The aluminum casthouse is where aluminum wrought processing and shape casting begins, and there are many casthouse functions to consider. Scrap sorting, decoating of organic coatings on scrap, remelting, alloying, melt purification by refining and degassing, grain refining, melt transfer to casting station, casting by direct chill or other means, ingot heat treatment, and dross […]
International Patents
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Experienced welders will tell you that, compared to welding steel, welding aluminum and its alloys is not difficult but different. Steel, being one of the common construction materials, most welders and myself included started by learning how to weld steel. As aluminum has especially gained market share in transportation, welding aluminum is challenged in various […]
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The quest for higher strength materials, especially in transportation markets, seems to be never ending. The aluminum industry is meeting the demand with new alloys and heat treatments aimed at optimizing properties made of age hardening aluminum. Processing age hardening aluminum alloys to meet high strength levels in various product forms requires special heat treatment, […]
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US10587020 — BATTERY PACK AND ENCAPSULATED INTERCONNECTION FOR A BATTERY PACK — Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. (Korea) — A battery pack includes a first battery module level and a second battery module level. The first battery module level includes: a first heat exchanger including a cooling tube that defines a cooling area; a first secondary […]
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Editor’s Note: Various aspects of aluminum casthouse technology appear in almost every issue of Light Metal Age, no doubt because it is the first step and an important link in the wrought aluminum processing chain required for subsequent downstream processing and production of quality product. With no exception, the international patent survey presented here focuses […]
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Editor’s Note: Unlike aluminum’s sustainable advantage in recycling, primary aluminum production (which uses carbon anodes in the Hall-Héroult process), continues to be energy intensive and a greenhouse gas (GHG) producer. Ignoring the effect of CO2 generation in the coal/hydrocarbon power equation, the use of carbonaceous anodes in the smelting process generates GHGs as carbon is […]
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US10486821 — JET ENGINE ANTI-ICING AND NOISE-ATTENUATING AIR INLETS — The Boeing Company (USA) — An embodiment of a jet engine air inlet providing anti-icing, and optionally, engine noise reduction, includes a rigid frame defining a gridwork of contiguous cells. A cap skin has an outer surface sealingly attached to an inner surface of the […]
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Editor’s Note: In coil coating of aluminum sheet, applied by roll coating or other means, the coated product is subsequently subjected to a short thermal, ultraviolet, and/or electromagnetic curing cycle for drying and curing of the coating. Coil coating of aluminum alloy sheet is forever evolving in terms of pretreatment and top coating compositions, especially […]