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© Tenova LOI Thermprocess
ment line for aluminium strip coils for the
Ma’aden-Alcoa facility in Saudi-Arabia. The
line consists of single-coil lifting hearth furnaces
which allow the individual heat treatment
of coils. The installation is scheduled for
2013.
This heat treatment line allows adapted
heat treatment according to the specific needs
of the individual strip within short time, instead
of heat treatment in a batch of several
coils, which would require an average heat
treatment or the combination of a batch of
identical strip coils. The heat treatment and
cooling can be processed in protective atmosphere.
The system works fully automatically
from taking the coil out of the storage area
until the heat treated coil is placed into the
storage area again.
The special plant and furnace design has
been invented in 1998 by LOI Thermprocess
and has been installed first at Alcan Singen,
Germany. To date LOI has installed more than
fifty units.
Seco/Warwick Allied supplies
soaking pit furnaces to Hindalco
Seco/Warwick Allied has recently installed
seven soaking pit furnaces at Hindalco Industries
in Hirakud in eastern India. The furnaces
feature side-mounted fans, which improve
maintenance access, and a combination of fan
and heater arrangements to produce separate
control zones along the vertical length of the
slabs as well as a patented adjustable baffle
design. The furnaces are designed for vertical
loaded slabs to process can body stock.
Each furnace is designed for a maximum load
of 128 tonnes. The overall charge height is
five metres maximum and 3.5 metres minimum
from eight to 16 slabs per batch. An
adjustable baffle has been provided for
proper air circulation in the event shorter slab
heights are loaded. The furnace is designed
for electrical heating with individual self-propelled
lid (cover) trolley mechanism, and is
equipped with PLC-based control and monitoring
system.
New Otto Junker induction heater
for Hydro Aluminium Nenzing
Otto Junker has received an order from Hydro
Aluminium Nenzing for another induction-type
heater including log storage and log
handling equipment. More than 30 years ago,
Otto Junker supplied one of the world’s first
induction-type aluminium log heaters with a
downstream hot shear to Hydro’s Nenzing
works. In 2007, this system was upgraded to
3,600 kW by adding an Otto Junker-supplied
IGBT converter system; as a result, it now attains
a throughput of nearly 80 billets per hour.
The consistently positive experience gathered
with this plant prompted Hydro Aluminium
Nenzing to opt for an Otto Junker furnace
system of nearly identical design when a new
investment decision came up.
The system comprises a feed table with
chain conveyor, a vertical log magazine for
up to 60 logs, a feed conveyor, and an induction
furnace measuring around five metres
in length in which the logs are heated to a desired
temperature profile before being cut to
length in the existing hot shear prior to entering
the press.
Logs are delivered to the chain-type log
magazine by forklift truck and are stored and
managed according to alloy type. On the feed
conveyor, the length of each log is accurately
measured for the required ‘odd end’ optimisation
process. Heating is carried out in a multilayer
low-loss induction coil which, like in
the existing heater, consists of six individually
controlled coil sections.
The billet heating operation relies on an
IGBT converter system developed by Otto
Junker. This converter system is based on
transistor technology and offers the advantage
of steplessly adjustable power control in addition
to high efficiency and low maintenance
needs. Designed by Otto Junker around ten
years ago, the technology has since proven its
merits in over 170 billet heating and induction
melting furnace applications.
Mechatherm modernises
Dubal’s casting pit DC1
Mechatherm had been awarded an order to
completely rebuild Dubal’s casting pit DC1.
The contract involved significant mechanical,
hydraulic, electrical and combustion work to
three furnaces and to a vertical aluminium billet
casting machine. It required considerable
demolition followed by civil work organised
by Dubal. Only then could the new equipment
be installed and commissioned with a complete
new Mechatherm software automation
system. Work was projected to take twelve
weeks, during which the casting pit would be
shut down completely, with no production.
Due to the excellent collaboration with Dubal
engineers, Mechatherm and its sub-contractors
managed to complete the work and get
the pit into production in less than eight weeks.
Thus Dubal could cast over 5,000 tonnes of
extrusion billet above their predicted output.
Rusal begins installing hot bath
crushing equipment from Outotec
Rusal has begun the installation of hot bath
crushing equipment at its Boguchany aluminium
smelter in the Krasnoyarsk region of
Russia. This fully automated equipment, supplied
by German company Outotec, processes
crushed hot bath to the required fraction of
any size. It will cost €5.1m (USD6.7m).
The line is one of the most advanced on the
market and will be used for the first time in
Russia. It has a capacity of 40 tph, which will
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