NEWS VOLUME 25 // NOVEMBER 2015 TAPPING A MAGNESIUM MELTING FURNACE

Transcription

1 NEWS VOLUME 25 // NOVEMBER 2015 TAPPING A MAGNESIUM MELTING FURNACE

2 Contents NEWS 2-5 Statement of the Management Customer satisfaction Thermoprocessing Equipment Division GIFA/THERMPROCESS 2015 Trade Fair Review OTTO POWER Our joint venture in the U.S. OTTO JUNKER Academy is off to a successful start CAST IRON & STEEL 6/7 Additional vacuum induction furnaces for high-purity steelmaking INNOVATION: a pouring furnace with a quick-change capability LIGHT METAL 8/9 Magnesium melting furnace for a major Turkish company Reheating and homogenizing furnaces for aluminium rolling slabs HEAVY METAL 10/11 Melting system for KMD Precise Copper Strip Henan Co., Ltd. (China) Roller hearth furnace goes into operation at Wieland-Werke AG New chamber furnace for KME's BLUEWAVE program IMPRINT Publisher: OTTO JUNKER GmbH Jägerhausstraße 22, Simmerath Editor: Dr. Dietmar Trauzeddel Tel.: Photography: OTTO JUNKER Archiv, Aluminium Metallurg Rus Layout: Atelier Beißel Lammerskreuzstraße 17, Roetgen Tel.: atelier-beissel.de Publication Intervall: six-monthly Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, is subject to the explicit prior permission of the editors. Dear Reader, Like most companies today, we are consistently striving to improve our products and equipment in an effort to boost our customers' manufacturing quality and the productivity of their processing plants. In pursuing these objectives, customer satisfaction is our supreme goal. For details on how satisfied our users actually are, please read the feature in this issue. Three things are of key importance to us: delivering innovative high-quality products that provide solutions to individual customer requirements; ensuring regional proximity and locally based expert competence; giving ongoing support to operating personnel from the respective manufacturing facilities, including training on our sophisticated equipment. As for our innovative, high-quality solutions to individual customer needs, we are working to refine them continuously. Some examples shall be presented in this issue, as always. However, to engage in such further development and support, one must be able to rely on a suitable team. We have expanded significantly on this count, both at headquarters in Simmerath-Lammersdorf and at our international sites in China, Czechia and the U.S. Regional proximity is not always easy to achieve, nor is it necessarily consistent with maintaining a sensible price/performance ratio. Thus, in North America we have been represented by our subsidiary Junker, Inc. for many decades. However, this set-up is no longer at par with our growing needs, so we decided to leverage our presence via the establishment of a new enterprise, OTTO POWER. OTTO POWER is a joint venture between OTTO JUNKER of Lammersdorf and Interpower Induction, a Michigan-based company. Interpower Induction has a long track record in inductive heating technology, and we shall be serving the North American market jointly with their experienced engineers and project managers as of now. Service und customer training take high priority at OTTO JUNKER. The OTTO JUNKER Academy was founded especially with our training needs in mind. The higher the level of information and skills given to operators, the more effectively our equipment can be run. Twice a year, we therefore offer courses at our Simmerath-Lammersdorf site to convey an improved understanding of our equipment in theory and practice. The unique combination of theoretical instruction, our Tech Center with trial equipment, an on-site experimental foundry, and the practical work of our highgrade steel foundry operation helps us to attain this goal. Professors from the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH) assist us in our effort. You, too, can profit from the expert know-how disseminated by our engineers and course facilitators at these events. Conversely, we are eager to learn from the experience and suggestions shared by your operating personnel. Should you have any ideas on how we can further improve our performance, I would be pleased to discuss them personally with you at your convenience. Please contact me at my personal address mdw@otto-junker.de! I hope you will enjoy reading this issue. Sincerely, Markus D. Werner President and CEO, OTTO JUNKER GmbH New staff members As a result of the good order situation, 20 new employees have been recruited so far this year to increase our workforce, and more jobs are planned. Engineers have been recruited for design, R&D, sales and project management, as well as professional workers for production, assembly and quality control. In addition to these, 6 young people have joined OTTO JUNKER to start apprenticeships. We would like to take this opportunity to wish good luck to all new members of staff and hope they enjoy working with us. Newly-designed website The better structure and clear hierarchy make the new version easier to use without having to compromise on the information content. At the same time, the increasing use of tablets and smartphones has been taken into account when logging onto the website in order to ensure good readability with these formats, too. Image brochure The new image brochure was completed in the spring of this year. The history, services and products of the company as well as its general strategy and targets are explained on 16 pages. The brochure can be downloaded from the website, and a printed version can be requested as well. 2

