SECO/WARWICK Group’s subsidiary based in Meadville, Pa., has been awarded a major contract to build and commission a specialized aluminum solution heat-treating furnace for a U.S. manufacturer. The furnace, which is AMS 2750-compliant and Nadcap-capable, will be engineered to load, heat treat, quench and discharge with minimal operator assistance. It will be used to heat treat products for automotive, aerospace and medical applications.

Alexandria Industries invested in a new aluminum extrusion press that will allow the company to increase its aluminum extrusion capabilities, extrude more complex product features and hold tighter tolerances while utilizing a variety of alloys. The company, which will gain an extra 30% in extrusion capacity, will add 19,000 square feet of space to its manufacturing facility in Alexandria, Minn., to accommodate the equipment. Construction is scheduled to begin soon.

Dajcor Aluminum Ltd., a Canadian manufacturer of extruded and fabricated aluminum products, will invest approximately $19.6 million to locate its first U.S, operation in Perry County, Ky. The project will create up to 265 full-time jobs. The operation will provide Dajcor additional capacity for aluminum extrusion and fabrication to serve a variety of North American industries. Operations are scheduled to begin by the end of 2019.

Hydro will upgrade casting operations at its Husnes (Norway) facility with new technology to produce more advanced products for the growing automotive aluminum forging market. Newly developed in-house casting technology, low-pressure casting (LPC), will enable Hydro to provide materials with enhanced properties for various extrusion markets in which it is already a major material supplier. After the upgrade, Hydro Husnes will also be able to offer materials for forging. The Hydro-developed technology enables a shift from traditional extruded forge stock to cast forge stock, eliminating costly steps in the production process while improving quality. The as-cast surface is ready for forging, and homogenizing is not required. The upgraded facility will commence operations in 2020.

Tenova LOI Thermprocess received an order from Fonderie Pandolfo for the delivery and installation of a twin-chamber melting furnace (TCF). This order will double the Italian company’s production rate. The TCF, with a capacity of 65,000 tons/year, is designed for aluminum scrap recycling. In order to cover a broad range of scrap, it combines pre-treatment and melting in one furnace.

Arconic Inc. will invest approximately $100 million to expand its hot-mill capability and add downstream equipment capabilities to manufacture industrial and automotive aluminum products in its Tennessee Operations facility near Knoxville, Tenn. The project, which is expected to create 70 new jobs, is already under way and should be complete by the fourth quarter of 2020.

Aluminum manufactured products of various sizes have been steadily replacing steel in industrial designs such as automobiles, airplanes, appliances and many more applications due to the light weight and flexibility of aluminum.

As we shine the “light” on nonferrous this month, don’t miss what’s included in this issue. The Heat Treat Doctor® discusses the nonferrous topic of overaging.

Spain’s Hormesa is distributing Flextreme technology – an advanced manufacturing process – to the global aluminum industry. Developed and patented by Novelis, Flextreme is a horizontal continuous-casting process that produces bars with a superior surface that generally does not require scalping. Its solidification structure also obviates the need for heat treatment before forming.

This paper discusses the IVD process advantages when it comes to mitigating surface imperfections and providing corrosion and dissimilar metal protection, as well as the AM requirements for vacuum heat treatment processes.