Aluminium grain refiner specialist MQP has succeeded in further increasing the efficiency of its Optifine 5:1 125 product on the back of research with the UK’s top metals centre.
Optifine 5:1 125, which previously had a minimum 120% relative efficiency compared with Optifine 3:1, which in itself is three times more efficient than standard grain refiners on the market, has been consistently delivering a 130% efficiency since further experimentation using High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) got underway this year.
Chairman John Courtenay said the work with Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) at Brunel University London had revolutionised the effectiveness of grain refiner, which is added to aluminium in the production process to eliminate cracking, waste and poor quality material for everything from thin foils to high gloss automotive applications.
“To be able to deliver 130% relative efficiency is incredible, something we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago,” he said. “At Aluminium 2024, we saw a clear uptick in casthouses’ commitment to taking action and trialling our Optifine grain refiners to improve their systems, processes and efficiency, and having to add even less grain refiner to the melt is only going to be good news, equating to better quality together with meaningful cost savings.”
The partnership with BCAST, located at Brunel University London, began in 2020, resulting in the launch of Optifine 5:1 125 in 2021. For over a decade, BCAST had been looking into the industry problem of inconsistency of aluminium quality on a global scale, which results in huge waste and substandard products across manufacturing. Joining forces with MQP set the scene for a research project to implement the science in an industrial setting.
Today, Optifine, which is made with low carbon, green aluminium, is used in the production of over five million tonnes of aluminium alloys annually in 45 major casthouses worldwide, its appeal being that casthouses only need to use a third of the amount of standard TiBAI grain refiners typically used. It can also bring costs down by half and means less coil changes and transportation around the casthouse and lower warehouse inventory.
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