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TECHNOLOGIE
ed into regular production with over 100,000
tonnes of aluminium having been successfully
produced.
Summing up
It has been shown that two widely held beliefs
are not substantiated by the weight of
evidence against. In the case of the effect of
MgCl 2 content reaction kinetics are of overriding
importance and simply matching the
stoichometrically required amount does not
ensure that the reaction goes to completion.
In the case of the effect of NaCl additions, the
thermodynamics confirm that, irrespective of
reaction kinetic considerations, NaCl cannot
be reduced again to Na. Furthermore laboratory
characterisation of the ternary composition
has confirmed that there is no adverse
effect from the NaCl addition in terms of
both the viscosity and melting characteristics
of the product.
Conclusions
A fundamental study involving thermodynamic
modelling data bases has indicated that it
should be possible to add up to 25% of NaCl
to a MgCl 2 – KCl salt flux, by substituting KCl,
without any effect on the residual Na content
in the treated aluminium melt.
A composition, corresponding to the ternary
eutectic in the MgCl 2 , KCl, NaCl system
has been produced, characterised in laboratory
testing and trialled on a production scale
in a large casthouse in Europe
The results of the laboratory characterisation
confirmed that there were no adverse effects
from the addition of up to 25% NaCl to
a MgCl 2 – KCl binary composition in terms of
viscosity and melting characteristics.
Industrial casthouse trials verified the thermodynamic
prediction with a satisfactory performance
in terms of sodium removal, compared
with standard practice, over a closely
monitored series of production casts.
Acknowledgement
MQP would like to thank Matthias Rohmann and
the management of HDW Rheinkalk GmbH for
their technical and financial support and Professor
Friedrich and M.Sc Semiramis Akbari of RWTH
Aachen for undertaking the thermodynamic study
and laboratory characterisations.
References
[1] G. Beland, C. Dupuis and J.-P. Martin, Improving
fluxing of Aluminium Alloys, Light Metals, 1995,
1189-1195
[2] Private communication with Dr. A. Dietze. TU
Clausthal
[3] D.H. DeYoung, Salt Fluxes for Alkali and Alkaline
Earth removal from Molten Aluminium, 7 th
Australian Asian Pacific Conference Aluminium
Casthouse Technology, 2003
[4] Private communication with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd
Friedrich and M. Sc. Semiramis Akbari, RWTH
Aachen
[5] A. Silney and T.A. Utigard, Interfacial Tension
between Aluminium, Aluminium Alloys and Chloride-Fluoride
Melts
Automatisches Kleinteilelager – Effizienz intelligent gesteuert
Mit der Automatisierung des AKL-Pulverlagers
sowie der Prozesssteuerung über
das Materialfluss-Steuerungsmodul PMS-
M von Aberle hat das Aluminium-Systemhaus
heroal in seinem neuen Logistikzentrum
die Basis für termingerechte
Produktionsversorgung und Effizienz bei
der Realisierung neuer Produktangebote
und Services gelegt.
Kontinuierliches Unternehmenswachstum
stellt die Logistik und insbesondere die Intralogistik
stets vor neue Herausforderungen.
Für die heroal-Johann Henkenjohann GmbH
& Co, Verl, einem der führenden Aluminium-
Systemhäuser in Deutschland, reichten nach
mehr als 50 Jahren Firmengeschichte weder
die herkömmlichen Lagerkapazitäten noch die
Prozessstrukturen, um der weiter steigenden
Nachfrage mit der gewohnten Kundenorientierung
nachzukommen.
Die Entscheider von heroal entschlossen
sich daher dazu, auf der grünen Wiese ein
neues, weitgehend automatisiertes Logistikzentrum
für die Produktionsversorgung
und Distribution einzurichten. Ende 2008
begannen die Arbeiten auf einem mehr als
40.000 Quadratmeter großen Areal in Hövelhof,
nahe dem Stammwerk im ostwestfälischen
Verl. Dort entwickelt und produziert
heroal perfekt aufeinander abgestimmte Sys-
Automatic miniload storage system –
intelligent control for higher efficiency
Aluminium systems provider Heroal created
a stable basis for the timely supply
of materials to production and for a more
efficient introduction of new products and
services. This was achieved by automating
the powder warehouse miniload system
and integrating Aberle’s PMS-M material
flow control module for optimised process
control in its logistics centre.
The continuous growth of a company always
presents logistics – and in particular
intralogistics – with new challenges. More
than 50 years after its establishment, the
available storage capacities and the process
structures of the company heroal-Johann
Henkenjohann, one of Germany’s leading
aluminium system providers, had reached
the limit and were clearly inadequate to meet
the constantly increasing demand while offering
the customer orientation, on which the
company prides itself.
This led Heroal’s decision-makers to build a
brand new logistics centre with a high degree
of automation for its production supply systems
and distribution on a greenfield site. At
the end of 2008, work started on a more than
40,000 m 2 area in Hövelhof near Heroal’s
main plant in Verl, Germany, where the company
develops and manufactures complete
systems for roller blinds, roller shutters, windows,
doors and facades. The relocation was
complete at the turn of 2010/11. The company
uses its own trucks to move the necessary materials
between the nearby production plant
and the logistics centre. “At the same time,
we constantly extended our range of products
and services,” explains Ralf Meermeier, head
of the technical department at Heroal. “Now
Heroal is able to offer a unique service that
comprises the full range of modern high-quality
aluminium surface finishing techniques,
including sheeting, anodising, 2-layer thick
film resist for roller blind surfaces as well as
hwr powder coating.”
There was just one problem: because of the
installation of the new painting system to offer
the new service, it was also necessary to automate
the powder warehouse to avoid compromising
the high process efficiency. Meermeier
continues: “To store the necessary materials,
we were looking for a modern solution – an
efficient automatic small parts storage system
for our Plant 2. Our intention was to award the
48 ALUMINIUM · 11/2012