FURNACES

ABB Metallurgy Electromagnetic Stirring Solutions from ABB _______ 85-86

Advancements in Electromagnetic Stirring for Aluminum Furnaces _______ 87-88

FURNACES | AWJ 2016 83

Customized stirring solutions – guaranteedperformance and payback within a year

We understand that you are looking for performance solutions that give you a return on your investment. That is why our products consist, not only of electromagnetic stirring (EMS) equipment, but include an all-important performance warranty. Our job is done when we have delivered a full range of process improvements for your business. Without compromising on the quality of your product, you can achieve optimized performance and typically benefit from payback within 12 months. With the world’s most comprehensive range of EMS products we provide energy efficient, tailored solutions for melting and holding furnaces up to over 200 tons, side and bottom mounted, and air and liquid cooled systems for all process steps. For more information visit abb.com/metallurgy

ABB ABMetallurgy ProductsPhone: +46 21 32 50 00Fax: +46 21 14 83 27E-mail: info.metallurgy@se.abb.com (products)E-mail: service.metallurgy@se.abb.com (service)

Customized stirring solutions – guaranteedperformance and payback within a year

We understand that you are looking for performance solutions that give you a return on your investment. That is why our products consist, not only of electromagnetic stirring (EMS) equipment, but include an all-important performance warranty. Our job is done when we have delivered a full range of process improvements for your business. Without compromising on the quality of your product, you can achieve optimized performance and typically benefit from payback within 12 months. With the world’s most comprehensive range of EMS products we provide energy efficient, tailored solutions for melting and holding furnaces up to over 200 tons, side and bottom mounted, and air and liquid cooled systems for all process steps. For more information visit abb.com/metallurgy

ABB ABMetallurgy ProductsPhone: +46 21 32 50 00Fax: +46 21 14 83 27E-mail: info.metallurgy@se.abb.com (products)E-mail: service.metallurgy@se.abb.com (service)

ELECTROMAGNETIC STIRRING SOLUTIONS FROM ABB

ABB is a global leader in providing solutions that improve the efficien-cy, productivity and quality of our customers’ operations. As part of the Process Automation division, ABB Metallurgy’s specialty is the optimization of processes within the metals industry by providing electromagnetic stirrers (EMS) and breaks for casters and furnaces, and even stabilizers for galvanizing lines.

Our mission is to offer the most ef-fective and energy efficient range of tailor-made stirring solutions for a broad spectrum of applications. In order to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations, a com-prehensive and flexible range of EMS products is a prerequisite, together with the ongoing evalu-ation and development of our of-

ferings. For aluminium stirring, we are continually broadening our al-ready wide selection of products. In doing so, we can guarantee even more benefits as part of our per-formance warranty. For more than 70 years ABB Met-allurgy has consistently delivered a full range of metallurgical benefits that improve quality, productivity and cost-efficiency for our custom-ers. With over 1713 installations worldwide for arc and ladle fur-nace, stirrers and breaks for thick slab casters, stirrers for billet and bloom casters, electromagneticbreaks for thin slab casters, andof course stirrers for aluminium furnaces, we have unrivalled expe-rience of electromagnetic stirring for both the steel and aluminium industries.

Al-EMS installed under a 40 ton melting furnace

EMS for aluminium offers the following benefits:

w Increased productivity

w Lower energy consumption

w Reduced dross formation

w Higher alloy yield

w Homogeneous aluminium bath temperature

w Homogeneous chemical

w Payback typically within one year

w Energy efficient product range

ABB METALLURGY | AWJ 2016 85

Figure 2. Fire configuration

ABB Metallurgy has an impressive 232 Al-EMS installations world-wide, including both liquid and air-cooled, and side and bottom- mounted systems with an unpar-alleled 1600 accumulated years of operation. Our stirring solutions cater for all production capacities and can be tailored to any kind of furnace. In fact, we have the by far the most comprehensive range of electromagnetic stirrers for alu-minium available on the market to fit all of our customers’ needs.Our wealth of experience has provided our research and de-velopment team with invaluable knowledge which is used to con-tinually evaluate and improve the performance of our existing

products. It has even provided a unique level of insight which we have utilized in the development of new products and patents. ABB Metallurgy has a long-standing tradition of developing new prod-ucts on-site in partnership with the world’s leading steel and alumini-um producers. As a result, we can be confident that our innovation is 100% customer-focused.

The majority of our 80 employees are based at ABB Metallurgy’s main headquarters in Västerås, Sweden with a few choice representatives in key locations around the globe. There, our products are developed, customized and hand-crafted with the help of our engineering and

workshop teams.

Our newly formed operations team, together with our in-house metallurgists and commissioning engineers, ensure that we deliver on time and on quality, every time. Our modest organization is com-plemented by a global network of colleagues within ABB Process Au-tomation’s Process Industries busi-ness unit. In this way, our customers can benefit from both global sales and local service organizations, while our tight-knit team focuses on our particular area of expertise: customized stirring solutions.

Find out more or contact us at www.abb.com/metallurgy.

ABB AB MetallurgyTerminalvägen 24SE-721 59 Västerås, SwedenPhone: +46 21 32 50 00E-Mail: info.metallurgy@se.abb.com (products)service.metallurgy@se.abb.com (service)www.abb.com/metallurgy

Bottom-mounted Al-EMS from ABB

Author: Karen Hildebrandt, Marketing Communications Manager

86 AWJ 2016 | ABB METALLURGY

ADVANCEMENTS IN ELECTROMAGNETIC STIRRINGFOR ALUMINIUM FURNACES

Producing profitable, high quality products continues to be a chal- lenge, and the industry needs tech-nological solutions that do more than ever to improve production economy.

