HITACHI, Japan's only total systems integrator for railway systems and services, is making a determined bid to break into the European market, first for trains but also with ambitions to supply traffic management and signalling systems, communications, and maintenance facilities.

Hitachi presented the A-Train, which it is promoting in Europe, as responding to growing demands for a safe, environmentally-friendly train that is quieter, more comfortable, and more cost-effective than conventional systems. The company is focusing its campaign on Britain, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

Special features of the A-Train include a frameless aluminium double-skin body, a self-supported interior module, and a mounting rail with an extrusion structure to form a single unit, enabling a much simpler fastening of the module to the mounting rail. The body is 30% lighter than an equivalent stainless steel body.

Friction stir welding is used to produce a high-precision car body that is sleeker in appearance than conventional trains. Friction stir welding is used instead of fusion welding as recommended in the Uff Cullen Report on the inquiry into the Ladbroke Grove rail tragedy in Britain.

According to Mr Takazumi Ishizu, managing officer of Hitachi's transport systems division, the modular concept approach enables shorter production lead times, easier refurbishment, and better residual values, "It is also superior to conventional trains in terms of recyclability due to the use of aluminium and its module-to-mounting rail structure, which can easily be dismantled," he said.

Hydro will build the plant in Suzhou, north of Shanghai, to satisfy its automotive customers and further raise its own profile as the leading global supplier of lightweight precision tubing components. Global market leaders in heat and fluid transfer like Behr, Calsonic, Delphi, Denso, Valeo and Visteon are each located in the regions close to the Suzhou Industrial Park site, where the plant will be based.

At the new site, Hydro will produce precision drawn tubing, multi- port extrusions (MPEs) and extruded tubular profiles used in automotive heat transfer applications. The company will also deliver other high-value components from the plant.

Hydro will break ground in the first quarter of 2004 and install the plant's extrusion press by July. Production is scheduled to start in the third quarter of next year. The plant will create about 140 new jobs in Suzhou in first phase (2004).

Can a new tower rising only 20 storeys plus mechanical gear truly be considered an iconic Manhattan skyscraper? Inaugurated in April after a lengthy facilitation and construction process, the Austrian Cultural Forum nevertheless achieves an extraordinary totemic presence on East 52nd Street close to the Olympic and Trump Towers, the Seagram and Lever Buildings and the Museum of Modern Art. Its lot is a mere 7.6m across. The rear of the building is a vertical metal extrusion containing scissor stairs, indented at successive ceiling levels. However the Forum's southerly facade, above 52nd Street and glimpsed from both Fifth and Madison Avenues, is a sheer surface of glass, steel and aluminium tilting back to opaque shards 85m above.

It might risk oversimplification to draw an analogy between the building's extreme dimensional ambition and the ambition shown by its client -- Austria's Ministry for Foreign Affairs -- in commissioning such an eye-catching edifice for the promulgation of contemporary Austrian culture, Imagine if Missouri, say, or Oregon, were to envisage a similar project for London or Berlin. Certainly the design by Raimund Abraham, won through competition in 1992, is a bravura architectural statement. Abraham, an Austrian who has lived in the United States since the 1960s, is better known for his drawings than for built work: drawings in which graphic construction and suggestions of physical construction create strangely enigmatic surfaces.


Like previous Abraham designs, the Austrian Cultural Forum plays games with symmetry, that bugbear for many Modernists but in Abraham's world the instigator of a certain planar monumentality. Occasionally fragmented in section, but splayed to a constant angle, the facade onto 52nd Street has an implied central spine: a V-shaped cavity towards the top encloses a roof terrace, or loggia, that looks out across the city. A protruding box just six storeys up is marked by its unique T-shaped viewing slot. With glazed flanks to direct peripheral views towards both avenues, this is the Forum director's office. If Abraham appears obsessed by geometric artefacts, his architecture also draws its users into an intriguing sense of ritual.

