MQP was invited to unveil its new Optifine 5:1 125 grain refiner to both a physical and virtual audience at NorCast, the 15th Nordic Aluminium Casthouse Conference in Norway.
Chairman John Courtenay demonstrated its benefits through an eye-opening presentation on improving liquid metal cleanliness by the addition of high efficiency grain refiner at the top industry show, one of the most exclusive and elite conferences of its kind in the world.
The paper, delivered virtually by video, specifically looked at research the company was doing in collaboration with Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) at Brunel University in order to improve grain refiner efficiency for customers.
John said: “It was wonderful to be invited to speak to delegates at this year’s NorCast,” he said. “We’ve been privileged to talk to aluminium casthouses on topics of concern at the event for many years and for the last two, have been silver sponsors, holding our own individual meetings to highlight our high efficiency Optifine grain refiner.
“We did have to present virtually this year due to travel restrictions, but it was good to be back talking to other industry leaders and potential customers. Importantly, it was the opportunity to outline, in some detail, work we’ve been doing with customers and in collaboration with BCAST, particularly exploring the development of our new, even higher efficiency grain refiner, Optifine 5:1 125. Like Optifine 3:1, the 5:1 grade is a highly efficient grain refiner, but is 40% more efficient than currently available high efficiency grain refiners.
“Hearing that they would need to buy in 85% less grain refiner than if they used a standard 5:1 grade to achieve the quality results they need was eye-opening for this year’s delegates. It would also mean less casthouse costs, less rejections and an increase in quality and productivity for them.”
As explored in the NorCast presentation, key objectives of the BCAST research, which led to the development of Optifine 5:1 125, included:
• Understanding the characteristics of TiB2 particles in grain refiner with different refinement efficiency
• Finding the relationship between TiB2 particle morphology and the refinement efficiency
• Discovering why grain refinement efficiency of a produced refiner varies from batch to batch
To find out more about the research using state-of-the-art electron microscopy (STEM) and its conclusions, you can read and download the NorCast presentation paper in full here.
Find out more about Optifine 5:1 125 and how it can benefit your casthouse operations here.