The Aluminium industry is facing challenges to decrease energy consumption and increase the rate of recycling

Context and challenges of the industry

The situation in terms of global climate change and greenhouse emissions represents a big challenge for our modern society – which requires both real actions and new solutions. More and more socially responsible groups and companies participate in this worldwide effort that also generates new opportunities.

Aluminium recycling is one piece of the puzzle to achieve the goal of ensuring a greener economy. Some materials are more difficult to recycle than others.  It is the case for some post consumer parts from the automotive industry, which contains specific alloys less compatible with current recycling practices.  Therefore, complementary solutions are required.

Meanwhile, the industry is facing higher energy costs and this leads to increasing efforts towards energy saving initiatives.  As a side benefit, this also comes with a reduction of greenhouse emissions.

Recycling and closed loop economy

The availability of scrap has always been a challenge. In some regions, this type of scrap was shipped to recycling facilities equipped for the task but the current trend is to minimize transportation and therefore CO2 emissions by having local recycling facilities.

In many processes, an efficient way to recycle is to recover scrap generated in the same value chain. For example, an aluminum slab supplier can recover scraps from its own customers and sub customers to cast new slabs. The advantage of this is the compatibility of the products in terms of alloys and other characteristics. The required equipment is simpler, and the constant supply of scrap is easier to guarantee.

For post consumer scrap, the challenges are much greater.  The material can contain contaminants, such as paints and/or other unwanted elements.  For scrap handling, charging, treatment and melting, many options are possible depending on the type of material to be recycled. Some require sorting and pre-treatment; others can be directly loaded. Many melting solutions are to be considered such as a rotating or multi‑chamber furnaces, post combustion fume treatment, preheating requirements, etc.

Specific alloys for specific applications will complicate the integration in the remelting process.  Important quantities of metal is currently not being recycled because of this contamination.  The potential to recycle more scrap requires new solutions.  Dynamic Concept has developed in alliance with Nature Alu, a state of the art technology to purify aluminium.  The main purpose of this technology is to produce super high purity aluminum.  However, the same technology can be used to purify contaminated aluminium.

Also, metal transfer is a key factor in the recycling process. In some existing plants, crucibles are already being used for molten metal transfer. Many options are possible and Dynamic Concept has direct experience with most of them.

Energy saving opportunities

Energy costs have increased significantly in the last year.  Aluminium producers and foundries are looking for solutions to save energy and those potential savings are huge, most particularly in Casthouses.

Many gas powered components are required to run a Casthouse.  Dynamic Concept proposes and supplies a series of solutions specifically designed to save energy:

• Improved control of burner systems
• Optimized furnace process control
• Accurate & more efficient molten metal temperature monitoring
• Regenerative burners
• Furnace heat recovery
• Etc.

For example, the DYNAPROBE: Intelligent Thermocouple Mechanism is a smart temperature reading system allowing accurate molten metal temperature readings at various depths into the metal bath.  The collected data is used by the furnace control system to allow predictive burner control therefore avoids overshooting the required process energy for every cycle.

Conclusion

The aluminum industry is facing new challenges that can be turned into opportunities. The increase of recycling activities helps decrease overall greenhouse emissions as well as production costs.  Working to save energy actually serves a dual purpose to achieve the same goals. Dynamic Concept is positioned to support aluminum producers by bringing both technical support and solutions for those new challenges.

 

The partnership between Dynamic Concept and EPIQ Machinerie is the dynamic concretization of an industrial symbiosis aiming at accelerating the development of high quality products. The co-creation of new cutting-edge equipment such as the furnace maintenance robot allows the partners’ expertise and knowhow to be leveraged. The result is a win-win situation: better equipment in a shorter time.

 

Quotes

« It is a pleasure for EPIQ Machinerie to participate in the co-creation of a sophisticated and powerful equipment. It is a first step towards the introduction of robotization for the execution of complex and high-risk tasks. We are convinced that the furnace maintenance robot is a step towards Industry 4.0 for our customers. In the near future, it can be moved, in the factory, from one furnace to another by EPIQ AGV. »

• Éloïse Harvey, Chief Executive Officer, EPIQ Machinerie

 

« This partnership is for us a great example that Quebec companies can collaborate not only in the exchange of services, but also in the development of advanced technologies by combining the strengths of each to increase our global competitiveness and commercialization efforts and thus increase our exports of innovative products. »

• Patrice Côté, President, Dynamic Concept

ARFT: Automatic Robotic Furnace Tending (PATENT PENDING)

Dynamic Concept and EPIQ Machinerie will present at ICSOBA 2022 a new breakthrough in robotic solutions. Indeed, the two equipment manufacturers have joined forces to co-create a robotic equipment that will improve the maintenance operations of molten metal furnaces for primacy and secondary aluminum producers.

Our team (Daniel Gagnon, Yves Larouche and Pierre Jeanroy) at Dynamic Concept's booth (#6D15) at the Aluminium World Trade Fair and Conference in Düsseldorf.

Daniel Gagnon will be present at Dynamic Concept’s booth (#6D15) for the Aluminium 2022 event in Düsseldorf from September 27 to 29, 2022.

Mr. Gagnon has more than 30 years of experience in the aluminum industry in the processing, handling and quality analysis of molten aluminum.

Personalized meetings are possible according to your availability.  This will be the ideal opportunity to discuss further collaboration.

Daniel looks forward to meeting you!

We will be present at the Aluminium 2022 in Düsseldorf from September 27 to 29, 2022 and hope to meet our customers and partners.