Protected from what could be torrents of rainwater by a transparent cantilevered canopy like a glass blade, one enters to find a coolly elegant bluestone floor. The interior -- from basement gallery up via floating mezzanines through the lobby to an enclosed double-storey theatre -- is surprisingly spacious. The visitor is invited to explore, drawn by light and by complex views. Not unlike the Museum of American Folk Art (AR February 2002) just a block away, this entire zone is an inhabited void or cave in Manhattan's concrete jungle. But Abraham's architecture is more mechanistic than that of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

A skylight in a modest return section offers a dramatic view up against the zigzag stairs module. Is there an echo here of motifs in London's nascent High-Tech and the Viennese avant-gardes of three decades ago? In fact, this spiralling backbone is the result of New York regulations that require two separate means of escape: Abraham simply stacked one stair system above the other. Vertical circulation is primarily via lifts just inboard from these stairs, in a bull-nosed service tower sheathed in stainless steel. The palette of shiny metal and glass (for interior walls and balustrades) intensifies the mechanistic allusion.

Above the cafe is the wood-lined theatre, an intimate haven for music and drama, lectures and film projection. Its piece de resistance is the pneumatic platform that can raise a grand piano out of sight, flush into the ceiling. Above the theatre is a library on two levels connected by an open internal stair. As on upper floors, robust cross-bracing in grey-painted tubular steel is exposed like a diaphragm canted parallel to the external glass shards.

Above a 'loft-like' seminar room, the director's office is in turn topped by three floors of offices subdivided by generously glazed partitions. The furniture, all Austrian, some by Abraham, tends to the monochromatic and geometric. As this mini skyscraper ascends, it tapers so that floor areas become ever smaller. Several floors are dedicated to apartments and to technical services. Then, with increasingly tight plans, the director's private apartment occupies four storeys, with its own beautiful timber-skinned spiral staircase stretching up towards the loggia.

The intent of this radically rehoused institution (it previously occupied a townhouse on the same site) is distinct from the privately funded Neue Galerie newly opened on East 86th Street and resplendent with Klimts and Schieles and the work of the Wiener Werkstatte. The Forum is signalled by powerful abstraction. At rooftop level, a cylindrical water tower assumes a symmetrical position enthroned behind the upper street facade. Unlike the cheap stucco tiaras attached to so many New York buildings, these planes tip forward to facilitate the Forum's window-cleaning equipment: a very Austrian conflation of the matter-of-fact and the super-formal.

Pechiney P.A.P. (Pechiney Aluminium Presswerk), a German subsidiary of the Pechiney Group (NYSE: PY), specializing in aluminum profiles extrusion for the transport industry and construction markets, has announced a EUR 18 million investment in a new press, mainly intended for automotive applications.

P.A.P. is one of the leaders on the German profiles market with annual production of 45,000 metric tons through four presses on three production sites (Crailsheim, Landau and Burg). The aluminum profiles market is experiencing fast growth, especially in the automotive sector as their use in several functions (body, suspension systems, fittings, etc.) enables manufacturers to reduce vehicle weight, leading to lower fuel consumption and therefore less greenhouse gas emissions.

The new 4,000 - 5,000 ton press, will add 12,000 tons in annual production capacity and will be particularly adapted to the profile specificities required by the automotive industry. It will come on stream in the fourth quarter of 2002 and will employ approximately 60 people when operating at full capacity.

Pechiney, the world's fourth-largest aluminum producer, achieved sales of EUR 400 million in the automotive sector in 2000 for total production of 185,000 metric tons. Over the past five years, a EUR 60 million R&D budget has been earmarked for this sector. Supported by Pechiney Automotive, a structure dedicated to the motor vehicle industry, the Pechiney Group provides major European constructors (such as PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Audi, Renault and Daimler Chrysler) and major OEM with unmatched expertise in casting alloys, profiles and rolled products. These products have applications in every kind of vehicle and part (hoods, wheels, doors, cylinder heads, engine blocks, etc.).

Pechiney is an international manufacturer with core businesses in primary aluminum, aluminum fabricated products and high value-added packaging. Pechiney, which reported sales of 10.7 billion euros (approximately US $12 billion) in 2000, also manufactures ferroalloys and operates an international trade business. Its shares are traded on the Paris Stock Exchange; its ADRs are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Synergy wall solutions from the Stanton Group offers stylish and flexible partitions, which can be specified to meet acoustic and privacy performance criteria.

Available from specialist interiors company Stanton Group is the wall solutions range, Synergy. The system is a range of aluminium extrusions that coordinate with glass and drywall to create frameless/minimalist walling solutions.

