ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS Archives

Foundry Expands 3D Printing Capabilities

A Louisiana-based foundry — a supplier of iron, stainless, and specialty alloy castings for paper/pulp, energy, mining, and petrochemical customers — is getting financial support for infrastructure investments from the state as part of a three-phase effort to expand its 3D printing operation for sand molds.

Howell Foundry plans to expand its 3D-printing capabilities following a $7.4 million update to its operation in St. Francisville, LA. This expansion is expected to create 26 new jobs and retain 22 current, according to an announcement by the Louisiana Economic Development agency. Work was scheduled to start in December for completion by the end of 2027, LED said.

The state will provide a $400,000 performance-based forgivable loan for infrastructure work, contingent upon Howell Foundry meeting investment and payroll targets. Also, the foundry is expected to participate in the state’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs.

The foundry emphasizes its ability to deliver complex parts with quick turnaround, using 3D-scanning to convert parts or patterns into reproducible programs, casting process simulation to plan and set-up production, and 3D-sand printing of molds and cores.

“Howell Foundry combines modern-day 3D innovations with proven craftsmanship in one of the oldest known trades to produce rapid and reliable solutions to its valued customers who are primarily located on the Gulf Coast,” stated company president JB Shoaf said. “We take great pride in being a local business that serves local businesses.”

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2 Horizontal Quench Systems Expand Semiconductor Operations

November 13, 2023 / ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS, ANNEALING NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT

Two electrically heated horizontal quench systems have been shipped to a supplier for the semiconductor industry. The systems will be used for the annealing and rapid cooling of various high purity alloy parts.

The operating procedure for each horizontal quench system from Wisconsin Oven includes loading the product on a work grid located on the loading platform. Once the load is lifted into place, a pusher/extractor mechanism located at the front of the quench tank moves the load onto the quench lift platform, then the furnace pusher/extractor mechanism pulls the load into the furnace for annealing.

After completing the heating cycle, the vertical lift door opens, the furnace pusher/extractor transfers the load onto the quench lift platform, and the load is lowered into the water quench tank. After the load has sufficiently cooled, the quench lift is raised, and the front mounted pusher/extractor mechanism pulls the load back onto the scissor lift. While the load is pulled onto the scissor lift, a blow off system removes the majority of the water from the load.

See below to watch a video of this system in operation.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/U64eD4tpPBE?si=W3EU1y_7gANzYMyZ

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Aluminum Alloy Powder Developed for Automotive 3D Printing

February 3, 2020 / ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, SINTERING POWDER/METAL TECHNICAL CONTENT

A Canadian additive manufacturing powder producer, in partnership with McGill University in Montreal, has announced the results of a research project on its aluminum alloy powders. Extensive testing undertaken by the university has revealed that the Equispheres’ powders are suitable for sintering with binder jet 3D printing technology. Equispheres claims that the combination of binder jet 3D printing with aluminum alloy powder can have a significant impact on the automotive industry.

Dr. Mathieu Brochu, Associate Professor at McGill

“We are excited to begin work with Equispheres’ binder jet printing partners in the next phase to fully understand all aspects related to sintering of complex shape components and the fundamental relations with new specialized binder agents,” said Dr. Mathieu Brochu, Associate Professor at McGill and Canada Research Chair in Pulse Processing of Nanostructured Materials.

Equispheres has developed a method of powder atomization that creates spherical metal powders. On the strength of its proprietary technology, Equispheres has previously received a $5 million investment from American global aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin. The company also received an $8 million investment from early stage and SME financing bank BDC Capital, due to its focus on the environmental advantages of 3D printing.

Currently, Equispheres is collaborating with key partners to develop specialized binder agents that are required for aluminum and for specific automotive applications.

Photo Credit: Equispheres

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Meet Rio Tinto’s Revolutionary New Alloy

January 23, 2020 / ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS

Global mining and metals specialist Rio Tinto is taking orders for its new aluminum wheel alloy known as Revolution-Al™. Researchers at its Arvida Research and Development Centre in Quebec, Canada, have spent more than five years developing a stronger car wheel alloy that would help cut fuel consumption and improve both safety and handling. The London-based firm says it received its first order for the new Revolution-Al™ alloy in September 2019 and that it designed the alloy to be easy to recycle.

