FACILITY INFORMATION
Our purpose-built facility with its state of the art electric induction furnaces and premier Houston location gives us a strong, competitive position for pricing and delivery in the offshore marketplace.
The foundry, commissioned in late 2007, has a production capacity of 350 Metric Tons (770,000 Pounds) per month. The two electric induction furnaces can melt 1 Ton (2200 lbs) of aluminum ready to cast in 90 minutes from cold. This eliminates melt contamination and ensures precise chemical composition for every heat. The foundry building is located in West Houston, less than a mile from the Deepwater Facility.
An induction furnace is an electrical furnace in which the heat is applied by induction heating of a conductive medium (usually a metal) in a crucible placed in a water-cooled alternating current solenoid coil. Induction furnaces are used to melt iron and steel, copper, aluminum, and precious metals.
An operating induction furnace usually emits a hum or whine (due to magnetostriction), the pitch of which can be used by operators to identify whether the furnace is operating correctly, or at what power level.
Induction Furnaces produce their heat cleanly, without combustion. Alternating electric current from an induction power unit flows into a furnace and through a coil made of hollow copper tubing. This creates an electromagnetic field that passes through the refractory material and couples with conductive metal charge inside the furnace. This induces electric current to flow inside the material charge itself, producing heat that rapidly causes the metal to melt, due to heating the charge directly. For this melting process the furnace should be in a frequency of 800 Amperes and 440 Kilowatts taking a 45 minute range in order to melt the aluminum.
Advantages
1. Faster Startup. Full power from the power supply is available, instantaneously, thus reducing the time to reach working temperature.
2. Flexibility. No molten metal is necessary to start medium frequency core-less induction melting equipment. This facilitates repeated cold starting and frequent alloy changes.
3. Natural Stirring. Medium frequency units can give a strong stirring action resulting in a homogeneous melt.
4. Cleaner Melting. No by-products of combustion means a cleaner melting environment and no associated products of combustion pollution control systems.
5. Automatic Operation. Precise automatic control of power reduces furnace manpower to that required only for charging, tapping, and metallurgical measurements.
6. Compact Installation. High melting rates can be obtained from small furnaces.
7. Better Working Environment. Induction furnaces are much quieter than gas furnaces, arc furnaces, or cupolas, usually they just emit a hum or whine. No combustion gas is present and waste heat is minimized.
* from “Foseco Ferrous Foundryman's Handbook, Elsevier, 2000”.
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The AC induction furnace pouring an aluminum platform anode by remote operation.
The underbelly of the induction furnace.
One of the furnace basins with ingots.
The Deepwater Gaus anode testing lab.
The spectrometer test station.
Custom cores with in-house pipe bending.