3 Customer satisfaction Thermoprocessing Equipment Division OTTO JUNKER NEWS In the aim of ensuring a steady improvement of our products and services, we have been carrying out continuous near-realtime customer satisfaction surveys since Based on a rating scale corresponding to German school grades (1 = very good, 6 = inadequate), our customers were requested to evaluate various services and activities forming part of our contract performance process. Below we would like to present the survey results from the 2009 to 2014 reference period. from our customers to keep dedicating ourselves to the "timely" and "successful" removal of potential defects. Finally, we asked our customers for their overall impression of the equipment or service supplied. The opinion returned on this count, at 2.06, compares somewhat less favourably to the responses obtained on other criteria. While our equipment was generally believed to constitute a good reference, customers tended to award an average score of 2.35 for the price/performance ratio. reliable operating results. We can thus keep our equipment state of the art and can also offer customer training as part of the OTTO JUNKER Academy. We would like to thank all customers who have participated in our survey. Your opinion is very important to us and will help us improve the products and services provided to you. Also, our thanks are due to all colleagues involved in pinpointing problems and identifying solutions. Together, we shall be able to continue on the maxim of our company's founder, The overall quality of the order han- In line with these findings we have substantially Dr.-Ing. E.h. Otto Junker: intensified our research and dling process received an average "To analyze all problems without bias, to score of We are particularly pleased development work. Aside from our close identify the solution through joint scientific to note that our customers awarded us a cooperation with the Technical University and practical efforts, and to supply the top mark of 1.60 for personal support. of Aachen (RWTH), we have set up several trial systems in our Tech Center result to our customers in the form of Delivery quality was rated 1.93 on quality products." average. We are determined to improve which enable us to conduct tests for further what is already a very good performance on this count. At present we are expanding and optimizing production at our subsidiaries in Czechia and China. In the context of this effort, an additional (and with) our customers under nearfield conditions with a view to delivering Customer satisfaction Evaluation Vera Engels ( ) Atilla Somuncu assembly plant of our Chinese Overall average Main rating criterion Individual criterion subsidiary, JMS, was recently score opened at the Changshu site. Availability of contact persons Rating Asked for the manner and quality of our on-site contract execution our customers awarded us an average score of Here again, we note with pleasure that we won good to very good ratings from buyers under all the individual criteria. Similarly, our site installation personnel were thought to be very good (professional skills and self-reliance). The manner in which potential shortcomings / defects on the equipment were remedied received an average mark of We take this as a request Quality of order handling competent focused reliable personal professionally skilled solution-oriented Delivery quality Rating Manner and quality of on-site contract execution competent focused reliable solution-oriented timely Customer s impression of professionally skilled erection site personnel self-dependent Manner in which potential shortcomings / defects were remedied Overall view of the equipment / service supplied focused solution-oriented timely successful modern innovative technically mature o.k. price/performance ratio good reference

