• Hard Anodizing of Aluminum Aerospace Alloys • Alexin Casthouse
Transcription
• Hard Anodizing of Aluminum Aerospace Alloys • Alexin Casthouse
• Hard Anodizing of Aluminum Aerospace Alloys • Alexin Casthouse Producing Billet for the Extrusion Industry Reprinted with permission, @2009 Light Metal Age Figure 1. Billet storage area at Alexin. Alexin Casthouse Producing Billet for the Extrusion Industry By Joseph C. Benedyk, Editor W hat began as a series of “what if” conversations among seasoned aluminum extrusion professionals some two years ago culminated recently in the opening of Alexin LLC, the newest aluminum extrusion billet casthouse in North America (Figure 1). This start up, coming as it does at this time, is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit and strong support structure that exists within the aluminum extrusion industry. Known to many in the extrusion industry, the Alexin management team of Tom Horter, Todd Johnson, Neil Johnson, Jay Jarrett, and Jeff Stringer (Figure 2) put together a business plan that was accepted by a group of private investors. The $58 million investment materialized into a brand new, fully automated casthouse completed in late 2008 that now offers aluminum extruders soft alloy extrusion billet and logs up to 300” long as well as cut-to-length billets of 7”, 8”, 10”, 12”, 14”, and 16” diameter. Figure 2. The Alexin LLC management team (left to right): Jeff Stringer (vice president of operations), Jay Jarrett (vice president of finance), Tom Horter (president), Todd Johnson (vice president technical services), and Neil Johnson (vice president of sales and marketing). The greenfield Alexin casthouse (Figure 3) is located in Bluffton, IN, a short distance from the city of Fort Wayne, in what some call “extrusion central”. As the Alexin business plan stressed, over 40% of all U.S. aluminum extrusion plants operate within a 250 mile radius of the Alexin location. In 2006, 1.2 billion pounds of aluminum were extruded in the Midwest within extrusion central. However, the choice of Indiana over other Midwestern states and Bluffton in particular was predicated not only on geography but on several criteria established by the Alexin team: an affordable site with ready access to utilities, a quality labor pool, local government support, and incentives. 6 Figure 3. Birdseye view of the greenfield Alexin plant. The business plan put together by Alexin founders was ambitious and progressive, calling for rapid construction and equipping of what is now one of the most modern extrusion billet casthouses in the world. As Alexin’s president Tom Horter (see interview on page 17) explained, “Once financial closing was completed on November 1, 2007, we began operating 52 weeks later.” The plant, with a nameplate capacity of 215 million pounds annually, is now four months in operation. The company currently has a total employee count of 51. The casthouse is essentially an aluminum recycling facility built around remelting high grade aluminum scrap and turning it into LEED® certifiable billet that is not only eco-friendly but highly press-friendly. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) initiative represents a growing concern in the industry for sustainable green building standards and provides a nationally accepted rating system for building products based on design, construction, and efficiency. Alexin Environmental Features With their 4:1 recyclable-to-ingot ratio, superior melting capabilities, and regenerative burner system, the recycling facility only uses 10% of the energy required to produce primary aluminum from bauxite. The 80% recycling rate at Alexin is carefully managed. Recycled aluminum content consists of baled scrap, collected loose scrap, compressed chip pucks, and aluminum castings. The generous and clean scrap yard of some 300,000 square feet is divided into nine storage/sorting bays. Aluminum LIGHT METAL AGE, JUNE 2009 scrap is drawn as required from each segregated bay, an example of which is shown in Figure 4, and loaded on to a scrap charging machine (Figure 5) that automatically charges the scrap load into the efficient melting furnace. The charge machine can feed the melting furnace with up to 12 tons of material within 90 seconds. This rapid loading rate results in a 7% increased melt rate, thereby achieving additional energy savings over the efficient burner system installed on the melting furnace. A Twin Bed® II regenerative burner system for Alexin’s melting furnace built by Fives North American Combustion, Inc. of Cleveland, OH, helps control fines in the flue while significantly lowering NOx emissions. The two burners in the Twin Bed II system recover waste heat from furnace exhaust gases in a compact heat storage regenerator, consisting of a bed of alumina balls, and preheat the combustion air, thereby significantly increasing efficiency over conventional burners or even burners with flue gas recirculation. All of the flue gas and any particulate