AFC-Holcroft receives order for rebuild/retrofit of pusher furnace line
February 3, 2015
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AFC-Holcroft, Wixom, Mich., reports that a leading global automotive supplier has placed an order for a rebuild/retrofit of an existing pusher furnace line, along with contract additions for companion ancillary equipment, as part of a multi-phase project. The first phase rebuild/retrofit portion involves restoration of an existing 3-row pusher furnace line including pusher furnace with quench, postwasher, temper furnace, transfers/conveyors, electrical control panels, and flowmeter panels.
As part of the order, the existing equipment will receive a number of modifications and upgrades to meet current industrial, safety, and supplier standards.
The new companion ancillary equipment will consist of the following: 3-row magazine loader, prewasher, preheat furnace, oil storage tank, closed-loop cooling system, 13,500 cfh E-Z series endothermic gas generator, transfers/conveyors, and powered exhaust system.
A new holding chamber with press quench will integrate into the rebuilt/retrofitted equipment that will allow for either direct part quenching (into pusher furnace quench tank) or press quenching (into the press quench). The holding chamber will be unloaded by a robot that will load/unload the press quench.
The equipment for rebuild/retrofit is already in storage at AFC-Holcroft's build partner, MATTSA, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. MATTSA will rebuild/retrofit the existing pusher furnace line and provide the new companion ancillary equipment. Once completed, each piece will be cold-tested and shipped to the supplier's plant for installation, start-up, commissioning and formal operator training by MATTSA and AFC-Holcroft. Completion of the first phase is expected in 2015.
www.afc-holcroft.com
AFC-Holcroft, Wixom, Mich., reports that a leading global automotive supplier has placed an order for a rebuild/retrofit of an existing pusher furnace line, along with contract additions for companion ancillary equipment, as part of a multi-phase project.
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Novelis commissions $48 million aluminum recycling center in Oswego
February 1, 2015
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Novelis Inc., Atlanta, announces completion of a $48 million investment in its automotive scrap aluminum recycling facility in Oswego, N.Y. The recycling investment includes a new 81,000 sq.-ft. building capable of processing, sorting, and storing automotive scrap aluminum. The facility features best-in-class scrap recovery and conversion technology. It will enable Novelis to process as much as 10,000 metric tons of recycled scrap per month.
It expands upon the company's recent growth in Oswego to meet the increased demand for aluminum automotive sheet in North America. Over the past five years, Novelis has invested more than $400 million in Oswego and hired more than 430 new employees, with around 250 additional jobs planned by the year 2020.
"As the leader in automotive closed-loop recycling, one of our top priorities is to create a sustainable supply line between Novelis and automakers, which will preserve aluminum's value, reduce greenhouse gases, and increase economic efficiencies for our customers," said Marco Palmieri, President of Novelis North America. "This investment will help us meet new demands of automakers as they turn towards lightweight aluminum to create more fuel-efficient vehicles."
Since 2011, Novelis has invested more than $550 million to raise its global automotive sheet capacity to 900,000 metric tons by the end of this year. Novelis predicts that sales of automotive aluminum, which currently represents about 9% of its total shipments, may climb to as much as 25% by 2020. To support the growing demand for automotive aluminum, Novelis will allocate approximately 80% of the Oswego facility's capacity to the automotive market.
www.novelis.com
Novelis Inc., Atlanta, announces completion of a $48 million investment in its automotive scrap aluminum recycling facility in Oswego, N.Y.
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Harper’s carbon-fiber oxidation ovens reduce energy use and emissions
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Harper International Corp., Buffalo, N.Y., offers advanced carbon fiber oxidation oven technology to complement its furnaces for carbon fiber processing. State-of-the-art oven designs are available for tow-bands from 300 mm to greater than 4000 mm. Technology advancements enable faster oxidation through elimination of the chimney effect, improved velocity uniformity and range, assurance of temperature uniformity at a variety of flow rates, and optimal control of the reaction.
