Michael Werner from our Cedar Springs Michigan-office has attended another great Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) conference in San Antonio last week. As always, the conference offered a very educational and exciting program. A particular highlight was the "Market Update & Outlook" presented by Karen McBeth (S&P Global Insights), aside of catching up with longtime industry friends.
In extrutec's machine business, designs often have to be adapted to the specific spatial conditions on site, and typically a manual side measurement is carried out at the beginning of the project. Certain key points are measured and then transferred to the CAD models for the system design. In the future, extrutec will use a 3D scanner for difficult spatial conditions. The laser measurement process generates a point cloud that is then assembled into a virtual environment on the computer. Real images are also taken to help the project team orientate themselves. The systems designed by extrutec can then be inserted into the real environment in advance and adjusted to the exact dimensions. In this way, space problems and interfering edges can be identified at an early stage and the installation time can be further reduced.
Three successful days at Metef have come to an end. Although visitor numbers were lower than expected, we were still able to engage in valuable discussions and establish new connections.
The focus was on our resource-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions in the areas of heating and cooling, contributing to a significant reduction in energy consumption and carbon footprint.
We take away many interesting insights and look forward to future opportunities to present our innovative solutions and provide expert support to our customers.
The maintenance of induction coils in our workshop in Menden executed by our subsidiary TCT, which specialises in coil production and maintenance, is an essential part of ensuring continuous production and high availability of your induction coil. In order to avoid production downtimes and extend the service life of the induction coil, professional maintenance of the coil is essential. That is why we offer all customers customised maintenance and repair of their coils (including those from other manufacturers). Get in touch with us!
extrutec is pleased to announce the successful completion of a furnace replacement project at General Extrusions International, Inc. (GEI) in Youngstown, OH. In August 2024, extrutec was awarded the contract to replace the existing 7" induction furnace on the 1675 ton press line. The main objectives for the furnace replacement were
To achieve these objectives, the new furnace is equipped with 5 individual heating zones for precise billet taper. The power to the multilayer coils is controlled by the latest IGBT converter technology with 5 individual outputs. The IGBT converter is equipped with an unregulated diode rectifier to achieve a constant power factor of 0.95 or better, without capacitors or filter reactors. The IGBT converter allows continuous adjustment of the power density in the coils, which in combination with the thermocouples in each coil section, provides high temperature accuracy.
Despite the challenging short timeframe, extrutec was able to deliver the equipment as promised for an installation during the Christmas shutdown. We'd like to thank the whole team at GEI for their excellent cooperation.
The first hot billet was heated at Mäkelä in Finland. The newly developed inline EHKO (electrically resistance heated high convection oven) plays a key role in Mäkelä's decarbonization plans. The concept combines two electric heating methods. The decisive factor is the extremely high overall efficiency of the system, which is achieved by base heating with heating elements and final taper heating with induction. As the new equipment will be replacing an old gas heater, Mäkelä will save 960 tons of CO2 per year.
The new Indian representative Mehul visited extrutec's headquarters at Lake Constance this week. Mehul and his company Stevag have been representing extrutec on the Indian market since October this year. The aim of the cooperation is to provide extrutec's new and existing customers with more personal on-site support to ensure a long-term partnership.
Changbao Steel is well known for its seamless extruded stainless steel pipes. The company invested in a completely new extrusion line for the production of these tubes.
After 8 months of intensive cooperation between extrutec and Changbao, the production acceptance took place at the extrutec group subsidiary TCT Induktionstechnik in Menden. A total of 32 customised induction furnaces were manufactured for the process-accurate heating of high-alloy stainless steels for various material dimensions with an installed system output of approx. 9 MW. In addition to the induction furnaces, this complex project also included various auxiliary equipment, switchgear and other system components. The equipment will be commissioned by extrutec in early 2025.
Frequent visits to our customers are an important part of the day-to-day business of the extrutec aftersales department. Personal discussions provide valuable feedback that helps us to further improve our aftersales service and the overall performance of our equipment. A visit to our Turkish customers took place as planned. One of the companies visited was Asen metal, where an extrutec heating system is in operation together with a profile cooling system. The aftersales department provides lifetime support for existing extrutec equipment and also advises our customers on frequent upgrade projects.
Last week, extrutec was featured on Korean television. The KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) broadcast a report on aluminum extruder Almac. The focus was on the new 14" automotive line. This line meets the specific requirements of domestic car manufacturers. extrutec supplies the critical components of the automotive extrusion line, consisting of an in-line gas induction furnace with hot saw and upstream ESU (Energy Saving Unit), as well as a high-performance profile cooling system.