is treated using Sorbocal and removed in the flue treatment and filtration system built by MCNS Environmental Systems Inc. of Smithfield, Ontario, Canada (Figure 7). Figure 4. One of the nine aluminum scrap sorting bays being filled at Alexin. Figure 7. High efficiency MCNS flue filtration system in operation at Alexin. A Tour of Alexin Casthouse Operations Figure 5. Loaded RIA (Rackwitz Industrieanlagen) charge machine ready for charging. The melting, casting, and billet processing systems were engineered based on environmental principles: from scrap selection and grading to melting, alloying, casting, and finally to eventual shipment to customers (Figure 6). As Todd Johnson, vp of technical services, pointed out and demonstrated to us during a recent plant tour, “Every effort has been made in the Alexin plant to optimize our melting process without the use of chlorine or flux, to recycle cooling water used in casting, to utilize energy sparingly and wisely throughout the plant, and to capture 100% of particulate emissions in the flue while lowering NOx emissions.” High Efficiency Melting and Holding Furnace Operations: The casthouse operations begin by melting the 4:1 aluminum recyclable-to-ingot charges in their 115,000 pound capacity tiltable melting furnace built by GNA alutech Inc. of Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada (Figure 8). This furnace is equipped with a single door and two pairs of the Twin Bed II ultra-low NOx regenerative burners briefly described previously. Figure 8. The 115,000 pound capacity GNA melting furnace in tilt position at Alexin. Figure 6. Schematic plan for the Alexin environmental features—from input of aluminum scrap and prime aluminum ingot to shipment to customers. LIGHT METAL AGE, JUNE 2009 The Twin Bed II burners operate in pairs (Figure 9), one burner firing while the other burner exhausts. Combustion air is preheated in the regenerator of the firing burner and furnace gas gives up heat to the regenerator in the exhausting burner, with switching done within a specific time period. The burner that was firing then exhausts and vice versa in a continuing cycle. Ultra-low NOx 7 Figure 11. GNA holding furnace in horizontal position. Figure 9. Schematic drawing of the Fives North American Twin Bed II cyclic burner operation. emissions are achieved by controlling the natural gas fuel flow adjacent to the burner tunnel ports (Figure 10) once the furnace temperature exceeds 1,450°F, thus reducing the rate and temperature of the combustion reactions, critical to suppressing NOx formation and maintaining the highest potential efficiency. Average natural gas fuel consumption, melting and raising the cold charge to 1,300°F, uses only about 950 Btu/lb. Alloying and Melt Preparation for Casting: Alloying at Alexin is dependent on the carefully graded scrap charge and type of 6xxx alloy to be cast. Typically, these Al-Mg-Si alloys can be produced from aluminum casting alloy scrap that normally contains high silicon levels and returned 6xxx alloy scrap with minor adjustments from alloying additions. The scrap alloy mix is calculated for the charge to the melting furnace, and alloy chemistry is adjusted as required after transfer of the melt to the holding furnace by selective additions of pure silicon and magnesium as well as with appropriate master alloys of chromium and manganese. Once alloy chemistry is verified in the holding furnace, degassing of the molten aluminum is done exclusively with argon in a completely automated SNIF SHEER P180UiT system (Figure 12), a three rotor degasser manufactured by the SNIF division of Pyrotek of Spokane Valley, WA. The unique SNIF SHEER graphite nozzle design removes hydrogen without entraining aluminum oxide into the melt by optimizing argon gas purging bubble distribution during molten metal retention without causing metal turbulence. The degasser is a tilting system designed to drain molten metal into the end of a cast or back to the holding furnace during an alloy change. This system is heated with three 20 kw immersion heaters to provide faster heat recovery than the conventional SNIF heater block system and is more suited for tilting furnaces. After the SNIF, the molten aluminum passes through a Selee filter (CS-X non-phosphate bonded filter) supplied by Selee Corp. of Hendersonville, NC. With a couple of decades of experience in the aluminum casthouse, Horter voiced his philosophy about pre- Figure 10. Close up of burner tunnel ports in Alexin melting furnace during fuel injection used in the Twin Bed II burner system to suppress NOx formation. GNA alutech also supplied Alexin with their tiltable holding furnace having a 105,000 pound bath capacity (Figure 11). This holding furnace is equipped with one pair of cold air burners, also from North American Manufacturing. The GNA melting furnace is equipped with an ABB electromagnetic stirrer to stir the melt from below, maintain a low temperature gradient within the bath, and conserve energy. Both furnaces are controlled by Allen-Bradley programmable logic controls and are lined with refractory materials from Harbison Walker. Operating 24/7 daily for 355 days, the total melting capacity at Alexin is estimated at 240 million pounds. 