provides the highest capacity pneumatic ship unloaders for the aluminium industry (up to 1,500tph), serving major smelters around the globe. Shiploaders as well as combined shiploader/unloaders are available for a wide variety of bulk materials. Each shiploader/unloader is custom built to meet the client’s exact needs and specifications. The REEL ALESA ship unloader can be designed to unload alumina only or various products such as alumina, fluoride and coke with a single machine. The quay’s load distribution requirements determine
Raw Materials Processing REEL ALESA also designs and supplies pre-processing equipment and facilities so that raw materials always meet the required standards. As an example, REEL ALESA developed a unique crushed bath processing plant that covers the entire bath cycle ensuring that a consistent bath materials mixture is returned to the pots. The technology is designed to improve pot operation and current efficiency while overcoming well-known challenges associated with conventional process. Other examples in which REEL ALESA has considerable experience include iron removal from all raw materials, fine separation, drying or pre-heating of products, screening, crushing… � Contact www.reel-alesa.com
Truck loading
Storage Facilities For any bulk materials, REEL ALESA develops leading-edge storage solutions providing both cylindrical concrete or steel shell silos as well as dome silos. REEL ALESA supplies storage facilities with up to 100,000 tonnes capacity, stateof-the-art feeding and reclaiming systems, May/June 2017
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New Combilift fleet for Kawneer By Liz Townsend* Kawneer is part of Alcoa Building and Construction Systems and offers a comprehensive range of architectural aluminium building products and systems, which include curtain wall, windows, commercial entrance doors and framing systems. Its manufacturing facility in Runcorn supplies an ‘end to end’ process of extruding, inserting thermal breaks and powder coating for the UK market. Four bespoke Combilift STE models have recently been delivered to this site to ensure smooth and efficient handling of the large volume of aluminium profiles that is produced on a daily basis. An original fleet of Combilift EST trucks had been used at Runcorn for around eight years to place and pick stillages of profiles in the racking in one section of the warehouse. The need to maximise storage density made these stand-on trucks the ideal solution as their narrower depth enables operation in tighter aisles than those needed by ride-on forklifts. Using guided rail operation allowed aisle widths to be set at just 1700mm rail to rail to accommodate around 900 stillages in the high bay racking. When the ESTs came to the end of their operational life however the management at Kawneer had quite a lengthy list of refinements for Combilift and materials handling suppliers Forkway Group to work on prior to choosing replacements. “Our requirements had evolved over the years” said Maintenance manager Ian Gillaspy, “and it’s fair to say that we put the Combilift and Forkway Group personnel through their paces before we went for the new C2500 STEs. They certainly