Based on a series of architectural aluminium profiles, which form a high performance partitioning solution, Synergy profiles are designed to offer creativity and practicality, avoiding the heavy sections that typify partitioning products.

The system offers single and double glazed aesthetics with options for various finishes and performance criteria such as acoustics and privacy. The single and double glazed office fronts, used in conjunction with Synergy advanced drywall, steel or laminate faced panels as dividing walls, offers a product range which, the makers say, is minimal yet flexible.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 1997--Hydro Aluminium Extrusion today completed the acquisition of Ellay Enfield, the UK's leading producer of thin wall welded tube for the automotive heat exchange industry.

Ellay Enfield, based in Workington in North West England, is a world leader in the production of welded thin wall flat oval tube in both aluminum and brass for heat exchanger applications. Turnover of 12 million GBP in 1996 is expected to grow significantly in 1997 with the conclusion of current investment programmes. The company currently has 100 employees.

Hydro is a leader in extruded and drawn aluminum tube for worldwide automotive applications.

Ivar Hafsett, the president of Hydro Aluminium Extrusion, comments: "The acquisition is an important strategic step for Hydro as welded tube is a complementary product to our extruded and drawn tube products. We will now be in a position to offer our customers a `one stop shopping' solution for all their heat exchange tubing needs and to take advantage of the opportunity for product integration. This will become increasingly important as first tier automotive manufacturers rationalise their supplier bases and demand stronger and more capable suppliers. Ellay Enfield's strong technology base gives us the opportunity to develop both their and our product ranges to maintain our market leading position through the development of new and innovative heat exchange products and services, and to capitalise on the substantial growth projected in the brazed aluminum heat exchanger segment."

The new name of the company will be Hydro Ellay Enfield.

Hydro Aluminium Extrusion is a world leader in aluminum extrusions and a division of Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian-based industrial group with major interests in light metals, oil and gas, agriculture and petrochemicals. Total Norsk Hydro sales in 1996 were more than $13 billion.

Man Industries (India) Ltd, India's third largest SAW pipe manufacturer and also the largest manfucturer-exporter of aluminium extrusions in the country, has registered a growth in sales and profits for the year ended March 31, 2004.

According to News Today, sales at Rs 502 crore, have registered a growth of 83 per cent over the Rs 274 crore recorded in the previous year.
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Operating profit before depreciation, interest and tax for the year at Rs 75.41 crore rose by 103 per cent over the previous year.

Caption: A NEW 275km/h eight-car Shinkansen emu for JR East--the Series E2-1000--is undergoing tests in Japan. It will operate on the Tohoku Line, which will be extended 97km from Morioka to Hachinohe in 2002. It has two driving trailers and six motored cars, and can seat 630. Bodyshells are made of double-skin aluminium extrusions.

The train has a newly-designed pantograph, which reduces noise by employing new oval-shaped epoxy resin insulators with a surrounding noise shield.

THE BUILDING materials group Caradon was as solid as cement in the face of a crumbling market amid talk of imminent disposals. The midcapper firmed 3.5p to 170.5p in fairly chunky volume of 5.1 million shares as a number of buyers donned their hard hats and piled into the stock.

The whispers coming from the City's buildings - many of which are equipped with Caradon's kit - suggest that the group is lining up a major disposal.

Under chief executive Jurgen Hintz, the one-time struggler has already sold off some pounds 200m-worth of non-core businesses and market watchers believe there is more to come. At present, the company operates in four areas - plumbing, electrical, security printing and aluminium extrusions - but rumours are that a couple of these divisions could go.

Followers of the stock said that the successful security printing unit is likely to stay but the remaining three could all be sold at the right price. The proceeds of any sale could then be used to tidy up the balance sheet and to finance the expansion of the other divisions.

Mr Hinz has been given an added incentive to act quickly to boost the share price by the arrival on its share register of the aggressive investor UK Active Value. The fund manager, run by the feared South African duo of Brian Myerson and Julian Treger, has recently bought a 3.5 per cent stake in Caradon and is certain to try to engineer a takeover if the share price does not improve.

The overall market had a miserable day, as profit-taking, weaknesses in heavyweight sectors and fears of a rate hike depressed sentiment.

