Enhancements for Melt Quality Evaluation of Aluminium Alloys Based on PreFil®

Due to the enormous demand for high quality products in connection with the rising amount of secondary raw materials and the higher content of impurities in these input materials, the importance of melt refinement will increase continuously. To produce high quality alloys with very low impurity contents, the melt quality must be improved from one process step to the next. Accordingly, casthouses must analyse and optimise their production processes from the beginning to the end. There are several methods available for process evaluation. Concerning the strong fluctuating initial inclusion contents, the testing methods are not suitable for a single process step improvement at any step in the production chain within the commercial accomplishment. This paper presents a new procedure for quick efficiency evaluation of metal cleaning by using the PreFil®-Footprinter. Examples of application on some refinement steps for the alloy EN AW-7075 are discussed. © 2009, Springer-Verlag.