4 OTTO JUNKER NEWS GIFA/THERMPROCESS 2015 Trade Fair Review The focus of our trade fair presence was on advances in automation of our melting, pouring and heat treatment systems to further improve the superior process reliability and dependability, as well as on options delivering additional energy and cost savings. New technical solutions and interesting applications rounded out the presentations. Not only was the high turnout of trade visitors very pleasing but also the fact that nearly 50 % of the talks held were about new projects and concrete investment plans. The wide range of new developments and innovations on show attracted large crowds and led to numerous technical discussions. The exchange of information with Junker customers concerning the realization of ongoing orders as well as maintenance and modernization work was a further topic of conversation. Not surprisingly, customers took a lively interest in JOKS Maintenance (survey) and responded favourably to it, as shown in the analysis of the corresponding questionnaire. The 11 exhibits on show at the 345 m² booth were divided into three subject groups as shown below: Melting JOKS Maintenance (survey) New version of the JOKS Junker Ofen-Kontroll-System (Junker furnace control system) Crucible monitoring system OCP (Optical Coil Protection) Pouring Automation: Stopper actuator and pouring rate control New inoculation system Dual stopper system concept Ladle pouring machine Triple chamber pressurized pouring furnace Heat Treatment Innovative furnace design for reheating and homogenizing rolling slabs Complete tin-coating lines from one source JunkerDynamicHeater TM (Induction billet heater, new development) Moreover, the special show of the Institute for Foundry Technology presented the mode of operation and results of our energy-saving coil assembly. The booth party, which took place on the second day of the trade fair, was a very successful social event with live music and a buffet. After a hard day at the trade fair, it gave people the chance to unwind and have interesting personal conversations. It is a good tradition to invite company employees to visit such events on the last day of the fair. Organized by the works committee, many members of staff took advantage of the trip to gain a firsthand impression of developments and trends in our branch of industry. To summarize, it was a highly successful trade fair presentation that did justice to one of the world s leading furnace manufacturers. Our thanks go to the many members of staff who were involved in preparing and realizing the event. Dietmar Trauzeddel ( ) High attendance at the booth 4

5 Our joint venture in the U.S. OTTO JUNKER NEWS In early April, we established a joint venture with a U.S. partner company, Interpower Induction. The enterprise thus formed will be trading as OTTO POWER. OTTO POWER will give us even more direct access to the American market while enabling us to expand our range of services in the medium term. Under the terms of the agreement, the new joint venture will provide: Induction melting equipment to foundries Heat treatment furnaces for aluminium and copper Induction heating & furnace equipment for aluminium extrusion Channel furnaces Die-casting equipment and Related services from within the United States. The registered office address of Interpower and OTTO POWER is 3578 Van Dyke Road, Almont, MI 48003, U.S.A. Sebastian März ( ) OTTO JUNKER Academy is off to a successful start Following the foundation of the OTTO JUNKER Academy in 2014, we were able to hold two courses already this year. In the spring, training was launched with a course on induction melting equipment. Apart from theoretical fundamentals, the activity addressed current findings in the fields of equipment planning, modernizing options, and the maintenance and operation of an induction furnace system. Moreover, some practical demonstrations on our trial equipment were carried out. In all, 15 participants from across Germany had signed up for the two-day event. In October, the same course was conducted in English, and we were pleased to welcome around 20 participants from all over the world who had travelled to Lammersdorf specifically for instruction on the subjects presented. Concurrently with this event, the first course on thermoprocessing equipment was held in German language. This course, too, attracted 20 interested participants who learnt about the fundamentals of heat transfer and were given an in-depth look at OTTO JUNKER GmbH's complete product range. Both seminars gained very positive response in their respective fields, as the concluding discussions showed. We shall therefore endeavour to provide further training opportunities at the OTTO JUNKER Academy in the future by offering courses periodically to our customers. Seminar participants spring 2015 For further information on attendance requirements, program contents and course dates please refer to: Sandra Manthei ( ) Seminar participants autumn