came up with the goods though and the new models are the easiest trucks to work with that we have ever had in the facility.” One major hallmark of Kawneer’s new trucks is the bespoke diagonal cab design which enabled Combilift engineers to fit a seat into the operator compartment whilst preserving all the internal operator space. This offers a high level of comfort throughout a total shift, and as the position of the steering wheel has also been adjusted, easy entry and exit to the cab is still assured. Drivers also like the improved ergonomics such as the hand
throttle which eliminates foot fatigue, and excellent visibility. The Curtis N-Gage 7 user interface on the dashboard displays real time information as to the current status of, for example, battery capacity, truck travel speed and wheel position. Various other features distinguish the STEs from their EST counterparts: the depth of the new models is 250mm shorter which makes it easier to turn in from intersecting aisles and allows access to previously restrictive areas; regenerative brake electric drive motors and improved programing make battery efficiency 1/3
employee accountability. This incorporates our ZoneSafe proximity warning system that can detect pedestrians and trucks in surrounding areas, which improves driver awareness to minimise accidents and collisions in the warehouse. Intelligent battery charging technology from Fronius also delivers improved performance and benefits.” “We are all more than happy with the outcome,” said Process Leader Jonathan Goggin. Engineering Manager Tony Sharkey, who led the project added “Our company prides itself on listening to our
more effective and AC motor technology provides smoother acceleration and more power whilst at the same time guaranteeing quieter operation. “This project required close collaboration from all involved,” said Paul Sercombe, Major Accounts Manager at Forkway Group. “As well as the specialist input from Combilift’s engineers for the redesign, Forkway Group also supplied a number of features which put these trucks at the top of their game when it comes to efficient and safe operation. Kawneer chose to install the Forkway FleetSafe fleet management system which provides a wealth of data in real time to ensure a safer working environment, reduced operating costs and heightened
customers to provide the tools they need to succeed and the approach of Combilift and Forkway Group mirrored this. They took all of our feedback on board to engineer and supply a fleet that enables us to keep products on the move and to store them efficiently as well as to keep the drivers safe and happy with their trucks. We are now planning to add racking in another part of the warehouse which will be easily accessed by the Combi-STEs to give us extra capacity for our growing output.” � Contact www.combilift.com www.forkway.co.uk www.kawneer.com
*Avenue PR May/June 2017
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主要内容 45
首先完工的D18 + 区段PL3