Jerome Fourmann,
Technical Director,
Rio Tinto

“We wanted to offer automakers a new, innovative alloy that allowed them, through styling and design, to reduce the weight of the wheels, which is very important to improving fuel efficiency – because, in the end, people want to drive not just the safest but also the greenest and most innovative cars,” states Jerome Fourmann, a technical director at Rio Tinto.

According to Rio Tinto, Revolution-Al™ is 15 to 20 percent stronger than the current predominant wheel alloy, A356.2. They claim this translates to a 7 percent weight reduction and improved fuel efficiency or battery range. Additionally, Rio Tinto claims, Revolution-Al™ can be cast in existing facilities and requires less time to produce a wheel, thereby reducing the cost and increasing the rate of production.

The improved alloy features numerous claims; for instance, it is said to be 15 to 20% stronger than the traditional A356.2 alloy, has a seamless transition with existing casting processes, and requires a 2-hour shorter ageing cycle for heat treatment than the A356.2 alloy.

Jean-Francois Laplante,
Industrial Product and Investment Director,
Rio Tinto

It is worth noting that industrial trials of the new alloy, along with an official OEM test program, featured an optimized automotive wheel design, and Revolution-Al™ passed all OEM trials. What’s more, the alloy can be recycled onto itself, eliminating the need for selling the scrap at a discount.

“The current wheel alloy has been around for a long time and now we’re coming to the market with a new way of doing things,” says Rio Tinto Industrial Product and Investment Director Jean-Francois Laplante. “We were super excited when we saw the result.”

Photo Credit: Light Metal Age

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Titanium-Copper Alloy May Improve 3D Process for Medical, Aerospace Applications

December 19, 2019 / ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, MEDICAL HEAT TREAT, MEDICAL HEAT TREAT NEWS, TITANIUM PROCESSING TECHNICAL CONTENT

Source: Today’s Medical Developments

A new category of high-performance titanium-copper alloys for 3D printing is being considered for medical device, aerospace, and defense applications, and heat-treating may improve the process further.

In a collaborative project, leading researchers from RMIT University, CSIRO, the University of Queensland, and The Ohio State University studied the problem of titanium alloys being prone to cracking or distortion due to cooling and bonding together in column-shaped crystals during the 3D printing process. But a titanium-copper alloy developed by the research team seems to have solved this dilemma.

“Of particular note was its fully equiaxed grain structure,” said Professor Mark Easton from RMIT University’s School of Engineering in Today’s Medical Developments. “This means the crystal grains had grown equally in all directions to form a strong bond, instead of in columns, which can lead to weak points liable to cracking. Alloys with this microstructure can withstand much higher forces and will be much less likely to have defects, such as cracking or distortion, during manufacture.”

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CSIRO Senior Principal Research Scientist, Dr. Mark Gibson, says their findings also suggest similar metal systems could be treated in the same way to improve their properties.

“Titanium-copper alloys are one option, particularly if the use of other additional alloying elements or heat treatments can be employed to improve the properties further,” Gibson says. “But there are also a number of other alloying elements that are likely to have similar effects. These could all have applications in the aerospace and biomedical industries.”

Main photo credit / caption: RMIT University / 3D-printed titanium-copper bars with titanium powder and copper powder.

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Aluminum Alloy Achieves Ultimate Tensile Strength in Heat Treating

September 2, 2019 / AEROSPACE HEAT TREAT, AEROSPACE HEAT TREAT NEWS, ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS, ALUMINUM PROCESSING TECHNICAL CONTENT

An aluminum alloy developed and patented five years ago has been identified as one of the strongest aluminum additive manufacturing powders commercially available.

Mike Bond, Director of Advanced Material Technology at Aeromet

Aeromet’s A20X™ surpassed the key 500 MPa UTS mark following a recent research project involving aero-engine giant Rolls-Royce and additive manufacturing equipment specialist Renishaw. Heat-treated parts produced using A20X™ Powder have achieved an Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) of 511 MPa, a Yield Strength of 440 MPa and Elongation of 13%. Crucially, parts additively manufactured with A20X™ Powder maintain high-strength and fatigue properties even at elevated temperatures, outperforming other leading aluminum powders.

