Aluminium scrap charging into the melting furnace

Aluminium charge

Aluminum charge - all materials and components, are charged into a melting furnace to obtain the desired aluminum alloy.

Aluminum charge carefully selected, To make sure, that there are no unwanted elements or alloys, which would contaminate or alter the final product - a given aluminum alloy. This is achieved by careful control of the supply of aluminum scrap, as well as permanent control of the charge in the absence of foreign material, for example, steel strapping or cans, which may contain liquid.

If the aluminum scrap contained a certain amount of water, especially in closed containers, there is a great danger of explosions. Such explosions may have a threat to health and life of workers casters, as well as destroy the oven and other equipment. It must be ensured, that in the kiln aluminum scrap no liquids. Of particular danger are beverage cans and other metal containers.

To reduce the risk of load into the oven problem, for example, wet, scrap is recommended to dry it at the entrance to the furnace before, both immerse it in a bath of molten metal. Standing for 10-15 minutes is usually sufficient.

To the furnace aluminum scrap it is necessary to weigh, to prevent excessive loading of the furnace and the molten metal spilling, as well as to accurately calculate dopants. It is impossible to estimate the number of eyes on the loaded scrap, because its volume can vary considerably for different types of scrap.

Aluminum ingots typically loaded in whole bales. Typically they are placed with a forklift entering the furnace and then is confronted in a bath of molten metal. Scrap extruded profiles usually charged beams approximately 150 kg. Before loading into the furnace of all steel packaging tape must be removed, to prevent contamination of the molten iron.

Loaders smelters

To download an aluminum charge into the furnace using special devices and machines - Loaders. A simple loader for small capacity furnace 3500 kg is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Simple loader for small melting furnace capacity 3500 kg.

Semi-automatic loader for large furnaces with simultaneous loading 2000 kg of aluminum charge is shown in Figure 3. The figure 2 similar to the loader shown in.

Figure 2 – Semi-automatic scrap charger [1]

Figure 3 – The loader exits from the furnace after discharging the charge

Sources:
1. Materials company Ashford Engineering Services, 1997