电解槽技术：案例研究 Daniel Whitfield*说，EGA对现有电解槽实现了现代化技术革新，减少了对环境的影响。 自1979年创始以来，迪拜铝业公司 （DUBAL，也称作Jebel Ali运营公司）—— 阿联酋全球铝业公司(EGA)旗下一家子公 司——始终致力于对铝冶炼工艺的不断 创新，以及专有减排技术的自主开发。 数年来，得益于最大化操作效率，该公 司在技术创新和经营业绩卓越性方面赢 得了良好的声誉。 依托自身良好的信誉，EGA对旗下Jebel Ali运营公司的原始电解槽实施了全面的 D18技术革新。全新的D18+技术——采 用最新的电解槽单元技术创新，例如， 磁补偿、点输送器和直接氧化铝输送 （见表1）——在2012年的七个电解槽单 元试验期间超过了所有主要目标KPI（见 表2），从而推动公司做出决定，在电解 槽1的剩余241个单元内部署D18+技术。 虽然EGA的Jebel Ali运营公司之前已 实行棕地和绿地项目，以增加产能，但 D18+项目还是首次在一个运行中的电解 槽上实施。要在转换电解槽时最大限度减 少破坏，我们在30-32号单元的区段（共 八个区段）执行了电解槽单元升级。 在不影响电解槽正常生产的情况下建 造全新D18+技术电解槽单元存在多项挑 战，包括因工程车辆和卡车运输母线、 槽壳和上层结构而对中央通道进行的限 制；以及正常的电解车间移动，例如， 阳极梁抬升、高温铝液输送和阳极输 送。由于开展与旁通母线相关的施工工 程，人员进出也受到限制。在电解车间
执行更多作业的大量人员还需要额外小 心，避免出现可能的碰撞和伤害。周期 性的电解槽电流减少让需要密切协作的 母线连接和其他作业能够顺利开展，以 便维持稳定的生产。尽管存在上述复杂 情况，对电解槽1的D18+技术革新项目 仍然顺利竣工，未出现任何事故或人员 伤害。 电解槽1技术革新项目适于2015年8 月，项目计划434天。最大限度减少每个 区段的断电情况，对于保持项目按时完 成和尽可能减少高温铝液生产损耗都至 关重要。首个区段的全面转换按计划在 68天内完成。基于以往的经验教训，项
目和运营团队显著减少了转换后续区段 的时间，达到平均47天的转换周期。因 此，项目在2016年7月底完工，提前计划 86天完成，因此基本上最大限度减少了 生产损耗。 项目团队于2015年10月初正式将区段 2移交给运营团队，这是首个已转换为使 用D18+技术的区段。在52个小时的预 热后，首个待插入的单元成功注入电解 液。紧邻的区段2电解槽单元随后按照每 天四个的速度逐一插入（即，该区段内 的所有电解槽在8天后插入）。剩余的区 段也保持了同意速度。
D18 D18+
母线配置
端立柱
四侧立柱带下端电解槽单元母线
Al2O3输送
伪点输送已转换
双中心的四点输送器
断路
带浸入传感断路器
AlF3输送
手动添加10 kg包
专用AlF3输送器
氧化铝输送
通过调料斗起重机
气动溜槽系统
阳极数 18 20 阳极梁控制
气动
电动
阴极块数量 17 导电棒 - 软连接技术
螺栓连接
19 焊接
表1D18技术与D18+技术
单位
D18 D18+
kA
204.9 204.9
电流效率 %
93.90 95.10
电流
净电压 V
4.66 4.03
净比能 DC.kWh/kg
14.79 12.63
净碳耗
kg C/kg Al
PFC排放 CO2eq. kg/t Al
430
420
96
2
表2D18+测试电解槽单元的性能表现
*车间正主任、流程控制、技术、中流、阿联酋全球铝业公司 今日国际铝业
primary ega.indd 1
2017年5月/6月
10/05/2017 12:35:57
46 主要内容
PL3的区段3正在进行技术转换
220
D18+电解槽单元
250 200
D18+项目开始
215
10.0
230
取出最后的D18电解槽单元
150
210
100
205 200
50
195
0
电解车间GHG排放 9.0 8.5 8.0 7.5
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
15
年 15
工厂GHG排放
9.5 工厂GHG排放 (CO2 eq T/T Al)
电流
D18+电解槽单元数量(#)
225
5月 年 6 15 月 年 7 15 月 年 15 8月 年 15 9月 年 1 15 0月 年 1 15 1月 年 12 16 月 年 1 16 月 年 2月 16 年 3 16 月 年 4 16 月 年 5 16 月 年 6 16 月 年 16 7月 年 8 16 月 年 16 9月 年 10 月
电解槽1电流值(kA)
230
图2 Jebel Ali运营公司的温室气体排放
图1电解槽1电流值增加
首个D18+技术区段在开始时的最终阴 极温度低于预期（平均826˚C）。运营团 队通过更换电阻器模板，增加使用时间 和加大电流，改善了这一情况。运营团 队还投入大量的精力，最大限度减少了 电解液注入和后续的铝液浇注后产生的 阳极效应。在首个48小时内的阳极效应 系数从0.70/cell/d减少至0.03/cell/d。在 电解液注入后立即电压升高（> 8 V）的 电解槽单元数量逐渐减少至零。 在升级过程中面临的另一挑战是，D18 技术电解槽单元接近其电流强度范围的 上限，但使用D18+技术的电解槽单元则 接近其下限。D18+技术电解槽单元的基 础电阻设定点因此设置为等效的70 mV或 更高值，直至项目完工，电流可增加至 恰当的数值水平。 电解槽1中的电流数值在项目开始时 为207 kA。在最终D18技术电解槽单元 取出后，至2016年2月，该数值逐步增 加至210 kA，随后于2016年10月增加至 220 kA。电流值随后于2016年11月增加 至230 kA，并将在2017年保持这一水平 （图1）。 电解槽1的D18+技术的初始21日性能在 稳定后达220 kA，表3总结说明了电解槽1 从2016年7月至10月的四个月周期内的性 能表现。净比能为13.18 DC.kWh/kg Al， 而电流效率为93.83%。由于随着电流的 增加，铝液高度在该周期内也增加，当 电解槽在新的操作设定点稳定后，比能 2017年5月/6月
primary ega.indd 2
2016年初 至今
参数
单位 D18+ kA 222.4
电流 净电压
V 4.153
电流效率
% 93.83
DC.kWh/kg Al
净比能
13.18
mV 11
噪声 净碳耗
kg C/tAl
422
阳极效应系数
#/cell/d
0.04
阳极效应持续时间(> 8 V)
秒 35
PFC排放 CO2eq. kg/t Al
28
表3D18+技术性能表现，2016年7月至10月 参数
单位 D18 D18+
参数
单位 D18 D18+ kA 205 230
电流
% 93.34 94.50
电流效率
kg/day
铝液产量
1,541
DC.kWh/kg 15.15
比能
1,750 13.31
净碳耗
kg C/t Al
435
AE PFC
CO2eq. kg/t Al
202
35
8.27
7.26
总净GHG排放速度 CO2eq. t/t Al
419
表4D18+技术与D18技术的工作参数对比
和电流效率均将提高。电解槽单元将保 持稳定，其平均噪声为11 mV，而全氟化 碳排放量则处于低值的28 CO2eq. kg/t Al 电解槽1的电流值现为230 kA，通过采 取措施使其稳定在较高的电流值，以将 EGA的产能增加至19 kt/y，同时减少能 耗，达到目标值2 kWh/kg。 电解槽3中272个单元从D18转换为 D18+的流程始于2016年9月。在吸取电 解槽1转换的经验和技巧后，预计电解槽 3的换回将于2017年10月完工，在EGA的 Jebel Ali运营公司产生总共520个D18+技
术电解槽单元。 重要的是，D18+技术革新项目将显著 减少EGA对环境的影响，令EGA增加其在 业内的竞争优势。如表4所示，D18+技 术的温室气体排放率为1.1 CO2eq. t/t al， 低于D18技术。 自2010年起，EGA的Jebel Ali运营公司 已将其温室气体排放减少了约800 kt/y C O 2e q （ 见 图 2 ） — — 但 在 同 一 时 间 周期内，年高温铝液的产量增加超过 63kt/y。�
今日国际铝业
10/05/2017 12:36:00
WWW.BUSSCORP.COM
布斯KX系列混捏机 最高效的阳极糊混捏技术 60多年以来, 布斯KE和CP系列混捏 机一直作为阳极糊经济高效混捏的标准。 我们的KX技术保持了传统，实至名归。 安全、高效、成熟。
Buss AG Switzerland www.busscorp.com
13394_122_Buss_210x297_China.indd 1
07.04.17 15:39
48 BUYERS’ GUIDE TASTER
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BUYERS’ GUIDE TASTER
As a leading resource for the aluminium production and processing industries, the Buyers’ Directory reaches the most senior buyers and suppliers in the business. HANDLING & STORAGE
CLAUDIUS PETERS PROJECTS GMBH Schanzenstraße 40 DE-21614 Buxtehude, Germany T: +49 4161 706-0 F: +49 4161 706-270 E: info@claudiuspeters.com W: www.claudiuspeters.com Claudius Peters stockyards, pneumatic conveyors, silos, clinker coolers, grinding mills, and packing systems can be found in Cement, Coal, Alumina, and Gypsum plants across the globe. The group’s other principal Division, Aerospace, manufactures aircraft parts for Airbus. PRIMARY REDUCTION/SMELTER PRIMARY
ALUMINIUM BAHRAIN B.S.C. (ALBA) Building 150, King Hamad Highway Askar 951, Bahrain T: +973 1783 0000 F: +973 1783 0083 E: alba@alba.com.bh W: www.albasmelter.com Aluminium Bahrain has been consistently ranked as one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world and is known for its technological strength and high quality aluminium. FURNACE
HERTWICH ENGINEERING GMBH Weinbergerstr. 6, Braunau, Upper Austria, 5280, Austria T: +43 7722 806-0 F: +43 7722 806-122 E: info@hertwich.com W: www.hertwich.com Hertwich Engineering, a company of the SMS group, is active worldwide with design, supply, construction and commissioning of speciality equipment for the aluminium industry, in particular for aluminium casthouses.
Distributed to more than 50 countries and read by thousands of industry contacts, it contains a comprehensive alphabetical listing of company and contact details. SLITTING
DANIELI FRÖHLING Scherl 12, D-58540, Meinerzhagen, Germany T: +49 2354 7082 0 F: +49 2354 7082 200 E: info@danieli-froehling.de W: www.danieli-froehling.de Danieli Fröhling is synonymous for innovative tailor-made solutions for the aluminium industry. Fröhling customers trust in nearly 70 years’ experience in manufacturing of rolling mills and cutting lines.
CARBON ELECTRODES
R&D CARBON PO Box 361, Sierre 3960, Switzerland T: +41 27 459 29 29 F: +41 27 459 29 25 E: rdc@rd-carbon.com W: www.rd-carbon.com R&D Carbon provides expertise for the worldwide metal, oil and coal industry through R&D studies,onsite audits and process optimisation, carbon test equipment, quality control, certification and training courses. PUBLISHING
ALUMINIUM INTERNATIONAL TODAY Quartz House, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QX UK T: +44 (0)1737 855000 F: +44 (0)1737 85034 E: aluminium@quartzltd.com W: www.aluminiumtoday.com Aluminium International Today is published bimonthly and circulated worldwide alongside foreign languague issues in Chinese and Russian, published twice a year. A weekly newsletter is sent to over 25,000 contacts worldwide.
Here is a sneak peak at some of the listings that will appear in the 2017 Buyers’ Directory.