8 Figure 12. SNIF P-180UiT tilting degasser arrival at Alexin before installation on the GNA tilting holding furnace. LIGHT METAL AGE, JUNE 2009 paring a proper melt for casting: “As good as the high level of metal purity achieved with the SNIF/Selee system we have in place, we employ a “clean feed” system here at Alexin that controls furnace charge, burners, electromagnetic stirring, and proper furnace tending before the melt even enters the holding furnace.” Final preparation of the melt before casting involves skimming the melt in the holding furnace to remove dross (Figure 13). Dross processing is done on-site by hot pressing using Altek Dross Presses supplied by Altek-MDY of Exton, PA, to remove any remaining molten aluminum globules, with the residue cooled in pots and shipped off site for further processing. Figure 15. Wagstaff mold table preparing for DC casting operation. Figure 13. Skimming of the melt in the GNA holding furnace at Alexin with an RIA machine. Unlike many dross rooms, which are generally unkempt and dirty, the spotless Alexin dross room represents more than just good housekeeping according to Horter, who maintains, “Cleanliness is a virtue in the casthouse, indicative in many respects of the care taken in establishing high levels of casthouse maintenance and safety, and we extend our efforts not just on the casting floor but to the dross room as well.” DC Casting ala Wagstaff: In late 2007, Alexin purchased a complete state-of-the-art direct chill (DC) casting station, including five Wagstaff Billet Casting Systems equipped with AirSlip® Air Casting and NuMax™ billet casting technology (Figure 14), an AutoCast™ Automated Casting Control System, and a ShurCast™ Casting Machine. As noted by Horter during our visit, the Alexin casthouse is the first billet casthouse to be fully equipped in the U.S. by Wagstaff since 1995. This speaks to the globalization of the industry. Unique to the Alexin casting station is a new type of mold table mounting system designed to improve efficiency and safety for operators working in the casting area (Figure 15). Wagstaff’s Roll-Over Style Mold Table Tilt System pivots the under side of the mold table away from the pit allowing easy access to the molds at the end of each cast (Figures 16 and 17). With this configuration, Figure 16. Top side of pivoted Wagstaff mold table. Figure 17. Under-side of pivoted mold table. Figure 14. Bill Wagstaff on the manufacturing floor in Spokane, sending off the 800th Wagstaff Billet System, which was purchased byAlexin. 10 the tilted mold table is between the operator performing mold maintenance and the casting pit during billet removal, significantly improving safety, efficiency, and maintenance of Alexin’s casting operation. The casting station installation also included a 500S Model ShurCast Casting Machine, a robust foundation on which tons of metal are cast each day. The design features of the ShurCast ensure that straight, high quality products are produced; meanwhile, ram stiffness protects against bending due to load imbalances, and a torque limiter prevents damage to the cylinder from rotaLIGHT METAL AGE, JUNE 2009 tional forces caused by wedged metal between the platen and the casting pit wall. ShurCast Casting Machines are equipped with a low-maintenance single-acting ram cylinder designed to last decades. The six casting systems purchased are built to cast billet logs in a range of sizes from 7-16”. Three of the systems are capable of AirSlip DC casting, a technology known throughout the industry to produce high quality billet with exceptionally smooth surfaces. The remaining two systems are configured to cast larger diameter billets with NuMax Billet Casting Technology. Amongst the five systems purchased is Wagstaff’s 800th billet system, designed and manufactured to meet Alexin’s production requirements. Controlling the entire casting station is a Wagstaff AutoCast Automated Casting System, outfitted with SCADA and enhanced reporting features that enable Alexin to maintain standard operating sequences and provide an information system for optimizing quality. The automation system is designed to remotely start and stop each cast, minimizing risks and allowing precise control of all parameters critical to the casting process. In the months after commissioning Alexin achieved an overall excellent pit recovery of approximately 98%. This success can be at least partially attributed to the decades of combined experience in DC aluminum casting of the Alexin management team. The 12 month purchase-tocast goal was somewhat optimistic to many, but was ultimately achieved by the experienced group and a dedicated, well trained crew. Casthouse Training and Continuous Improvement: Alexin casthouse personnel were trained in all aspects of billet casting through seven weeks of classes and apprenticeship experience on the casting floor. The decades of casthouse and extrusion experience of the Alexin management team has been brought to the fore in the their training room. Management philosophy inspires openness and transparency in learning and continuous improvement in DC casting and all aspects of extrusion billet production. Casthouse personnel meet regularly in the Alexin training room to discuss issues, compare notes, ask questions, and get answers. During our visit, we were fortunate to find Wagstaff’s billet product trainer on the casting floor during a DC casting run. He described the Alexin training regimen that has been supervised by Wagstaff and which spans a total of seven weeks. In the fall of 2008, Alexin casthouse personnel traveled to Wagstaff headquarters and were trained over a period of two weeks in the use of Wagstaff equipment. The regimen is continuing over five weeks at Alexin now that the casting equipment is in place and running. Wagstaff already conducted a two-week on-site session of classes in the Alexin training room as well as on their casting floor and will continue with three spaced sessions of one week each. The agenda for the billet training session taking place May 4-8th was handed out in the Alexin training room. On this agenda were sections detailing grain refining procedures, unitized lift procedure, AirSlip and NuMax operations, start of cast, and maintaining of the graphite ring in DC molds, with a question and answer period at the close of the session. In looking over the many slides in just this single training session, one gets a feel for the details of running and maintaining the efficient and productive Alexin DC casthouse 24/7 for 355 days a year. Homogenization of DC Cast Billet Logs: As experienced extruders know well, good homogenization practice is a critical step in obtaining press-friendly billet. The homogenization building at Alexin is equipped with a fully automated extrusion billet handling system from Advanced Dynamics Corp. Ltd. (ADCL), Quebec, Canada. ADCL provided turnkey automated extrusion billet handling from the DC casting machine through to the shipping 12 department, including a batch load build/breakdown system and a sawing and packing line. Besides the melting and holding furnaces mentioned, GNA also supplied three homogenizing furnaces, two billet coolers, and a charging machine (Figures 18 and 19). The homogenizing furnaces are designed with three temperature control zones and have a nominal capacity of 95,000 pounds each. Each zone is fitted with one large capacity and one smaller capacity Thermjet burner by Eclipse. The heat transfer is assured by roof-mounted radial type recirculation fans installed one in each zone. Temperature uniformity for the furnace atmosphere is ±3°F during soak and the fans are controlled by variable frequency drives. Figure 18. Three homogenization furnaces and two billet coolers supplied by GNA alutech. Figure 19. GNA homogenization/cooling load charging machine. Both coolers are equipped with reversing, axial flow fans and designed to cool a load of 16” diameter billets 300” long from just below 1,075°F to 400°F in one hour. Cooling of DC cast billets is programmed to suit the particular alloy. For example, 6063 and other dilute 6xxx alloy billets are cooled as quickly as possible to assure a finely dispersed magnesium silicide and intermetallic particle distribution for optimum surface finish in extrusion; however, 6061 and other higher alloyed 6xxx billets require a programmed cooling rate that assures magnesium silicide particle size remains large enough to prevent saturation of the solid solution (to lower extrusion pressure) but small enough to dissolve during extrusion and achieve good mechanical properties upon aging. In the homogenizing load build/breakdown system, extrusion billets from 7” up to 16” diameter and 300” long that are removed from the DC casting machine are laid down on the accumulation conveyor, which is long enough to receive an entire cast (20 to 84 logs depending upon product diameter). The conveyor then feeds the LIGHT METAL AGE, JUNE 2009 billets toward a layer forming station (Figure 20) which builds a layer on top of stainless steel spacers per the recipe in Table I. The layer forming machine staggers the logs such that they fill the airflow path in the homogenizing furnace. Once a layer is built, an automatic stacking crane picks up the layer and places it on top of the layer forming table. Complete homogenization furnace loads are built (one load per cast) on the layer forming table and, once complete, the homogenization furnace charge car is called to retrieve the load. Figure 20. Layer building of DC billet logs are stacked automatically by ADCL machines and ready for charging into the homogenization furnace. Sawing and Packing Extrusion Billet: ADCL also supplied