When receiving a quote, new customers often focus on the initial price and may express concern about the cost.

However, rather than looking at the upfront expense, it’s essential to consider the overall cost effectiveness.

Optifine delivers significant savings by reducing the amount of grain refiner needed per tonne of metal treated, making it a far more efficient solution.

How much does it really cost to grain refine a tonne of aluminium?

The addition of grain refining agents to aluminium alloys is vital for the production of crack free slabs and billets. The most commonly used materials are TiBAl product, generally with 3% or 5%Ti and 1%B.

Standard grain refiners are generally added at a rate of 1kg/t, depending on the alloy/cast product.

The introduction of Optifine into 45 casthouses worldwide has reduced this addition rate by anywhere between 50% (standard Optifine) and 90% (when using Optifine 5:1 125).

If we consider that a casthouse will use 70% less grain refiner to treat the same tonnage of cast metal compared to standard grain refiner, then the overall cost of using Optifine is going to be 50% or less than the cost of using standard grain refiners.

Even with a slightly higher unit cost, the overall expenditure is significantly lower. For instance, a casthouse currently spending $1.6 million per year on standard grain refiners could see that cost drop to just over $500,000 per year with Optifine – demonstrating the real savings achieved through efficiency and reduced material usage.

Optifine was developed to be added to aluminium melts in order to reduce grain refiner costs but, in fact, there are so many more benefits that should be considered:

>> Melt quality improvement
>> Less inclusions added to the melt
>> Fewer coil changes
>> Less transportation and storage
>> Fewer filter blockages
>> Greater ability to cast thin product

If you would like to know more how Optifine can save you money and improve your melt quality, get in touch with our technical team today.

If you are using scrap aluminium, you might also like our blog on how we can reduce the titanium in your melts and get your alloys back in spec. Read more here >>