Harper's designs incorporate a multitude of improvements, including energy efficient designs. The most distinctive feature of Harper's cutting-edge design is the innovative atmospheric end seal. This seal design reduces fugitive emissions, increases the active volume of the oven, and offers reduced energy consumption over alternatives. The seals have independent adjustment of the top and bottom inside and outside slots. Each pass has an independent vent with adjustable draw control, and the exhaust plenum connects to a dedicated fan/VFD. As a result of these innovative design features, there is no vertical mixing in the seal, less air ingress, and virtually no process gas escape.
Harper's instrumentation improvements include a two-tier balancing methodology, responsive quench system and rapid cool down system, emissions monitoring, and inherently safer pressure relief system. Additionally, modular construction design enables up to a 90% reduction in labor versus similar field erection times into a full line pilot system (300mm).
Additionally, Harper's proprietary multiflow Research Oven offers parallel, cross, and down airflow directions in a single oven, which allows for true evaluation of different flow techniques. The oven's uniformity specifications meet or exceed best-in-class for each flow regime.
Although Carbon Fiber is predominantly produced from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and pitch, there is an increasing necessity for alternative, low cost and renewable precursors as the industry grows to applications such automotive. Harper has the unique ability to adapt our technology to process nontraditional precursors throughout the entire thermal process.
www.harperintl.com
Harper International Corp., Buffalo, N.Y., offers advanced carbon fiber oxidation oven technology to complement its furnaces for carbon fiber processing.
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Robot helps develop carbon composite structures
January 25, 2015
Source: ASM International
A robot named ISAAC, which features a versatile spinning head and a robust, acrobatic arm, will help NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., create and test new composite structures faster, less expensively, and with more room for experimentation than ever before.
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SSAB Hardox Tube 500 high strength steel tube provides extreme wear resistance
Source: ASM International
SSAB, Sweden, has launched the Hardox Tube 500 range of tubular high strength steel that provides the same hardness and toughness as Hardox steel wear plate, but in tubular form.
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Femtosecond lasers make metals superhydrophobic
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Scientists at the University of Rochester, N.Y., have reportedly transformed platinum, titanium, and brass into superhydrophobic materials with femtosecond laser pulses. Superhydrophobicity makes a surface rust-resistant, anti-icing, and anti-biofouling, all of which could help make such devices more robust and easier to maintain. The superhydrophobic surfaces can also clean themselves, since water droplets repelled from the surface carry away dust particles very efficiently.
This work builds on earlier research by the team in which they used a similar laser-patterning technique that turned metals black. Dr. Guo states that using this technique they can create multifunctional surfaces that are not only super-hydrophobic, but also highly absorbent optically.
"This is the first time that a multifunctional metal surface is created by lasers that is superhydrophobic, self-cleaning, and highly light absorptive," said Chunlei Guo, a physicist at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. He made the new surfaces with his colleague and fellow University of Rochester researcher Anatoliy Vorobyev. The researchers describe the laser-patterned surfaces in an article, "Multifunctional surfaces produced by femtosecond laser pulses." It was published in the Journal of Applied Physics on January 20, 2015 (DOI: 10.1063/1.4905616). It can be accessed at: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/117/3/10.1063/1.4905616.
Dr. Guo says that one of the big advantages of his team's process is that "the structures created by our laser on the metals are intrinsically part of the material surface." That means they won't rub off. And it is these patterns that make the metals repel water.
The team is now planning on focusing on increasing the speed of patterning the surfaces with the laser, as well as studying how to expand this technique to other materials such as semiconductors or dielectrics, opening up the possibility of water repellent electronics.
www.rochester.edu
Scientists at the University of Rochester, N.Y., have reportedly transformed platinum, titanium, and brass into superhydrophobic materials with femtosecond laser pulses.
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Solar Atmospheres installs 1500-sq.-ft. climate-controlled room
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Solar Atmospheres, Souderton, Pa., has installed a new 1500 ft2 room in its shop that incorporates temperature and humidity controls, as well as a slight positive pressure environment. Adjacent to the room is a new state-of-the-art, all-metal hot-zone vacuum furnace, in which only the door protrudes through the wall. The furnace has the ability to isolate the quench system during the heat cycle, and features an all stainless-steel chamber and an oversize pumping system.