QUALITY TESTING & MEASUREMENT
POLYTEC GMBH Polytec Platz 1-7, D-76337, Waldbronn, Germany T: +49 7243 604-0 F: +49 7243 69944 E: info@polytec.de W: www.polytec.de Polytec is the market leader for non-contact, laser based vibration and velocity measurement instrumentation. Our innovative solutions allow our customers to maintain their own technical leadership across many fields.
SAFETY
AJ CHARNAUD & COMPANY (PTY) LTD Tel: RSA +27 11 794 6040 T: +27 11 794 6040 EU: +44 (0) 1133 507651 E: aj@charnaud.co.za W: www.charnaud.net Over 40 years of experience in protective clothing AJ Charnaud & Company (Pty) Ltd. has, since its foundation, been at the forefront of the development and manufacturing of specialized personal protective clothing. With a complete head-tofoot range of certified products, supported with advanced professional and technical assistance, Charnaud is regarded as a leading global supplier of personal protective clothing for protection against flames, fire, radiant heat, molten metal splash, acid and the thermal effects of electric arc flash.
It is free to list your company, get in touch today to find out more:
Anne Considine Sales Manager Tel: +44(0)1737855139 Email: anneconsidine@quartzltd.com
May/June 2017
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自2015年将回收和挤压铝材业务分拆 后，公司始终把重心放在其发展战略的 下一阶段；为其全球拓展确立了更好的 定位，实现最大限度对航天航空和汽车 等高附加值市场的参与度，同时牢牢抓 住建筑设计和施工行业对铝产品需求量 不断增加的趋势。 在多种途径的助力下，建筑设计等应 用已演变成铝业的新兴市场。Aleris的 55HX铝材符合建筑业和建筑师的价值 需求，具有出色变形特性、高性能质量
一切为铝业
和颜色统一性，让设计师能够充分发 挥自己对外形设计的创意，通过弯曲、 穿孔、冲击或延展材料，实现创意外 墙装饰。凭借产品种类多样化，包括多 层管材、商用板材和换热器(HEX)市场 材料等，公司将继续探索铝材的无限 可能性。 中东和北美地区市场需求尤其强大， 在这些地区，Aleris与建筑师密切合作， 定制生产满足其设计需求和建筑目标的 铝产品。公司近期为大埃及博物馆(GEM)
Aleris，铝轧制产品全球领导者，通过着眼于高发展市场和神奇 金属材料的新兴趋势，继续帮助客户发掘全球铝业市场的无限 潜能。
供应了超一流的屋面和墙面铝产品。 GEM是致力于全球考古学发展的最大
材料。在汽车和航空行业使用此类合金
术先进的机翼蒙皮材料供应。公司在中
型考古学博物馆，是埃及文物部门截至
将减轻车辆和飞机的重量，进而减少燃
国的新设施和技术创新令其扩大了对航
目前最负盛名的项目。博物馆占地50公
料用量和相关温室气体(GHG)的排放。平
空航天市场的产品供应。
顷（120英亩），位于吉萨和开罗的古金
均来看，通过使用Aleris专用合金，每架
近期对总裁兼CEO Sean Stack就与空客
字塔之间。
飞机每减少一公斤重量，在其使用寿命
签订新协议的采访可以看出，这一新动
内即可减少约1,250公吨的二氧化碳(CO2)
向也是对公司扩大全球铝轧制产品供应
排放量。
和技术投资战略的肯定。“通过在德国
Aleris供应其独一无二的151EX铝产品 并应用于博物馆的屋面、天花板和墙面 建设，对该项目作出自己的贡献。博物