Here at ABB, we work hard to con- tinuously develop and improve our electromagnetic products.

We are, for example, in the pro- cess of making some significant im-provements to our EMS offerings for aluminium furnaces. Very soon, an even broader range of prod-ucts will be available, enabling us to maintain our position as a mar-ket-leading supplier of EMS perfor-mance solutions.

With an EMS from ABB improve- ments in productivity, energy effi-ciency and dross formation reduc-tion come as standard. Using our

extensive process experience, we are able to analyse your existing or planned production and accurately predict and maximize the benefits of an EMS installation.

As part of our performance war-ranty we can, depending on cur-rent process conditions, guarantee a number of metallurgical im-provements.

With more installations than any other EMS provider, we understandthat every furnace is different. Choosing the correct EMS is there-fore decisive in achieving maxi-mum performance.

An EMS solution needs to be flex-ible enough to adapt to each cus-tomer case without compromising on performance. For these rea-sons, we offer the broadest range of flexible EMS products on the

Smart container solution for auxiliary equipment

w Faster melt rate (cycle time), increased productivity

w Reduced dross formation, increased aluminium yield

w Lower energy consumption

w Faster alloying times

w Increased alloy yield

w Thermal homogeneity

w Chemical homogeneity

With an ABB EMS system for aluminium, we can provide enhanced performance as follows:

ABB METALLURGY | AWJ 2016 87

market. Our product catalogue covers the entire spectrum from EMS for small die-casting furnac-es to over 200-ton furnaces, and our ongoing development in part-nership with leading metals com-panies, means that we continually introduce new and improved prod-ucts to meet our customers’ needs.

With the widest range of efficient stirrers, and the imminent release of new products that do even more for furnace performance and en-ergy efficiency, we can offer sus-tainable solutions for every kind of furnace in any kind of environ-ment. Through the years, we have learned to master both air and liq-uid cooled EMS systems, and the environments in which they oper-ate. We have also learned that in order to provide optimum, energy efficient solutions we must con-tinue to offer products with both types of cooling. Air is a less effi-cient cooling media compared to liquids.

In practice, a more powerful air- cooled system would be physically large and bulky and less energy ef-ficient than its liquid-cooled coun-terpart. This makes air-cooling well suited for smaller, less demanding EMS installations and not as ap-propriate for use on furnaces with larger production capacities and greater demand for cooling. With a higher heat transfer than air, liquid cooling is the preferred choice for packing more stirring force into a smaller footprint. For larger furnaces, liquid-cooled coils give maximum stirring strength without being impracti-cally large.

From the earliest stages of prod-

uct development, our focus is on maximizing both performance and energy efficiency. By offering EMS solutions with the cooling system most suited to the furnace in ques-tion, we are able to supply prod-ucts with low energy consumption per ton of aluminium.

In real terms, our products are all equally energy efficient, whether they are fitted on a furnace with a 1 ton or 200 ton production capacity.

ABB’s EMS systems, whether air or liquid-cooled, are operated in the same manner and offer the same flexible solutions for the var-ious production steps. The EMS program is automated to stir the molten aluminium optimally for every step of the melting, holding and mixing part of the production. With the support of ABB, the stir-ring profiles can even be adapt-ed to optimize the entire melting process together with stirring pro-grams, scrap types, alloying ele-ments and so on.

EMS has traditionally been fitted to the bottom of the aluminium furnace. There are, however, situ-ations where this is not an option.

This is why we developed, and hold the patent for, side-mounted EMS, making the benefits of EMS avail-able to stationary furnaces that sit on the foundation. It is preferable to utilize stirring force as early as possible in the process.

We still, therefore, recommend the use of a bottom-mounted EMS for melting furnaces wherever possi-ble. For a holding or two-chamber fur-nace, where there is a substantial

bath height early in the cycle, a side-mounted EMS system can be used to provide roughly the same performance improvements as a bottom-mounted system.

The EMS offers practical flexibility, not only in the form of mounting position, but also in the placement and storage of auxiliary equipment. If available, such equipment can be placed in local electrical rooms. ABB are able to offer smart con-tainer solutions where no appro-priate storage is available on-site.

The EMS, whether mounted on the side or bottom of the furnace, is a virtually maintenance-free tool.

Having no contact with either the molten aluminium nor the furnace bottom or side, the EMS is not ex-posed to stress from higher tem-peratures. Furthermore, a stainless steel window in front or above the EMS means that the furnace shell is not affected by the EMS in any way.

The EMS will homogenize the ther-mal difference between the surface temperature and the bottom tem-perature with the introduction of forced convection. The forced con-vection will act as a physical heat transfer for the molten aluminium, carrying the hot surface aluminium to the bottom. This, in turn, will in-crease productivity and save ener-gy, and lower the amount of dross generation as a direct result of the lower surface temperature.

Equipping the furnace with the correct EMS system will significant-ly improve the quality and econo-my of your furnace operation.

Author: Ph.D. Kristofer Malmberg, Metallurgist

188 AWJ 2016 | ABB METALLURGY