Lightweight metals engineering and manufacturing firm Arconic, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recently announced that a global integrated aluminum solutions company will acquire its Latin American extrusions business, located in Brazil, part of the company’s transportation and construction solutions segment.
Hydro Extruded Solutions AS, formerly Sapa, which produces extruded shapes (standard and custom), seamless and structural pipe & tube, and standard and specialty rod and bar, noted in a company release that the transaction will expand its capacity to provide solutions for its manufacturing sectors in Brazil. Arconic is divesting two extrusion plants in Utinga and Tubarão in southern Brazil as part of its strategy to streamline assets and production; the assets include one casthouse, seven extrusion presses ranging from 7 to 14 inches, and value-added capabilities.
“We believe in the integrated business model and Brazil is the country where Hydro’s entire value chain is present. From bauxite and alumina, via primary production to extruded solutions, this will strengthen our ability to serve our customers,” said Svein Richard Brandtzæg, president and CEO.
Completion of the transaction is subject to approval from relevant competition authorities in Brazil and is expected within the first half of 2018.
TimkenSteel, a leading producer of carbon and alloyed steel including large diameter SBQ bars and seamless mechanical tubing, recently ordered a proprietary off-gas based technology package to install at its top charge EAF at its Faircrest plant in Canton, Ohio.
Tenova’s NextGen® off-gas analysis system, iEAF® dynamic process control technology, and Water Detection Technology®, will support TimkenSteel’s ca. 1 million net ingot tons per year, as well as provide operational, safety, and environmental benefits such as reduced energy consumption, water leak detection, increased productivity and yield and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
A forged and cast rolls producer for steel and aluminum manufacturers was recently selected by a Chinese manufacturer of high-end aluminum flat-rolled products to supply rolls for a new hot rolling mill installation that services the transportation sector.
Rodney Scagline, President of Union Electric Steel
The western Pennsylvania-based Union Electric Steel Corporation, an operating subsidiary of Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation, announced that the $4.4M agreement with Zhongwang (Yingkou) High Precision Aluminum Industry Co., Ltd, includes forged finishing work rolls and forged roughing work rolls produced at one of the Union Electric Åkers heat treating facilities. The successful agreement follows several trials conducted at Zhongwang Aluminum’s facility in Wuqing District, Tianjin Province. Shipments are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2018.
“The agreement adds another accredited, large new aluminum mill to our customer list,” said Rodney Scagline, president of Union Electric Steel. “Supplying the rolls needed for this new mill is an encouraging win for us, demonstrating our growing presence among major aluminum rolling mills around the world which require the most demanding, high-quality rolls. We look forward to serving this important customer and to meeting Zhongwang Aluminum’s needs as they evolve in the future.”
Global aluminum rolling producer Novelis Inc. recently announced a $4.5 million manufacturing investment at its facility in Warren, Ohio. The state-of-the-art technological advances will provide greater versatility for pretreatments, improve operational efficiency, and reduce costs over time. Novelis’ Warren facility has 75 employees dedicated to applying coating to rolled aluminum sheet. The sheet is then used for production of lids for the tops of aluminum beverage cans, producing enough for more than one billion beverage can lids each month.
Novelis supplies industry-leading beverage can materials to some of the world’s most recognizable brands, including Coca-Cola, AB InBev, and PepsiCo.
The Warren expansion will include portions of the facility which has been involved in manufacturing for more than 100 years, including military support in World Wars I and II.
Frank Perryman, president and chief executive officer of Perryman Company
Perryman Company, a metal fabricator headquartered in Houston, Pennsylvania, recently announced it will more than double its current titanium melting capacity through the addition of two new furnaces, one electron beam (EB) and one vacuum arc remelt (VAR).
The integrated titanium producer from melting of ingot to finished products has existing melting facilities at its western Pennsylvania location which are utilized for projects in the commercial aircraft and medical sectors. The company expects the new furnaces to alleviate backlog and support demand for titanium products in these as well as other industrial, recreation, and infrastructure industries.
“Our aerospace forecast model indicates there will be a need for additional melting capacity. With the increased capacity we will be in position to pursue segments of the aerospace market where we have not yet been a participant. We believe there’s more opportunity for us to leverage our fully integrated capabilities,” stated Frank Perryman, president and chief executive officer of Perryman Company.
The added capacity will also support planned growth in medical, additive/3D and other emerging markets.
Installation of the new furnaces will begin in late 2018 and are expected to be fully operational by mid-2019. Once complete, the company’s total melt capacity will exceed 26 million pounds, placing Perryman among the world’s largest melters of aerospace quality titanium.
Matt Sand, president of 3DEO, discusses the pros and cons of laser sintering and bulk sintering as applied to the 3D printing industry with a particular emphasis on sustainability and low-cost technologies.
Left to Right: Cristóbal Fuentes, CEO of North American Stainless; Bernardo Velázquez, CEO of Acerinox; Matt Bevin, Governor of Kentucky; Rafael Miranda, Acerinox Chairman of the Board
A Ghent, Kentucky, steel production facility recently welcomed a Spanish delegation and state officials to the launch of its 11th expansion since 1990. The project, which was announced in March 2015, includes a new $150 million bright annealing line and a cold rolling mill.
A North American manufacturer of steel products recently announced that construction will begin on two new projects that will boost its capacity to meet demand for carbon and alloy steel products in its U.S. Midwestern and Plains markets.
Nucor Corporation, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, will build a full-range merchant bar quality (MBQ) mill at its existing bar steel mill located in Bourbonnais, Illinois. The MBQ mill will have an annual capacity of 500,000 tons and is expected to cost $180 million. The project will take approximately two years to complete. This project will allow Nucor to fully utilize the company’s existing bar mill by optimizing its melt capacity and infrastructure that is already in place.
In addition, the steel producer will build a rebar micro mill in Sedalia, Missouri, about 90 miles east of Kansas City. The new micro mill project represents at least $250 million in new investments, with the expectation of creating 255 full-time jobs, and anticipates start-up in 2019 pending the final approval and award of state and local incentives as well as required permits and regulatory approvals.
Nucor will be able to take advantage of abundant scrap supply in both locations.
Scientists at several research institutions recently reported a breakthrough in 3D printing a marine grade stainless steel — a low-carbon type called 316L — that promises high-strength and high-ductility properties. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), along with collaborators at Ames National Laboratory, Georgia Tech University, and Oregon State University, published their findings online October 30, 2017, in the journal Nature Materials.
LLNL scientist Morris Wang (left) and postdoc researcher Thomas Voisin played key roles in a collaboration that successfully 3D printed one of the most common forms of marine grade stainless steel that promises to break through the strength-ductility tradeoff barrier.
“Marine grade” stainless steel is valued for its performance under corrosive environments and for its high ductility — the ability to bend without breaking under stress — making it a preferred choice for oil pipelines, welding, kitchen utensils, chemical equipment, medical implants, engine parts and nuclear waste storage. However, conventional techniques for strengthening this class of stainless steels typically comes at the expense of ductility.
“In order to make all the components you’re trying to print useful, you need to have this material property at least the same as those made by traditional metallurgy,” said LLNL materials scientist and lead author Morris Wang. “We were able to 3D print real components in the lab with 316L stainless steel, and the material’s performance was actually better than those made with the traditional approach. That’s really a big jump. It makes additive manufacturing very attractive and fills a major gap.”
Wang said the methodology could open the floodgates to widespread 3D printing of such stainless steel components, particularly in the aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas industries, where strong and tough materials are needed to tolerate extreme force in harsh environments.
To successfully meet, and exceed, the necessary performance requirements for 316L stainless steel, researchers first had to overcome the porosity which causes parts to degrade and fracture easily during the laser melting (or fusion) of metal powders. Researchers addressed this through a density optimization process involving experiments and computer modeling, and by manipulating the materials’ underlying microstructure.
Researchers say the ability to 3D print marine grade, low-carbon stainless steel (316L) could have widespread implications for industries such as aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas.
“This microstructure we developed breaks the traditional strength-ductility tradeoff barrier,” Wang said. “For steel, you want to make it stronger, but you lose ductility essentially; you can’t have both. But with 3D printing, we’re able to move this boundary beyond the current tradeoff.”
Using two different laser powder bed fusion machines, researchers printed thin plates of stainless steel 316L for mechanical testing. The laser melting technique inherently resulted in hierarchical cell-like structures that could be tuned to alter the mechanical properties, researchers said.
Wang called stainless steel a “surrogate material” system that could be used for other types of metals. The eventual goal, he said, is to use high-performance computing to validate and predict future performance of stainless steel, using models to control the underlying microstructure and discover how to make high-performance steels, including the corrosion-resistance. Researchers will then look at employing a similar strategy with other lighter weight alloys that are more brittle and prone to cracking.
“We didn’t set out to make something better than traditional manufacturing; it just worked out that way,” said LLNL scientist Alex Hamza, who oversaw production of some additively manufactured components.
In addition to organic expansion in the U.S. and Asia automotive and construction sectors, Hindalco Industries recently revealed an interest in aluminum processing in aerospace, defense, and high-speed rail industries, according to a recent interview with Hindalco’s MD Satish Pai, published in The Economic Times.