公司自2014年获得美国国防和航空认
科布伦茨和中国镇江战略部署世界一流
馆计划于2018年开幕，目标游客数量达
证（NADCAP）认证后，一直致力于增加
的生产设施，我们已具备强大优势，可
每年200万。
其在中国的设施投入。在中国镇江实现
支持航空航天业的重要发展预期，特别
随着市场的不断发展，航天航空业也
标准化设施建设的主要飞机制造商有空
是在亚太地区，”Stack说。
将继续将铝材作为其设计用料的不二
客、波音、中国商飞和庞巴迪。公司在
铝行业在全球汽车行业也发掘出强大
选择。依据Flight Ascend Consultancy
亚太地区的业务在2016年第二季度实现
的市场需求。虽然Aleris为欧洲的一流汽
（FlightGlobal旗下组织）完成的预测可
了最佳业绩，帮助推动航空业销售额同
车制造商供货已超过十年，但其在北美
知，全球的商用飞机舰队将于2035年增
比增长19%。该地区设施的建设照搬了
OEM市场的供货业务则小得多。公司在
加81%，达49,940架，届时41%的舰队
公司在德国科布伦茨航空业铝材生产中
肯塔基州路易斯波特的大型扩建必将引
都将在亚太地区和中国投入运营。随着
心的先进技术。
领从2017年开始的一场新变革。
不断高于平均的客流增长速率，该地区
空客是最近与Aleris签订延长供货合同
高达$4000万的扩建投入让Aleris（路
在未来20年内将一直是行业发展和新飞
的大型航空航天制造商。在今年年初，
易斯波特）成为北美首个车身板材生产
机需求量的关键推动因素。
公司与空客签订了全新的多年期合同，
设施基地。在全面投产后，这一新设施
扩大公司的铝产品供应系列，特别是技
将实现每年4亿8千万磅车身铝板材的生
Aleris目前已开发出数种最轻型的合金 今日国际铝业
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GLAMA Maschinenbau GmbH HornstraĂ&#x;e 19
D- 45964 Gladbeck / Germany
phone + 49 (0) 2043 9738 0 fax + 49 (0) 2043 9738 50 email: info@glama.de
web: www.glama.de
聚焦点：ALERIS 51
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产量。路易斯波特生产设施的汽车制造 性能新增了热处理和抛光技术，其中包 括一个新型宽型材冷轧机，两个连续退 火机组和一个汽车创新中心。 北美地区的汽车铝材需求日益旺 盛。Ducker Worldwide对北美轻型汽车 铝材含量的近期研究显示，车身铝制板 材的使用量预计到2025年将增加至超过 30亿磅，而在2012年仅为2亿磅。在欧
英国伯明翰的塞尔弗里奇建筑的正面墙体由15,000个抛光和电镀成型旋转光盘组成，这些光盘均由Aleris 在比利时迪弗尔出产的151EX铝材制成。
洲汽车制造的大力推动下，今年第二季 度汽车销量同比增长17%，Aleris和其他
七大建筑奇迹之一），以及英国伯明翰
铝材生产商一样，也看到了铝材料需求
的塞尔弗里奇百货中心，该建筑的正面
依据铝业协会的研究数据，使用可回
量的上升，因此公司准备开始其北美市
墙体由15,000个抛光和电镀成型旋转光
收铝材制造的产品所需的能量平均比使
场的扩张。
盘组成，这些光盘均由Aleris在比利时出
用原铝的要少95%。Aleris正在不断努
产的151EX铝材制成。
力，创造和开发可加入更高比例回收材
建筑行业也越来越倾向于使用铝材实
的原铝的需求。
现其对美观和建筑功能的需求。在建筑
在很多情况下，铝材具有内在的一流
设计中运用铝材已成为一大趋势，因为
稳定性，使其在很多市场应用中成为理
Aleris始终将增加其废料吸收率作为其
现代化的公共和商业建筑需要具备独特
想的材料。凭借多功能用途和轻质的特
可持续发展目标和长期战略中的重要一
的外观，才能从周围建筑群和其他地区
性，以及无限的可重复利用性能，使得
环。通过开发新产品上市，将更多的铝
的类似建筑结构中脱颖而出。
铝材相比其他材料有了不可比拟的竞争
材废料融入其工艺，拓展与客户的封闭
使用Aleris铝材的标志性建筑有：天津
优势。可重复利用的铝材杜绝了浪费，
合作关系，公司不断减少其产品对环境
滨海国际机场、纽约现代美术馆（世界
并减少了对需要耗费更多能源进行生产
的影响。�
料的新型合金。
为金属轧制工业提供 优质在线检测仪表
测宽仪 激光测速仪 优化剪切系统 张力测量系统 轧制力测量系统
KELK 中国 地址：中国上海市徐汇区文定路 200 号盛源恒华大厦 703-705 室，邮政编码 200030 电话：021-52191757, 021-52191767 | 传真：021-5219-1082 电子邮件：kelk.sales@vpgsensors.com
kelk.com ©2017 Vishay Precision Group, Inc.