“Since bringing the A20X™ alloy to market for additive manufacturing 5 years ago we have seen significant adoption for high-strength, design-critical applications,” said Mike Bond, Director of Advanced Material Technology at Aeromet. “By working with Rolls-Royce, Renishaw, and PSI, we have optimized processing parameters that led to record-breaking results, opening up new design possibilities for aerospace and advanced engineering applications.”

The HighSAP project was backed by the UK’s National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme (NATEP). A20X™ Powder for additive manufacturing is derived from the MMPDS-approved A20X™ Casting alloy, the world’s strongest aluminum casting alloy, which is in use by a global network of leading aerospace casting suppliers.

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HRL Laboratories Registers New 3D-Printed Aluminum Alloy

May 20, 2019 / ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

Aluminum Association Creates Registration System for Additive Alloys Beginning with HRL’s First-Ever 3D-Printed High-Strength Aluminum

HRL Laboratories, LLC, is commercializing its additively manufactured (3D-printed) high-strength aluminum, which has obtained the first ever registration of an additive alloy from the Aluminum Association. HRL will be granted registration number 7A77.50 for the aluminum powder used to additively manufacture the alloy, and number 7A77.60L for the printed alloy.

The Aluminum Association oversees alloy registration and product standards used throughout industry. The association’s new additive alloy registration system was launched in February 2019 in response to a growing number of additively manufactured alloys. The first to be registered was HRL Laboratories’ high-strength aluminum, the first alloy of its kind to be printable. (This breakthrough discovery was published in the journal Nature in September 2017.)

“Essentially, this will connect us to this particular alloy composition forever,” said Hunter Martin, the lead scientist on the HRL team that created the alloy. “These alloy numbers will always be trackable back to HRL, like a DNA signature. When I first contacted the Aluminum Association about registering our alloy, they did not have a way to register alloys printed from powders, so they decided to create a new system for registration of additively manufactured materials – a first in the materials space.”

Zak Eckel, another HRL team member said, “We’re in the process of commercializing this material, which is already in high demand. As we scale up to commercial levels, AA registration validates our product. Companies who want the powder for their 3D printers can ask for its specific number, and it becomes a true commercial alloy.”

As the aluminum industry’s leading voice in the United States, the Aluminum Association provides global standards, statistics, and expert knowledge to manufacturers and policy makers. Alloy and temper designations, chemical composition limits, and registered properties in North America adhere to those standards. The association also provides business intelligence, sustainability research, and industry expertise and is committed to environmental considerations while advancing aluminum as the sustainable material of choice around the world.

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Endothermic Gas Generator Added to Brazilian Fastener Heat Treatment System

March 19, 2018 / ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

A major fastener manufacturer in South America recently received delivery of an endothermic gas generator intended for heat treatment operations at the company’s Brazilian plant.

Jomarca, a Brazilian producer of fasteners for the furniture, tooling, construction, and do-it-yourself markets, purchased the Atmosphere Engineering™ EndoFlex™ generator from United Process Controls (UPC) in reaction to doubled carburizing operations and increased production capacity. Carburizing operations now include ten large continuous rotary retort furnaces that process over 2200 US tons (2,000,000 kg) of fasteners a month.

The high-capacity generator was integrated into the plant’s existing gas distribution system in the first quarter of 2018 and is supplying endothermic gas to all carburizing furnaces. The EndoFlex operates at a lower cost and mixes to more accurate ratios, aimed at maintaining a constant furnace atmosphere and a consistent gas quality at all times. The enhanced control capabilities of the EndoFlex allow for continuous control and monitoring of CH4, dew point, differential pressure, gas temperature, and retort burnout, as well as data logging, which is critical for troubleshooting and meeting regulatory requirements.

Mr. Eric Jossart (Sales Director, UPC USA), Mr. João Marques Castelhano (President, Jomarca), and Marcio Torres Boragini (General Manager, UPC Brazil). In the background is an Atmosphere Engineering™ EndoFlex™ endothermic gas generator installed at Brazilian fastener manufacturer Jomarca

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Alcoa Unveils Four New Specialty Alloys

April 28, 2016 / ALLOY FABRICATIONS NEWS, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, HEAT TREATING ACCESSORIES

Source: Alcoa

“Lightweight, high-performance metals leader Alcoa (NYSE:AA) today launched a family of innovative foundry alloys designed to meet the growing need for both part performance and lightweighting in the automotive industry and beyond.”

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