Process

Pure metals such as Copper, Aluminium, Iron and Lead rarely offer adequate mechanical or physical properties to allow their use in engineering applications. Thus alloying with additions of various other metallic elements, in order to enhance these properties, is a long established practice. Today's engineering alloys are designed to meet increasingly demanding requirements and the alloying process is often difficult and time consuming. However, by using master alloys containing the base metal together with one or more selected elements, alloying can be both faster and more accurate.

Master alloy quality is heavily dependent on the quality of materials used in the production, therefore special attention is given to the analysis of all raw materials.

Electric induction furnace

Electric induction furnaces are employed for melting in order to take advantage of their efficient use of energy and environmentally clean operating characteristics. After melting and achieving a homogeneous mixture, the master alloy is poured semi-automatically into the moulds, the furnace is then cleaned in preparation for the next charge. The generation of waste products is minimised as far as is possible, and any such materials are stored separately ready for transfer to other industries as raw materials.

A sample is taken from each charge of master alloy in order to verify the chemical composition and where necessary the metallographic structure. The affilips laboratory has the most advanced analytical equipment available including solid gas analysis, atomic absorption spectrometer and furnace, inductively coupled argon plasma, X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, an (electron) microscope and wet chemical analysis. The close co-operation with the universities of Gent and Leuven is an indication of the endeavour to establish the commercial applicability of new master alloys on the basis of fundamental research.

Both the chemical composition and the final physical shape of the master alloy is determined in consultation with the customer according to the way in which it is intended to be used.
 

	Selection of our master alloys

Therefore, after being removed from the moulds, many products are subject to various finishing treatments such as shot blasting, crushing, cutting and trimming.
 

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Filter installation	Air ventilation

The production buildings at Affilips are insulated for sound and also benefit from air ventilation. Any dust and fumes released during processing are immediately extracted and collected in modern highly efficient filter chambers.

As a result of maintaining close contacts with the market, the flexibility of the production facilities and the quality of the master alloys, Affilips has become the European market leader in the field of copper based master alloys and is unique in the world in regard to the variety of its products. Around 95 % of Affilips products are exported.