We will be at booth #6D15 and personal meetings are possible according to your availability.  This will be the ideal opportunity to discuss further collaboration.

Our equipment lineup is up to speed with the latest industry requirements & includes a series of new innovative solutions.

 

We look forward to meeting you!

We are very proud to celebrate the first year of existence of our division Dynamic Concept Europe.

This first year has been very rich with the completion of several large-scale projects, the creation of the company and especially the birth of a dynamic, competent and united team.

Dynamic Concept Europe was able to build a solid foundation to evolve and face challenges.

We are very happy with their success!

In close collaboration with Aluminium Dunkerque, we completed, with our specific expertise and know-how, the successful redesign and revamping of the front of a casting furnace at the site's foundry. The scope extended to the frame, the doors, the lifting kinematics and the plating principle.

This development will allow Aluminium Dunkerque to significantly increase the life of the consumables, increase the capacity and limit the energy consumption of the furnace.

The equipment has now been in production for several months and the customer is satisfied!

It's a great partnership that has resulted in a great achievement, thanks to Aluminium Dunkerque.

We would like to underline the contribution of our partners in this beautiful adventure. In particular, DiSante, Gleser and Fonderie Giroud.

Our President, Patrice Côté, speaks about the Aluminum Industry in an article in AlCircle for their March/April 2022 edition of the LeaderSpeak magazine.

Context and challenges of the industry

Aluminum Industry, like many other industries, is facing new challenges.

The lack of available manpower has experimented within many countries. This issue will increase in the next few years. Even more, attractiveness for some tasks is lower for a new generation of workers. Some plants will be facing risk for operational continuity.

Also, the situation in terms of global climate and greenhouse emissions represents a big challenge for our modern society - which requires real actions and new solutions. More and more groups and companies participate in this worldwire effort to bring new opportunities. Aluminum recycling is one piece of the puzzle to achieve the goal of ensuring a greener economy.

Meanwhile, reponsible companies integrate aluminum recycling into their marketing strategy. Customers in general are more sensitive to this aspect. So, this is why we observe that these direct customer suppliers ask their providers to increase the recycling of their contents in their products. This is how the value chain is solicited.

Those challenges bring new opportunities for the aluminum industries.

Dynamic Concept has been involved in many projects in both process engineering support and adapted equipment solution for Casthouse around the world. Consequently, many solutions for automation, robotics and recycling have been developed by our team.

Automation and Robotic

To address the lack of manpower, automation and robotics are solutions to consider. They also bring additional benefits that can make the implementation investment very profitable. Increasing automation and control levels allow a better repeatability of the process leading to a better recovery rate.

For example, Dynamic Concept vertical automatic hands-free casting system control all casting steps and parameters in order to optimize the process and remove operators from any hot metal exposure.

In addition, automated systems and robotics can replace task exposed to heat and dust. It will be more and more difficult to find people welling for those tasks.

Dynamic Concept is developing robotic solutions for Casthouse. For exemple, we developed a polyvalent fully programmable multi-task robot for furnace tending. It brings many advantages such as accuracy of the operation, and efficiency of skimming and cleaning while decreasing or eliminating of refractory damages. Another example is the robotic skimming operation saw casting.

Recycling and closed loop economy

The availability of post-consumer scrap has always been a challenge. In some regions, this type of scrap used to be transported away to be recycled elsewhere. The trend is to minimize transportation and CO2 emissions through local recycling. The result is that more scrap is available in some markets, as we can see in North America.

In many processes, an efficient way to recycle is to recover scrap generated in the same value chain. For exemple, an aluminum slab supplier can recover scraps from its own customers and sub customers to cast new slabs. The advantage of this is the compatibility of the products in terms of alloys and other characteristics. The required equipment is simpler, and the constant supply of scrap is easier to guarantee.

There is no unique solution to implement recycling. It is a case by case approach. Dynamic Concept proposes a flexible approach in terms of design and configuration that would support the customers in all steps for recycling projects.

Stydying all those parameters in order to fit the best solution and configuration is the key to success. Then, we support the client for the further steps of project implementation either with our adapted equipment and/or other supplier equipment. The idea to provide the client the best available solution on the market and implement the best configuration for his needs.

For scrap handling, changing, treatment and melting, many options are possible depending on the type of material to be recycled. Some require sorting and pre-treatment, others can be loaded directly. Many melting solutions are to be considered such as a rotating furnace, a multi-chamber furnace, fume post burning requirements, level of automation, preheating requirements, etc.

The metal transfer is a key factor in the recycling configuration. In some existing plants, crucibles are already used for molten metal transfer or route. So, many options are possible and Dynamic Concept has direct experience with most of them.

Conclusion

The aluminum industry is facing new challenges that can be turned into opportunities. Implementing automation and robotics will compensate in part for lack of manpower and improve productivity at the same time.

Increase recycling levels helps to decrease overall greenhouse emissions and also production costs.

Dynamic Concept is positioned to support aluminum producers by bringing both technical support and solutions for those new challenges.

 

 

 

On behalf of all employees, the President of Dynamic Concept, Mr. Patrice Côté, is proud to announce the hiring of Mrs. Vanessa Poulin as Marketing, Communications and Human Resources Manager. University graduate in HR and Master in Business Management, Mrs. Poulin holds a vast experience in the Aluminium field, HR managing and business development. Her role with the company will be in attractiveness for the hiring process and business development. We wish her the warmest welcome, and I am sure of her long-term success with our great team!