The FTSE 100 finished 48.2 lower at 6,694, after having been as much as 85 points down. Macro and micro issues were behind the leading index's slide. On the macro side, there is a creeping fear that Thursday's Bank of England meeting could bring a pre-Christmas rate rise.

And on the micro side, a slump in the pharmaceuticals sector took more than 40 points off the index. The drug stocks rout was started by the US fund manager Cowen, which issued a sweeping sector downgrade.

The bearish note pushed SmithKline Beecham 61.5p lower to 822p and Glaxo Wellcome 48p lower to 1,828p. Rival AstraZeneca, down a hefty 208p to 2,522p, compounded the misery with a poorly-received research & development update.

Some of the rampant hi-tech stocks took a bit of a breather as Nasdaq had a lacklustre start. Sema dropped 96.5p to 1,201p, while Misys fell 58.5p to 816p. Rumours of corporate action propped up some of the rising blue chips such as Allied Domecq, up 15.5p to 325.5p, on rehashed whispers of a strike from a rival drinks group.

Cable group Telewest soared in early trading and was forced to admit it was in merger talks with TV producer Flextech. However, after the announcement both stocks pared their gains, with Telewest ending just 12p higher to 351.25p and Flextech rising 182.5p to 1,532.5p.

Telecoms were once again flavour of the day. Vodafone Airtouch jumped 13p to 318.75p on whispers that German fund managers are warming to its bid for Mannesmann.

BT, 47p higher to 1,459.5p, and Colt, up 52p at 2,505p, were excited by news that US giant AT&T will split off its wireless business. Cable & Wireless surged 20.5p to 898p on reports that its Australian subsidiary is to link up with Richard Branson's Virgin.

Takeover talk pushed mining group Billiton 12.25p higher to 323.75p, while whispers of contract wins sent British Aerospace 5.75p higher to 409p in big volume. Caterer Compass Group dished out a 23.5p rise to 753.5p on optimism on Thursday's interims. Bass frothed 18p higher to 699p amid rumours of a bullish trading statement with tomorrow's finals. But publisher Reed dropped 6p to 386.75p ahead of Thursday's trading statement, and retailer Kingfisher fell 37p to 555p on worries about tomorrow's update.

The midcap was also in depressed mood, falling 16.6 to 6,309.4 despite a welter of bids, real and imagined. Investment vehicle Wassall climbed 52p to a yearly peak of 332.5p after unveiling a bid approach, possibly from US conglomerate Cooper Industries. Personal finance portal eXchange Holdings surged 44p to a best-ever 316.5p on talk of a large deal, while bombed-out engineer Senior bashed 7.5p higher to 77.5p on vague bid speculation.

Retailers were mixed. Discount chain Matalan jumped 97.5p to 1,435p after a positive trading update, while New Look rose 7.5p to 128p on renewed bid talk. Storehouse was flat at 53p in big volume amid the usual break- up rumours, while Somerfield dropped 1p to 82p despite whispers of a lively auction for its stores and Arcadia fell 8p to an 86p low on fears of worsening trading.

Car hire group Avis Europe crashed 24p to 205p - a 12-month low - amid whispers of tough trading, while bus group Go-Ahead reversed 52.5p to a yearly nadir of 502.5p on its imminent ejection from the FTSE 250.

The Small Cap bucked the dull trend with a 12.4 rise to a best- ever 2,944 as retail investors continued to pile into several stocks. Hardware tiddler Tadpole Technology buzzed 12.25p higher to 61p on rumours that a deal with a large European group is close.

Yeast infection or candidiasis is quite a common discomfort suffered by thousands of people everywhere, and due to their intimate secret, mostly suffered in silence! It is therefore important to find natural and safe methods to both alleviate and discontinue its reign over the silent multitude. Common causes of yeast infection include:
1) Antibiotics and their over-use
2) Birth control pills (presumably)
3) Hormonal changes
4) Chlorine in drinking water
5) High levels of iron, lead, mercury and aluminium
6) Anti-inflammatory drugs, and many more!

So, in essence, to cure your yeast infection you should focus on:
1) Avoiding unnecessary antibiotic medication
2) Filtering your drinking water
3) Avoiding tight fitting clothes (to ensure proper aeration)
4) Not taking birth control pills (if at all possible).