6 Equipment Technology CAST IRON & STEEL Additional vacuum induction furnaces for high-purity steelmaking For making high-purity steels and superalloys, vacuum-type induction furnaces have formed the main primary melting resource in larger facilities for many years. As all melting and pouring takes place in a vacuum chamber, the steel produced has a very high degree of purity as well as a low gas content. The purified molten metal is then cast into ingots and refined further in downstream remelting processes. The ingots are ultimately rolled or forged, typically into parts for the aircraft or automotive industry. Following our earlier successful supply of a vacuum induction furnace as part of an overall project for Ruspolymet, the Russian specialty steelmaker, the Austrian INTECO Co. now once again called on OTTO JUNKER for the planning and delivery of a melting installation of this type for an Asian customer. The vacuum furnaces are integrated into INTECO's VIM systems with their melting and pouring chamber. They are powered by a tailor-made IGBT frequency converter system designed to satisfy the specific metallurgical requirements. The electric powerpack, delivering around 2,500 kw, not only provides stepless frequency variability in the Hz range to control the speed of the bath movement but also features a phase-shifted supply to the two coil sections for an optimum adjustment of the surface flow and bath intermixing action by adapting the metal flow pattern. In either case, the power input is independent of the control mode. The vacuum furnace has a capacity of 7.5 tonnes and is designed to support the use of an interchangeable 3.6 tonne crucible. The operation can thus be flexibly adapted to differing charge sizes. The furnaces are equipped to provide forward tilting by 100 deg. and backward tilting by up to 15 deg. to combat bridging in the melt-down phase. Our scope further includes a water re-cooling system based on a waterto-water heat exchanger, a crucible push-out device, and a matching set of spare parts. Following the system's successful factory inspection, a first partial shipment to the customer has been made and on-site installation has commenced. Herbert Johnen ( ) Position of the melting furnace in the vacuum chamber 6

7 INNOVATION: a pouring furnace with a quick-change capability Equipment Technology CAST IRON & STEEL Work is currently proceeding on the fabrication of a grey cast iron pouring furnace for Gienanth GmbH, an Eisenberg-based company. The delivery and installation of this system is scheduled for Q4. be avoided even if the change requirement should arise during the week. Needless to say, this scenario assumes that a second furnace vessel is available fully sintered and ready for installation. The pouring furnace has a total capacity of 7.5 tonnes, with a useful contents of around 5 tonnes. Its powerful mains-frequency switchgear system is rated for 350 kw, enabling the unit to superheat 6.5 tonnes of iron by 100 C within 1 hour at a holding energy demand of 140 kwh/h. Providing a vessel quick-change capability on a pressurized pouring furnace imposed a number of modifications of the existing design. Chief among these is an additional platform fitted on the furnace vessel by which the entire vessel can be lifted out without the tilting frame (see illustration). The furnace will be equipped with a weighing system and is designed to support a quick change of the entire pouring vessel. Necessary relinings of the inductor or pouring vessel and other repair or maintenance procedures may, more or less frequently, call for a pouring vessel replacement. With the furnace design employed to date, such a change is time-consuming and may result in moulding machine downtime. Where such replacements are frequent, e.g., due to short inductor lifetime, the associated losses may be hard to accept. In the case of the Gienanth GmbH project, the aim was to implement a pouring vessel change within one shift, or in less than 6 hours. In two-shift operation, loss of production will thus For this operation, all ancillary equipment such as the compressed air supply, stopper actuator, etc., remain in place in the furnace frame or are merely swung out of the way, while the electric power and water supply lines are disconnected via quick-couplings. A total of 3 hours is calculated for this procedure, and just as much time will be again necessary for installing the new vessel. The quick-change system is also used on OTTO JUNKER's unheated UGD type pouring systems, as further projects demonstrate. Dietmar Trauzeddel ( ) Pouring furnace with quick-change system 7