Alexin with a state-of-the-art high speed sawing and packing line. This line includes in-feed accumulation, saw, short billet and long billet stacking, and an automatic strapping machine. The system can saw and pack up to 300 billets per hour and is designed to process 750,000 lbs. per day based on Alexin’s product mix. The saw recipes include short billets (18” to 48” long) and long billets (140” to 300” long). Billets arriving from the homogenization cooling area are picked and placed onto the saw in-feed accumulation conveyor, which has room for a complete cast. To start the saw line, the operator enters the cutting orders (up to six orders per cast) in the control room. Billet logs are then fed one at a time to the saw in-feed roller conveyor. The in-feed conveyor works together with a length gauge stop to position the log for cutting. The circular saw has a 56” diameter blade and a 125 h.p. motor and cuts at a rate of two inches per second. It is equipped with a sound enclosure to keep the surrounding environment below 85 decibels, an environmentally conditioned control room, Rockwell RS View operator interface, and an Allen Bradley Control Logix PLC (programmable logic control) system. While the billets are being cut, there is a Telesis multipin marking head which pin marks the cast number and alloy on the end of each billet. From the saw, the short cut billets are conveyed to an overhead stacking machine. The stacking machine is a high speed servo controlled two-axis manipulator that picks one or two billets at a time, depending on length, and places them into one of two turntable mounted stacking jigs. Once the jig being loaded is full, the billet package weight is taken and stored in the control system. The turntable then rotates 180 degrees presenting the full pack to the automatic strapping machine while placing the empty jig at the stacking/loading position. All of these sequential operations are shown in Figure 21. Table I. Homogenization load patterns for the ADCL build/breakdown system at Alexin. The charge car automatically processes the complete load through one of the three GNA homogenization furnaces, then through one of the two GNA high speed coolers, and finally places the load back down onto the load breakdown table. Spacers for the homogenization loads are stainless steel and they are automatically positioned and removed from the loads by the same automatic crane that handles the layers. The bottom row of spacers is fitted with wheels to allow for the differential expansion between the load and the steel support stands in the furnaces and coolers. There are also two load storage stands at Alexin that may be used as a destination for the loads to allow a buffer between operations in the homogenization building. The stacking crane picks layers one at a time from the load breakdown table and places them onto the layer breakdown table. From there, a pick and place device removes the billets one at a time from the layer and places them on a roller conveyor which then in turn transports them to storage for later shipment or to the saw line for cutting into billets. The entire system in the homogenization line is controlled by an Allen Bradley Control Logix PLC network. All billets are tracked from the lay down station through to the saw line. The system works completely automatically without any operator intervention. 14 Figure 21. Billet sawing and packing at Alexin: saw in-feed accumulator (top left), saw in-feed roller (top right), sawing billet to length (bottom left), short billet stacking and packing (bottom right). The automatic strapping machine travels to position and applies a programmed number of one-inch wide, high strength polyester straps and wood runners to the billet pack. Once the straps have been applied, the strapping machine moves out of the way so the completed package can be retrieved by the lift truck operator, who is the only operator in the system. The lift truck driver is equipped with a radio frequency controlled portable printer that can print the required number of shipping labels and apply them to the package. LIGHT METAL AGE, JUNE 2009 Short billets are packed differently than long billets (Figure 22). Once long billets are cut, they are conveyed to be formed into a single layer on a scale, which records the weight of the package. A transfer car then moves the layer to a strapping station that completes the package, as it does for the short billets, and gets out of the way for retrieval by the lift truck. Figure 22. Short billet packing (top) and long billet packing (bottom) at Alexin. Quality Assurance and Management The quality assurance or QA system at Alexin begins with contaminant inspection during the receipt of material followed by chemistry and grading in the scrap yard, melt chemistry and purity checks before casting, DC billet checks, temperature controls in homogenization heating and cooling, and various checks on dimensions and billet quality at the saw. The