Producers of aluminium alloys for high gloss applications are under immense pressure to ensure they meet or exceed the expectations of their customers.
In particular, those catering for the high-end sports car market and aerospace sectors feel the weight of expectation from manufacturers and have very specific qualification processes to follow when it comes to the products they use, ensuring their aluminium alloys are exceptional quality to meet the demands of the ever-discerning end user.
Grain refiner, a key ingredient used to eliminate defects in aluminium melts, is just one product which has to go through stringent testing to satisfy the hi-tech sectors.
There is a specific challenge, however, and it’s not the consistency of grain refiner, a widely-known issue for the industry in previous years and part of the reason we developed our Optifine grain refiners in the first place almost 25 years ago.
It goes beyond that and the answer’s in the science.
Naturally, the hi-tech sectors require their alloys to have an absolutely flawless appearance, whether they are making alloys typically used in producing high quality extrusions used as automotive trim and visible structural components such as the A-post or high tensile wing spars for aerospace.
However, during the anodising process, defects can be revealed, which leads to the formation of razor streaks and the component being rejected.
A typical defect arises from hard particles in the grain refiner, with the TiB2 nucleant itself forming agglomerates or the presence of residual oxides generated during the manufacturing process. Minimising these unwanted particles is critical to achieving good cosmetic surface quality.
You can only do this by reducing the amount of grain refiner you add to the melt. With our Optifine 5:1 125 grain refiner, for example, the addition rate can be reduced by 85%, resulting in a similar reduction in the amount TiB2, particles, agglomerates and oxides. This is why using a super efficiency grain refiner is the perfect balance and makes such a difference to the hi-tech sectors.
Having such a tight qualification process in place does make it a challenge for casthouses to change products they use in the process of making high gloss alloys.
But, if you have the resources, it really is worth undertaking trials to see if you can improve your grain refining process, saving you time and money, all while helping you to deliver better products all round.
Optifine 5:1 125 consistently delivers 130% relative efficiency compared with Optifine 3:1, which in itself is three times more efficient than standard grain refiners on the market, and can bring down costs by half. When you consider that grain refiner is arguably, a casthouse’s second biggest spend, this is significant. In fact, by using Optifine instead of standard grain refiner, customers can save up to three dollars per tonne, which results in savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in a medium-sized plant.
Using Optifine also means you have to make less coil changes, meaning less transportation around the casthouse and lower warehouse inventory.
We supply our high efficiency, Optifine grain refiners made with low cardon, green aluminium right across the globe and today, they are used in the production of over five million tonnes of aluminium alloys annually in 45 casthouses worldwide, ranging from major groups to smaller, independent casthouses. If you would like to find out more about our grain refiners and would like us to test Optifine against your own, Contact us.