今日国际铝业
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52 PRODUCTS AND PROJECTS
www.aluminiumtoday.com
STEINERT EddyC FINES
Experience – the key to the future
铝箔合卷机 Foil Doubling
Duplomat
Handheld XRF Includes WiFi Coatings Mode
Analyser Support
conveyor belt change can be carried out in 10 minutes, without heavily lifting equipment or excessive downtime. www.steinertglobal.com
Now and
Quality control personnel and managers in the metal finishing, metal fabrication, automotive and aerospace industries who require accurate measurements of coatings can now turn to the newest software update to the Thermo Scientific Niton XL5 handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyser, the smallest and lightest handheld XRF alloy analyser available today. The software release includes WiFi support and a new coatings mode for expanded functionality and applications support. www.thermofisher.com
铝箔分卷机 Foil Separating
铝带纵剪机 Strip Slitting
German recycling equipment manufacturer, STEINERT, has launched a non-ferrous metal separator for a variety of finegrain materials. To develop the EddyC FINES system, the company teamed up with Galloo, one of Europe’s biggest recyclers. The new system’s splitter can be set with millimetre precision, enabling non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, copper and zinc to be separated more effectively than ever before. Additionally, the machine was designed so a
Centurial
UC Rusal expands value-added products output at KAZ UC Rusal has launched a “Properzi” rolling mill into operation at Kandalaksha Aluminium Smelter (KAZ) as part of the casthouse modernisation project at the smelter. The project investments total USD 19.8 mln. The new equipment will produce up to 50 thousand tonnes of value added products (VAP) per annum. The launch of the new mill will allow the smelter to produce wire rods of 7 typical sizes which are a new aspect for KAZ; these are of the diameters of 9.5, 12, 14, 15, 19, 23 and 25 mm. Prior to that, the smelter supplied only one size, of 9mm diameter. KAZ will also start to produce wire rod from the alloys of 1xxx, 6xxx and 8xxx series. www.rusal.ru
1 C10
Foil is our profession
Henan Zhongfu aluminium slitting line in operation This is the 12th Danieli Fröhling’s slitting line for aluminium strip operating at speeds of up to 800mpm in the last decade. The new slitting line is processing coiled aluminium strip, 900-2,150mm wide and between 0.10-1.0mm thick, weighing up to 31 tons. It
performs up to 40 slits, with minimum widths of 30mm, at cutting speeds up to 800 m/min, primarily for alloys of series 1xxx, 3xxx, 5xxx, and 8xxx. www.danieli.com
康甫（香港）有限公司 香港湾仔庄士敦道194-204号 湾仔商业中心8楼803室 电话 +852 2882 1136 传真 +852 2576 6110 移动电话 +86 138 1633 1514 kampfhk@kampf.com.hk www.kampf.de 2017年5月/6月
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Al
铝铸造的历史地位
Wagstaff 成为鋁行业的主要部分已超过70年了。 为世界各国制造最先进的直接冷凝（DC）铸造方案, 一直是我们的特权和挑战。 我们的使命一直是要突破技术界限，使铸造车间可以得到最优质的圆棒和扁锭的最 高利润目标。 我们历史的标志从始创人的核心价值引伸出来 – 高质量标准，创新，质疑现状， 和照顾客户的需要, 作为我们首要的目标。 我们重视你们的信任和伙伴关系，并且期待在下一个70年继续为你服务。
直接冷凝铸造技术的领袖 › 铸造机
› 自动化
› 轧制扁锭铸造系统
› 航天合金技术
› 圆棒铸造系统
› 环球服务和支援
要了解Wagstaff的创新技术如 何帮助您增加利润，请联系 电话：+86 532 587 17000， 传真：+86 532 587 17001 www.wagstaff.cn
瓦格斯塔夫（青岛）贸易有限公司 青岛高新区锦业路中小企业 孵化器A2楼，邮编266111
With aluminium components, cars are lighter, use less fuel and emit less pollution. Put your car on a diet. The planet will thank you – and so will your wallet.
www.hydro.com