Providing Equipment and Services for the
Molten Metal Industry
Warrick's New Rotary Furnace Taking Shape
The Ingot
Department's new $7 Million furnace will begin operating in April
processing dross
and
Describing the furnace in terms that any of us
can understand, Chuck
Bargeloh, Warrick engineer
in charge of the installation, said "Some of us
describe it as a massive cement mixer on steroids.
Certainly, however, this is
much
different. And it's unique to the Ingot Department - unlike any
other
furnace we have."
The furnace's ability to rotate about a horizontal axis in
addition to
swiveling on a vertical axis gives
great flexibility and allows molten metal to
be poured from various stations along its perimeter. It is
designed to process
coated scrap created during our production process and dross, the
material that
is skimmed
off the surface of molten metal before it can be cast into ingots.
Composed of inpurities
and oxides, dross is currently sent to outside processors to recover
aluminum. With the new
furnace,
however, Warrick will be able to save money,
conserve significant energy and reduce environmental
effects by handling that
material internally.
When dross is sent to outside processors, it must first cool.
Then,
after it's
cooled, the secondary
processor must remelt it to extract the aluminum. They
also have to heat it higher than necessary so
the metal will remain molten for
its drive back to Warrick - this overheating causes additional melt
loss and
uses energy. With this furnace, we'll be able to process dross while it
is
still hot, rather
than letting that energy be wasted.
In addition to the furnace, the project also includes a
lime-injected bag
house, a salt silo, a liquid oxygen
tank, and a weighing system. The Warrick County Council gave
support to
the
project in August 2006
when they approved a tax phase-in of the assets over the
coming years.
As part of the project, Bargeloh consulted with engineers at
Tennessee
Operations, which has its own
rotary furnace in operation. By that knowledge
sharing process, Warrick will be able to have a shorter
learning curve with the
new asset.
Bargeloh is also working to make sure we get the new equipment
installed safely
and in a quality manner.
"We're spending the time to make sure it's done
right," he said, "because this is certainly much more
important than
just any old cement mixer, no
matter how beefed-up it looks."