In general, one should focus on good personal hygiene and avoid douching at all times - the vagina self-cleans, thereby making douching unnecessary. Douching actually upsets the delicate balance between good and bad bacteria in the vaginal ecosystem and can be really harmful. Also, do not wipe from back to front after going to the toilet, as yeast and bacteria generaly occur in the intestine, and therefore might be transferred to the vaginal area.

Remember: yeast occurs naturally in any healthy vagina, but might increase due to changes in acidity and other common causes as mentioned before. Strictly avoid taking antibiotics to cure your yeast infection, especially if it needs to be applied to the vaginal area directly, as these will most assuredly diminish your prevalent yeast cultures totally! The idea is to cure the condition and the cause as safely and naturally as possible.

Anglesey Aluminium Metal (AAM) Limited, the Holyhead based smelter, faces some very difficult choices over the next two to three years.

With the impending closure of Wylfa Power Station on Anglesey in 2010, the aluminium smelter urgently needs to secure an alternative supply of electricity.

The existing continuous 250 MW electricity baseload supply contract with Wylfa has been a long term one, so providing stability and certainty. With the closure of the Wylfa nuclear plant, that certainty framework disappears and AAM is urgently searching for a viable solution.

Jointly owned by Rio Tinto (51%) and US-based Kaiser Aluminium and Chemical Corporation (49%), Anglesey Aluminium Metal has been a major supplier of aluminium metal for extruding, rolling and re-smelting to UK and European markets since it started at Holyhead in 1971.

With over 500 highly paid posts at the plant, closure would be a severe blow to the local economy, which will need to readjust to the closure at Wylfa.

David Bloor, Anglesey Aluminium MD,reckons there are in effect four options on the table. Firstly, the smelter could negotiate and secure another long term (10-15 years) contract on the open electricity market as in the past. Mr Bloor, however, is not sanguine on prospects for such a deal because of the inherent risk in forward pricing.

Alternatively, AAM could opt for shorter term - say 2 yearly- contracts on the open market, but the question would be whether such terms could be secured as profitably as in the past.

If the above two possibilities are not feasible, the third choice would be to have on-site generating capacity. The company has commissioned feasibility studies into alternative energy sources on site, including building a biomass power station.

Providing a secure, dependable and steady supply of wood chips would require significant quantities of wood. There would also have to be consideration given to securing sufficient sources of supply and the lead times from felling, drying out and processing of the wood chips, not to mention the transport logistics.

If the above three options are not workable, the fourth option is simply to switch off the power and shut the gates. Such a scenario fills local people with gloom, but Mr Bloor said this possibility had to be considered. After all,the plant along with the jetty in Holyhead harbour, has been an icon of the town's industrial base since its introduction in 1971.

Just consider that while this Rio Tinto Kaiser smelter has doubled its production to over 140,000 tonnes since it started in 1971, it has also achieved remarkable results on its carbon emission targets. Against a Kyoto target of a 12.5% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2012, the company has cut its carbon equivalent emissions by more than 50% since 1990.

And its amazing to reflect on such an outstanding achievement in a relatively energy intensive industry in the week that G8 leaders gather in Germany to discuss a post-Kyoto (2012) framework with tougher greenhouse gas emission targets. In fact, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and current G8 President, has suggested an ambitious plan of 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050.

It is ironic that closure is considered a possibility as globally we have seen a surge in demand for aluminium along with other industrial metals such as copper, zinc and iron. With no apparent let-up in demand from China, India and other emerging markets, this seems a good time to be producing aluminium.

Indeed, GFMS Metals Consulting notes that global primary aluminium in April 2007 climbed to 3 million tonnes, a 12% riseover 12 months, and European demand also seems to be holding up well.

Mr Bloor believes that so long as the relationship between aluminium and electricity prices translates into a profit, even a small one, then the Holyhead plant will continue going forward.

His ideal scenario is for Wylfa B to be given the green light and for a similar partnership deal as before to be struck with the new nuclear generator.

So let's hope the recent Energy White Paper and nuclear consultation lead to a favourable climate for new nuclear build. We can then expect energy giants like E.ON and EDF Energy to be fighting for the contract to design, build and operate Wylfa B, and Rio Tinto Anglesey Aluminium will have another lease of life.