alloy chemistry must match the dozens of combinations of 6xxx alloys cast, all tailored to fit the particular requirements of a given extrusion customer. According to Todd Johnson, who is responsible for quality management, “Alexin will be compliant to ISO-9001-2008 and ISO 14001 by January 2010. Alexin sees the benefit of a well documented quality system that meets the ISO quality and environmental framework. Our Quality Management System, or QMS, focuses on the benefits that can be derived from a well established QMS, such as consistency of process and product and not on a documented system that simply sits on the shelf. We want to make sure that the QMS becomes part of our everyday business.” The proof of consistency of process and product of course comes down to customer satisfaction. As Todd Johnson also noted, “Alexin has received numerous comments from our extrusion customers that state how well Alexin billet performs when matched against primary or smelter billet. In these trials, Alexin billet has provided better productivity and better surface finish than primary billet.” 16 Source-to-Source (S2S) Network Having toured the Alexin operations and discussed the technology and business aspects of extrusion billet production with the company’s management team, it becomes obvious that Alexin has a new perspective on sourcing extrusion billet. As the newest DC billet casthouse in North America, the company is directly confronting the economic situation in the current aluminum extrusion industry with their innovative approach to facilitating a secure and high quality source of billet to extruders. They are doing this by revamping the strategic extruder/supplier relationship within a S2S network centered in Bluffton, IN. The S2S network operates quite differently than extruder/supplier relationships of the past. Jeff Stringer, vp of operations at Alexin and a 15 year veteran of the extrusion floor and casthouse, explained the dilemma that many extruders faced in the past: “For decades, extruders and suppliers negotiated back and forth in an effort to gain the upper hand during transactions. In many instances, heavy-handed negotiating tactics resulted in agreements that were unfriendly to extruders. In the past, suppliers of aluminum were inflexible when dealing in volume, and rigid supplier pricing methods were subsequently adopted. As a result, extruders found it difficult to respond to market volatility and, in many cases, the only way for their customers to obtain flexibility was to change extruders or move to alternate products.” Neil Johnson, vp of sales and marketing and another seasoned extrusion professional on the Alexin management team, describes the new S2S paradigm shift. He explains, “Security of supply is very important. The pre-Alexin status quo in the industry required many extruders to sign annual agreements. This was one of the few ways for extruders to insulate themselves from market forces.” Outlining Alexin’s new approach to business, Neil Johnson describes how the Alexin S2S model provides extruders with the flexibility to adjust to fluctuations in the aluminum marketplace: “We streamline and protect the security of an extruder’s metal requirements. Our revolutionary concept is going to redefine the way aluminum is bought and sold.” Furthermore, Neil Johnson boasts, “Alexin’s state-of-theart aluminum casthouse is the most efficient, environmentally conscious, and cleanest plant of its kind in the nation and, with 80% of our billet derived from recycled scrap and our highly efficient furnaces, Alexin’s eco-friendly aluminum is LEED certifiable.” The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Green Building Rating System™ is an important factor in the emerging environmental awareness taking place throughout the world. LEED certification, whether of new construction (LEED-NC), existing buildings (LEED-EB), or homes (LEED-H), recognizes projects that meet stringent standards of environmental and public health excellence. While individual building components themselves are not certified, they can contribute to the points awarded to a project as a whole. As a member of The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC), Alexin participates actively in promoting the benefits of aluminum extrusions. The AEC maintains that aluminum has inherently sustainable characteristics that, combined with the extrusion process, make extruded aluminum the material of choice for the green building industry. The company aims to make its green aluminum billet the billet of choice. The Alexin production and S2S business systems are managed by a team of aluminum extrusion professionals, which altogether bring over 30 years of extrusion experience to their business, thereby enabling Alexin to not only make excellent billet but to thoroughly understand the issues that face extruders. That is why Alexin president Horter claims, “Alexin billet is tailored for the extrusion industry.” LIGHT METAL AGE, JUNE 2009