8 Equipment Technology LIGHT METAL Magnesium melting furnaces for a major Turkish company Under a purchase order placed by the renowned Turkish company Esan Eczacibasi Endüstriyel Hammaddeler San. ve Tic. AŞ, two DUOMELT systems for melting magnesium are currently being installed there. The melting systems form part of a completely new production and processing plant for primary magnesium and magnesium alloys. Given the properties of magnesium, Mg melting equipment exhibits a number of special characteristics. Melting is carried out in a steel crucible without a ceramic lining since magnesium does not cause any corrosive attack on steel. The use of steel crucibles makes accretions easier to remove while also facilitating a crucible change at short notice. Due to its very high affinity to oxygen, magnesium may ignite and burn in the melting process. An uncontrolled ingress of air must therefore be prevented as effectively as possible by application of protective gas or by covering the melt with a salt blanket. Steel crucibles are also used in the present project, and in view of their inductive coupling and power drawing properties, the melting furnaces are equipped with Power Focus technology. This has the advantage of concentrating the power in the lower furnace region when the crucible is only partly full, thereby preventing overheating of the upper part of the steel crucible. The use of a split coil supports this technology (see the illustration). Moreover, the system operates with a relatively low frequency of Hz in order to achieve an adequate movement of the Mg melt despite the power absorbed by the steel crucible. The furnaces are run with a liquid metal heel, with small-sized charge material being progressively added and molten down. The metallurgical treatment of the melt is performed before it is transferred to the pouring or alloying furnace. Melt salt is added and an impeller is used to refine the melt while preventing oxygen pick-up. In all, the plant comprises two DUOMELT units each consisting of two 3-tonne furnaces and an IGBT frequency converter plus the associated peripheral equipment such as a water recooling system, transformer, etc. The 1,200 kw converter rating provides a melting rate of nearly 2 tonnes/h at a temperature of 700 C. The entire installation is controlled and monitored via a JOKS furnace control system. Power concentration in the lower furnace region On the basis of the current installation status, start-up of this melting plant is scheduled for the early autumn of this year. Dietmar Trauzeddel ( ) Reheating and homogenizing furnaces for aluminium rolling slabs Based on our development of new equipment types for reheating and homogenizing aluminium slabs, OTTO JUNKER is in a position to select and supply the most suitable furnace system for any application scenario. Further to the pusher furnaces and pit furnaces successfully employed for years, new cartridge-type and chain conveyor furnaces have recently been launched to complete our range. Altogether, nine furnaces of these two new designs are by now commercially in use and have proven successful in day-to-day production. These two new equipment types provide the following particular benefits and characteristics: Cartridge furnace The basic principle is that of a chamber furnace in which the slabs are heated in an upright position and can be loaded and unloaded individually by an automatic handling system. An appropriately designed nozzle array ensures an efficient convective 8

9 Equipment Technology LIGHT METAL heat transfer. The freedom of loading and unloading slabs flexibly is combined with full automation, short heating times, high temperature accuracies and low consumption figures. As a result, the system combines the high flexibility of a pit furnace with the high thermal efficiency of a pusher furnace. Chain conveyor furnace This furnace type was devised for constrained space applications, i.e., sites where the use of a pusher furnace cannot be considered for reasons of its large footprint. The slabs enter and pass through the furnace in a horizontal position, resting on chains. The furnace is very flexible in terms of slab sizes and can be run either with one long slab or with several short ones placed side by side. At Profilglass, both pusher furnaces are linked to the upstream slab milling machine so as to minimize handling operations between the milling machine and the pusher furnaces. The third pusher furnace system will be supplied to Huta Aluminium Konin, also in Our flexibility and readiness to address specific customer needs were key to winning this order for OTTO JUNKER. Bernd Deimann ( ) The slabs are heated from top and bottom by high convection. The use of ultra-high convection systems delivering heat transfer rates previously unheard of in rolling mill engineering provides very impressive throughputs despite the small load size. The furnace can be conveniently integrated into existing production environments. Several of these systems have been supplied to Russian rolling mills. Cartridge-type furnace Pusher furnace Irrespective of these advances, the pusher furnace concept has held its own in the marketplace by virtue of its specific advantages and continuous technical improvements. Thus, OTTO JUNKER is currently in the process of building three pusher furnaces due to be shipped next year. One particularly encouraging fact is that two of these projects are follow-up orders from customers to whom we had supplied pusher furnace systems back in The good annealing parameters achieved by these units prompted the users to opt for another OTTO JUNKER unit of the same type. Chain conveyor furnace With their repeat orders, the Italian company Profilglass and AMAG of Austria favoured OTTO JUNKER's proven and reliable pusher furnace technology once again for their rolling slab reheating and homogenizing needs. Both customers had planned for an expansion starting from the initial project stage and can now benefit further from our proven machine technology as the second system is put in place. Special user requirements will also be fulfilled. Thus, for the AMAG plant, OTTO JUNKER developed a special manipulator moving longitudinally along the mill roller table to place the slabs immediately before the hot rolling stand. This eliminates the shocks and vibrations associated with slab travel along the roller table prior to entering the mill, which may be harmful especially for plated alloys. Pusher furnace 9

