Extrusion Die Manager (EDM)

Isothermal extrusion:

We have reviewed up here the importance of temperature control for the Aluminium extrusion process. The smartest use of measured temperatures of the billets (prior to the entry into the press) and that of the press exit can be seen at the MOMAS system of Accurate sensor Technologies Ltd. The system us fully automatic, based on an industrial PLC in which these two temperature inputs are smartly used in order to achieve optimal isothermal extrusion process, that ensures highest productivity, minimal scrap and damage to the dies.

In the link hereunder a fully installed MOMAS system can be seen, besides the use of pyrometer-scanner at the press exit as a part of the fully automates system can be viewed with its screen output:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT5114IYpRQ

Extrusion Die Manager (EDM)

The Dutch/German company IT-Imaging tackles other aspect of quality control improvement of Aluminium extrusion by focusing on the die shops and its main content: the dies.

Our EDM automate the die shop, migrate the die's legacy data to modern database system and minimizing manual typing and use of memories with regards to die integrity. Besides, using modern web based technology (thin installation) all die data is brought to the finger  tips of all these involved in the process, from purchasing to production and above all to the die correctors and their managers.

Hereunder a concise a list of the data kept in the EDM:

Die correctors name
Die ID number
Die's inception date
Die's scrapping date
Die design
Theoretical weight
Number of cavities of the die
Physical storage location of the production floor
Total profile extruded length
Press data (if applicable)
Number of extrusion runs
Manage daily data information
Production date
Billet type
Production speed
Alloy: Aluminium alloy (or any other metal, like Brass)
Total extruded weight
Q/A: quality assurance codes related to die's defects
Correctors name (if applicable)

Please stay tune, since this extensive lists will get even more extended very soon.

Improvement of the Aluminium Extrusion Process

General Info:

Aluminium is a lightweight, silver like metal. Industrial and construction applications of this metals are very known, however new application at the field of automotive will ensure wide spread use of this metal.

More Information about Aluminium can be found in these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium

http://www.world-aluminium.org

      

            Billets ready for extrusion in one of the extrusion plants.

The Aluminium Extrusion Process:

As known, the extrusion process is a hot process, the dies, are pre-heated to some 450C while the Aluminium billets are warmed up to some 400-500C. This ensure a plastic flow the Aluminium metal via the die's cavities. Cold billets of die can cause the exertion of higher forces on the dies and it can damage them. Besides, the billet can get stucked and the whole extrusion process will be halted, leading to lose in productivity and totally scrapped die, with bigger presses (such as the 5000 tons press) it can lead to lose of few production's days, hence temperature monitoring during all process stages is mandatory.

Temperature monitoring of the extrusion process:

The ideal process monitoring methodology is based on temperature control in four locations:

Dies

Billets

Press-exit

Cooling table.

As known accurate temperature measurement of Aluminium is very challenging and various pyrometers are out there tackling this task, the leading company at this field is Accuratesensortechnolgies Ltd. (http://www.accuratesensors.com/en), where their pyrometers cover all the four above mentioned stages using single and dual wave pyrometers.

Their state of the art non-contact temperature measuring systems ensures amazing accuracy of better than 1% and higher repeatability (as high as 6 Sigma).

I will be adding more about their fully automatic isothermal extrusion system on due course. Please stay tune and visit us again in order to read about their top notch production system.

Single Wave Pyrometer: 

AST Single Wave Pyrometer for steel, die and other industrial warm processes.

Recently AST  has extended their AST pyrometer's family with new models covering the range from 250C to 3300C.

However, quality has many sides and factors and temperature is only one of these. Billet's quality and curvature is mandatory for smooth extrusion and stop loss process. Few commercial billet suppliers guarantee some 10 mm, or even only 5 mm along a total length of 6 meter!

Shiela Marie and Simon can be contacted using their direct addresses, as follows:

shiela@it-imaging.com

simon@it-imaging.com

or via our site http://www.it-imaging.com

The documentation of the Extrusion Die Manager (EDM) will be available soon on the Download section of our site via http://www.it-imaging.com/downloads.php write us a short email and we will send it to you right away

These who prefer to read and view the EDM documentation while visiting our blog, a JPG version of the document  can be found below here (Please click  on the document to zoom in).

 

                    Please stay tune for further information!