How We Do It :: Casting Department

Melting

Our Casting Department ( Metal Storage & Casting Shop) starts the basic manufacturing cycle by processing and melting recyclable metals, and then casting the alloys into billets, rods, or coils.

Grade & Identify Metals

Metal Storage is supplied with metals in the form of scrap from outside sources, recyclable metal from the other ACB departments, and special metals such as nickel, tin, aluminum, and zinc.

The first job of this group is to carefully grade and identify all metals, and to process them for easiest handling by their customer, the Casting Shop. Material preparation is done by shearing and sawing.

Weighing

The next job is to weigh up charges for melting. This is a critical operation where MS operators select various combinations of metals and alloys according to the "Recipe Book" so that the proper copper alloy will result when the charges are melted. Over 70 alloys are cast.

Billets

The Casting Shop is supplied with the charges, which are melted in electric induction furnaces and cast according to very specific casting practices into Direct Chill (DC) or Static Cast billets, depending on which of the 5 casting stations is used. Each cast cycle of about 2 hours, results in an alloy heat of two billets having a unique heat number and chemical composition. This is one product that the Casting Shop provides to its customers, the Extrusion and Tube Depts.

Rod & Coil

Another product from Casting is Continuous Cast rod and coil which are produced for the Rod Dept. ( Rod & Wire). Charges are melted and transferred to the Rautomead caster, from which continuous lengths of rod or coil are cast. New melted metal is added about each half hour as solid alloy is continuously removed from the coilers or conveyor. This cycle can go on for up to a week.

Quality Controls

The Casting Shop chemical quality control is supported by the Spectrometer Lab during the melting and casting cycle through continuous sample-test-report cycles for each heat. Visual inspection is provided by billet saw operators in Casting, as well as Extrusion and Tube, as they cut billets into extrusion blocks. Casting also maintains and builds its own furnaces, with power and equipment support from the Maintenance Dept.

Value Added

The Casting Shop has thus taken scrap and raw materials and turned them into products for further processing. Not counting metal and support costs, we have added a value of about 20 to 25 cents per pound to our products. A 40" extrusion block is worth about $260.

Continue to extrusion process here.

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