10 Equipment Technology HEAVY METAL Melting system for KMD Precise Copper Strip Henan Co., Ltd. (China) OTTO JUNKER GmbH is about to supply the complete melting system for a vertical-type continuous caster for copper in cooperation with their Chinese subsidiary, JMS. The company, KMD Precise Copper Strip Henan Co., Ltd., is sited in the city of Xinxiang (Henan province) in the south of China. With the design of the plant now complete, installation and commissioning are scheduled for the 2 nd quarter of The contract calls for the installation of two melting furnaces and one holding and pouring furnace for the copper alloys melt. Melting is to be provided by two 18-tonne coreless induction furnaces powered via IGBT frequency converter systems. One of these melting furnaces runs on a 4,800 kw IGBT converter of MONO- MELT design, the other one will be fed by a 5,500 kw IGBT converter of the DUOMELT type. The DUOMELT converter system powers the holding furnace at the same time. At a nominal frequency of 120 Hz, the system can thus achieve a throughput of over 12.5 tonnes of copper per hour and furnace. In brass (Ms63) melting mode it is capable of delivering as much as 17.3 tonnes/h per furnace. The charge material consists of raw material and copper alloys scrap which is fed into the furnace via vibration chutes. The finished melt is laundered in batches to the holding and pouring furnace installed between the two melting units. With its capacity of 30 tonnes, this unit is co-powered by the 5,500 kw IGBT converter (DUOMELT) of one melting furnace. This converter configuration assures the user of maximum flexibility. Once the melt has reached its specified temperature and composition, it is supplied from this furnace to the continuous caster in a controlled manner by means of a precision tilting system. One precision tilting operation may take as long as 200 minutes. The above scope is completed by ancillary equipment such as the melt processor, water recooling systems, exhaust hoods, etc., as well as various hot-change systems enabling melting vessels to be replaced swiftly (120 min.). This permits a quick alloy change in the case of incompatible copper materials, preventing contamination with undesirable alloy constituents. Cooling of the coil in the hot furnace body being replaced is maintained during handling operations by a cooling system mounted on the crane fixture. Jörg Andrejewski ( ) Hot-change system 10

11 Roller hearth furnace goes into operation at Wieland-Werke AG Equipment Technology HEAVY METAL In 2014, OTTO JUNKER GmbH won a contract from Wieland-Werke AG for a bright annealing line for copper and copper alloy tubes. This bright annealing line consists of an indirect gas-fired roller hearth furnace with vacuum chambers and a protective gas system. One of the plant's key features lies in its ability to support different operating modes. Thus, the line can be run intermittently or continuously, either with or without charge trays. In addition, a special buffer roller-table is provided for weekend and start-up requirements. This design concept, backed by many references and a convincing technology proven under near-production conditions, was among the factors which prompted this leading specialist for copper and copper alloys to entrust the contract to OTTO JUNKER GmbH. The line was delivered in July 2015 and is currently still in its run-in period. Roller hearth furnace at Wieland-Werke AG New chamber furnace for KME's BLUEWAVE program Since 2012, legislation requiring that only lead-free materials must come into contact with drinking water has been in force in some U.S. states and Germany. KME Brass Germany GmbH has been familiar with legal standards for years and will continue to support customers with their exports to the U.S. market. Addressing projected demand growth, the company ordered a direct gas-fired chamber furnace with a cooling chamber and charging system from OTTO JUNKER GmbH last year with a view to achieving special requirements and annealing programs. The new chamber furnace is intended for heat-treatment of CuZn alloy tubes, rods and profiles. With the aid of an annealing rack, up to eight coils at a time can be placed in the annealing chamber to undergo uniform heating. Delivery and commissioning of the plant are scheduled for the end of this year. Summing up, it can be stated that both customers were convinced of our equipment's functionality and performance by the numerous reference plants and extensive annealing trials carried out at our research and development center. We are pleased to have won these contracts and proud of the trust thereby placed in us. Sandra Manthei ( ), Jan van Treek ( ) 11

12 OTTO JUNKER GmbH P. O. BOX Simmerath Germany Phone: Fax: