Hertwich to supply aluminum melting furnace

Impol d.o.o. based in Slovenska Bistrica in Slovenia has placed an order for a stationary melting furnace and charging equipment for a melting rate of six to eight tons per hour with Hertwich Engineering, a company of the SMS group. It will be part of a new casting plant for rolling ingots due to start operation in May 2018.

With a product portfolio that contains over 105,000 different items, Impol is now one of the most important European suppliers of aluminum extrusions, rolled products and forgings. With some 2,050 employees, the group had a turnover of approximately 550 million euros in 2015; production volume totaled some 189,000 tons.

In the last ten years, Impol has invested a total of 400 million euros in expanding its plant. Production has more than doubled during this period: up 126 per cent. The company is pursuing a long-term growth strategy with continued expansion of production ─ planning covers the period from 2014 to 2020.

As part of the current expansion phase, the existing strip-casting machine will be replaced by a new casting plant for rolling ingots. A new 35-ton melting furnace and charging equipment from Hertwich will be installed because the capacity of the existing melting furnace will no longer be sufficient.

The new furnace is equipped for the use of standard primary and secondary cast materials as well as process scrap, briquetted swarf and slightly contaminated scrap from the market. The uniformity of the melt (temperature distribution and distribution of alloying additions) plays an important role as far as metal quality is concerned. An electromagnetic bottom stirrer creates the necessary bath movement to ensure good mixing.

Regenerative burners are used to optimize energy consumption. The specific energy consumption is thereby significantly less than 600 kWh per ton. In addition, the furnace is equipped with oxygen measurement to allow for reacting on possible organic scrap content