The furnace is capable of maintaining a vacuum level of 5x10-6 torr or lower, and has successfully processed sensitive materials unshielded without any surface contamination.
Early in 2015, an existing furnace will be modified and updated with state-of-the-art controls and added to this new area as well. Currently two laboratory furnaces also reside within the room, bringing the total number of furnaces in the area to four.
This new climate-controlled room will lower the risk of discoloration and foreign object debris, and will save time by eliminating the need to shield parts during heat treating.
www.solaratm.com
Solar Atmospheres, Souderton, Pa., has installed a new 1500 ft2 room in its shop that incorporates temperature and humidity controls, as well as a slight positive pressure environment.
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Constellium supplies high-strength aluminum structural parts to Ford F-150
January 20, 2015
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Constellium N.V., Amsterdam, provides Ford Motor Co. with aluminum structural parts for the Ford F-150 pickup truck in which high-strength, military-grade aluminum alloys are the primary build materials. Constellium is one of Ford's largest suppliers of these components for the F-150. To keep pace with increased demand, Constellium has doubled manufacturing capacity at its facility in Van Buren, Michigan.
The 2015 Ford F-150 delivers the industry's best towing and payload capability among full-size light-duty pickups, enabled by reducing up to 700 pounds of weight through the use of high-strength steel in the frame and aluminum alloys in the body.
"We are delighted to become one of Ford's largest supplier of high-strength aluminum structural parts for the groundbreaking F-150, and we see this as an important milestone in the expansion of our global automotive structures business," said Paul Warton, President of Constellium's Automotive Structures and Industry business unit.
"We believe that the automotive industry demand for aluminum will continue to grow as automakers seek to reduce vehicle weight and improve fuel efficiency. With our innovative and value-added solutions and the expansion of our component manufacturing capabilities in the United States, Europe, and China, Constellium is strongly positioned to help meet that demand worldwide."
www.constellium.com
Constellium N.V., Amsterdam, provides Ford Motor Co. with aluminum structural parts for the Ford F-150 pickup truck in which high-strength, military-grade aluminum alloys are the primary build materials.
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Harper vertical and rotary reactors support microelectronics research in China
Source: ASM International
Harper International, Buffalo, N.Y., has finalized a contract exceeding $3 million for high-temperature vertical and rotary reactors to support the East China Research Institute of Microelectronics (ECRIM).
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Bruker TriboLab’s modular platform enables a variety of tribology tests
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Bruker, Tucson, Ariz., has release the UMT TriboLab, the latest generation of the Universal Mechanical Tester (UMT) platform. TriboLab incorporates into a single, modular platform the full range of performance previously offered in several UMT models. It provides increased load capacity and higher torques, all with greater ease of use and less training required.
As with previous UMT models, the UMT TriboLab has a universal base that can be equipped with a range of drive modules to allow multiple, different tribology tests to be performed on one platform. The design of the new TriboLab emphasizes ease-of-use due to a tool-less drive exchange, and easier software and scripting capabilities. It offers higher performance in areas such as speed, torque, and data accuracy. The redesign of the product also offers enhanced modularity while simplifying configuration requirements.
Its TriboID feature automatically recognizes the attached modules, and reconfigures user menus based on the hardware installed. The system's new TriboScript software is controlled entirely through a user-friendly graphical interface, enabling even complex scripts to be created simply by dragging and dropping icons. The launch of the UMT TriboLab system also introduces a new line of dual-axis, Gold-Series force sensors with an ultralow noise floor and optional increased frequency response.
Michael Khonsari, the Dow Chemical Endowed Chair and Professor and Director of the Center for Rotating Machinery (CeRoM) at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, added: "It is exciting to see a new generation of Bruker UMT coming to the market as we have several of its predecessors in our Center, and rely on them heavily. We are actively involved in collaborative projects with industry partners. Having the Bruker UMT in our Center enables us to perform various tribological tests precisely and efficiently, giving us confidence in reporting our results in archival journals."
www.bruker-nano.com
Bruker, Tucson, Ariz., has release the UMT TriboLab, the latest generation of the Universal Mechanical Tester (UMT) platform.
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