Aluminium is the choice metal for making light weight parts of vehicles, aerospace and transport industries. Casting of liquid aluminium alloys into metal moulds utilizing systems like gravity, low pressure and high pressure die casting is an economical way of making difficult shapes which need minimum machining. Australia’s auto industry supports a large local die casting business, manufacturing parts that include cylinders, pistons and engine sumps etc.

Rising demand in world auto market for aluminium die cast parts is producing great opportunity and challenge for Australian business which wants to emerge as a global player. By setting partnerships between Nissan and Ford, CAST has developed and produced new and latest technology that has been benefiting our partner’s products. In turn these skills have created IP that is poised on the verge of commercialization.

To increase production of high pressure die casting by lessening its time cycle by 30%. The cycle time has been reduced by more than 20% on certain parts at two industry partner plants. The project involves identifying places where cycle time may be reduced, and doing it practically to prove the findings of research. This made it essential to involve shop floor staff to implement the changes needed in systems. These trails are generally in variation with day to day production and due to true co-operation of shop floor staff it become possible to achieve targets.

The third year of project has seen the true spirit of co-operation between researches and industrial partners in which latest research results got through simulated trails have been done practically on shop floor with help and support of Ford and Nissan staff. The changes once tested during trials have been incorporated in production systems giving benefits of reduced costs by reducing time of each part manufactured. An example of reduced time achieved is at Nissan on a gearbox side cover made in twin cavity die has given successful results after many months; from an initial cycle time of 75 seconds down to 60 seconds. While research at Ford on a changer housing casting, has been successfully implemented by lessening cycle time from 90 seconds to 74 seconds.

In future the reduction of time cycle will be tried for other parts as well.

Automatic fault detection in aluminium die casting:
This involves developing a system to detect surface and sub surface defects.

A fully automatic fault detecting machine named CAST vision has been produced and a prototype process is in place for extended in-plant on-line trials. This is the third year of this project and it is giving good results. The result of algorithm which was designed and developed in 2nd year has been put to test now. By prototyping the CAST team had designed and developed a working system CAST vision. This can discriminate between good and defective parts.

The prototype system has capacity to detect blocked holes on any of holes on this complex casting. Offline processes have also been readied which will detect hot tears and cold shuts on Ford’s structural sump casting.

Work at Nissan on their pump cover casting has led to a CAST vision type process for in-line fault detection. The process can take images and find certain types of defects on the surface part. This project has shown that advances in mechanical vision applied for finding faults of aluminium castings can be converted from project stage to a working prototype successfully. The next stage is take concepts from single stage to multistage processes capable to handle more complex shapes and surfaces. This result will become a strong contender for future commercialization.

New high performing zinc-aluminium ZA casting alloys (ZA-8, ZA-12, ZA-27) give superior mechanical properties which designers can apply utilizing die casting technology. In general the ZA alloys are stronger, harder and offer more creep resistance than standard zinc alloys and can be used where bearing properties are important.

Aluminium alloys with 0.5-0.9% Fe content have largely replaced 1350 EC alloy for making electrical circuits because the latter continuously suffered from gradual loosening at terminals, which led to overheating. This problem has been totally removed in new conductor alloys without sacrifice of conductivity.

To get economic benefit of weight advantage of aluminium wire should be capable of attaching securely to standard fixtures without special handling techniques. But EC wire on binding screw terminals tightened to a standard torque may become loose, when the wire heats due to being overloaded. The wire gets expanded more than the Cu-alloy fixture and creeps to relax the added stress.

On getting cool it contracts to a smaller dimension, whereby the area of contact is reduced and it permits oxide to form at interface. On a subsequent current overflow, the overheating increases which leads to further loosening of wire. EC wire annealed for adequate bend ability gets sub structurally loosened at 200°C and ultimately fails due to repetitions of these cycles.

The new alloys (800 series) of 0.5-0.9% Fe have much better microstructural stability and creep resistance and, therefore, they are not prone to these failures.

While annealed to the same ductility or bend ability, the high Fe alloys are double strong. This capability has been established by practical field use of many years in USA, Europe and South Africa after these alloys were introduced in 1968.

Better and latest alloys which not only provide high integrity to terminations but are suitable for magnet wire after normal hot annealing have been made after adding a third alloy to improve its performance examples are 0.5% Fe with 0.5% Co and 0.5% Fe with 0.2-0.4% Si.

Processing and microstructure:
In continuous casting a bar of 50cm2 is made at 16 m/min on a 2.5m diameter copper wheel. The quick solidification results in a 20 μm dendrite arm spacing and eutectic red cpacing of about 0.2 μm with a supersaturation of about 0.1% Fe. These very fine particles play a significant role in giving stability to substructure while being incapable of nucleating crystallization.

The presence of sub grains has been known in hot worked aluminiums but without quantitative determinations of the dimensions or the effects on properties. As the temperature rises from 200-450°C, the cold yield strength of the hot worked product decreases greatly from the strengthening made by 97.5% cold rolling.

As has been seen in many hot worked metals, the yield strength is inversely proportional to sub grain diameter. Because the temperature is less and strain rate is high in a given pass than those in the previous one, substructure “inherited” from i.e., carried forward from, the latter is altered by dislocations to the existing walls to raise their density and by formation of new walls to subdivide the sub grains lessening their size.

When the novice hobby metal caster first thinks about melting metal, the immediate thought is to collect a big box of Al bottle tops and Al drink cans to melt. The most likely reason for this is that the material is relatively easy to collect and handle, and the thinking behind the idea is that because of its lightweight it should melt quite readily.

Then why is it so difficult to melt & reclaim aluminium drink cans, bottle tops & swarf in a hobby gas fired crucible furnace?


To melt & reclaim light weight scrap aluminium requires the use of some specialised equipment. Most commercial scrap metal recovery foundries use what is known as a rotary type melting furnace. This type of furnace is designed in such a way that the flame actually strikes the rotating furnace lining, and the heat spreads quickly around the furnace walls, which absorb the heat. As the furnace rotates, the heat is also taken up or absorbed by the scrap metal.

It is essential to melt the metal under a cover of MOLTEN FLUX, otherwise very heavy metal oxidation results and subsequently very little metal is actually recovered.

As each piece of small swarf or chip melts, it forms a globule of liquid metal surrounded by a shell of oxide. The skin tension of this oxidant around the globule prevents coalescence, i.e. (to grow together) and because of the large surface area presented by the mass of globules, with the increase of oxide formation loss of yield is bound to take place.

The skin of the oxide on the molten globule has to be "ruptured" in order to allow coalescence, i.e. to allow the clusters of globules to actually join together in their molten state.


A molten flux encourages coalescence by chemical action.

While the rotation of the furnace provides a mechanical action. The special fluxes; coveral 48 & 57 provide the chemical action, they are the best type of fluxes to use when melting Al metal in the region of 590 to 600 C. (Coveral 48 & 57 products are copyright Foseco Pty Ltd)

This flux may or may not provide similar results when used in a normal crucible gas fired furnace, but the yield loss will still be considerable.

The hobby foundry worker would be better off directing his energy towards collecting easier to source, better quality scrap to melt, such as discarded cylinder heads, inlet manifold castings, auto pistons, etc. Or if the budget stretches that far, purchase commercially produced ingots, which are of a known quality. Commercial ingots will provide top quality metal right from the word go.

Trying to melt lightweight Al drink cans and bottle tops is generally a waste of time for the hobby worker, unless you use the fluxes mentioned above, and use the correct furnace. Otherwise a lot of gas will be wasted heating the hobby crucible furnace for very little gain in metal yield.

Aluminium is the choice metal for making light weight parts of vehicles, aerospace and transport industries. Casting of liquid aluminium alloys into metal moulds utilizing systems like gravity, low pressure and high pressure die casting is an economical way of making difficult shapes which need minimum machining. Australia’s auto industry supports a large local die casting business, manufacturing parts that include cylinders, pistons and engine sumps etc.

Rising demand in world auto market for aluminium die cast parts is producing great opportunity and challenge for Australian business which wants to emerge as a global player. By setting partnerships between Nissan and Ford, CAST has developed and produced new and latest technology that has been benefiting our partner’s products. In turn these skills have created IP that is poised on the verge of commercialization.

To increase production of high pressure die casting by lessening its time cycle by 30%. The cycle time has been reduced by more than 20% on certain parts at two industry partner plants. The project involves identifying places where cycle time may be reduced, and doing it practically to prove the findings of research. This made it essential to involve shop floor staff to implement the changes needed in systems. These trails are generally in variation with day to day production and due to true co-operation of shop floor staff it become possible to achieve targets.

The third year of project has seen the true spirit of co-operation between researches and industrial partners in which latest research results got through simulated trails have been done practically on shop floor with help and support of Ford and Nissan staff. The changes once tested during trials have been incorporated in production systems giving benefits of reduced costs by reducing time of each part manufactured. An example of reduced time achieved is at Nissan on a gearbox side cover made in twin cavity die has given successful results after many months; from an initial cycle time of 75 seconds down to 60 seconds. While research at Ford on a changer housing casting, has been successfully implemented by lessening cycle time from 90 seconds to 74 seconds.

In future the reduction of time cycle will be tried for other parts as well.

Automatic fault detection in aluminium die casting:
This involves developing a system to detect surface and sub surface defects.

A fully automatic fault detecting machine named CAST vision has been produced and a prototype process is in place for extended in-plant on-line trials. This is the third year of this project and it is giving good results. The result of algorithm which was designed and developed in 2nd year has been put to test now. By prototyping the CAST team had designed and developed a working system CAST vision. This can discriminate between good and defective parts.

The prototype system has capacity to detect blocked holes on any of holes on this complex casting. Offline processes have also been readied which will detect hot tears and cold shuts on Ford’s structural sump casting.

Work at Nissan on their pump cover casting has led to a CAST vision type process for in-line fault detection. The process can take images and find certain types of defects on the surface part. This project has shown that advances in mechanical vision applied for finding faults of aluminium castings can be converted from project stage to a working prototype successfully. The next stage is take concepts from single stage to multistage processes capable to handle more complex shapes and surfaces. This result will become a strong contender for future commercialization.

When the novice hobby metal caster first thinks about melting metal, the immediate thought is to collect a big box of Al bottle tops and Al drink cans to melt. The most likely reason for this is that the material is relatively easy to collect and handle, and the thinking behind the idea is that because of its lightweight it should melt quite readily.

Then why is it so difficult to melt & reclaim aluminium drink cans, bottle tops & swarf in a hobby gas fired crucible furnace?


To melt & reclaim light weight scrap aluminium requires the use of some specialised equipment. Most commercial scrap metal recovery foundries use what is known as a rotary type melting furnace. This type of furnace is designed in such a way that the flame actually strikes the rotating furnace lining, and the heat spreads quickly around the furnace walls, which absorb the heat. As the furnace rotates, the heat is also taken up or absorbed by the scrap metal.

It is essential to melt the metal under a cover of MOLTEN FLUX, otherwise very heavy metal oxidation results and subsequently very little metal is actually recovered.

As each piece of small swarf or chip melts, it forms a globule of liquid metal surrounded by a shell of oxide. The skin tension of this oxidant around the globule prevents coalescence, i.e. (to grow together) and because of the large surface area presented by the mass of globules, with the increase of oxide formation loss of yield is bound to take place.

The skin of the oxide on the molten globule has to be "ruptured" in order to allow coalescence, i.e. to allow the clusters of globules to actually join together in their molten state.


A molten flux encourages coalescence by chemical action.

While the rotation of the furnace provides a mechanical action. The special fluxes; coveral 48 & 57 provide the chemical action, they are the best type of fluxes to use when melting Al metal in the region of 590 to 600 C. (Coveral 48 & 57 products are copyright Foseco Pty Ltd)

This flux may or may not provide similar results when used in a normal crucible gas fired furnace, but the yield loss will still be considerable.

The hobby foundry worker would be better off directing his energy towards collecting easier to source, better quality scrap to melt, such as discarded cylinder heads, inlet manifold castings, auto pistons, etc. Or if the budget stretches that far, purchase commercially produced ingots, which are of a known quality. Commercial ingots will provide top quality metal right from the word go.

Trying to melt lightweight Al drink cans and bottle tops is generally a waste of time for the hobby worker, unless you use the fluxes mentioned above, and use the correct furnace. Otherwise a lot of gas will be wasted heating the hobby crucible furnace for very little gain in metal yield.