More than 40 installations worldwide
Increase in productivity of between 10% to more than 50%
High-performance isothermal extrusion
Elimination of surface defects caused by overheating
Longer uninterrupted production and fewer die changes
Increase in die life
Label
1 Nitrogen tank
2 Cryogenic valve on-off
3 Vacuum insulated pipeline
4 Press-Puller-Oven PLCs
5 Sub-Cooler
6 Proportional cryogenic valve
7 N5Nitrogen supervisor
8 Pyrometer for profile temperature
9 Pyrometer for billet temperature
10 Extrusion press
11 Automatic injection pipe
12 PLCs Ethernet network
13 PCs Ethernet network
14 EMS server (just with EMS)
Increase in extrusion plant performance is essential to beat the competition in such a
competitive market as the aluminium one; N5Nitrogen provides:
- increase in extrusion speed
- larger production batches with decrease in die changes
- improvement in surface quality eliminating defects due to overheating
- increase in die life
- maximization and stabilization of production processes
The table below shows a ROI calculation for a 1800T extrusion plant with N5Nitrogen.
ROI has been calculated assuming 2000T production using liquid nitrogen, a minimum extrusion
speed increase of 20% and an initial factory cost equal to 0,40 €/kg or 0,80 €/kg.
ROI analysis
Current factory cost (€/Kg)
EUR
EUR
0,40 €
0,80 €
2.000 T
2.000 T
Extrusion speed, minimum increase
20%
20%
Productivity Increase
15%
15%
0,052 €
0,104 €
120.000,00 €
240.000,00 €
Production with Liquid Nitrogen (T/year)
Factory cost saving (€/Kg)
Total factory cost saving (€)
Total nitrogen running cost (€/year)
ANNUAL NET COST SAVING
15.333,33 €
15.333,33 €
104.500,00 €
224.667,00 €
Reliability
N5Nitrogen system can easily manage:
- logs oven temperature, charged billet, container, outgoing profile
- temperature of die critical areas with thermocouples
- extrusion pressure and speed
- automatic regulation of proportional cryogenic valve
- opening and closing of safety cryogenic valves
- automatic movement of nitrogen injection pipe
- start pyrometers scanner
- nitrogen quantity in the tank
Isothermal extrusion
N5Nitrogen is an innovative system able to manage high-performance
isothermal extrusion.
The system implements technologically advanced feedback to manage,
amongst other things, the profile temperature curve, ram pressure and
speed; thus achieving quality and productivity targets massively higher
than any other system, with the highest possible repeatability as well.
Elimination of surface defects due to overheating
N5Nitrogen system decreases bearing temperature, in this way you can
increase extrusion speed and eliminate defects caused by overheating
(pickup, micro-pickup, scratches, tearing) (pic 2a).
pic 2a
With
Liquid
Nitrogen
Without
Liquid
Nitrogen
Better quality with nitrogen regulation
The quantity of nitrogen required varies depending on the die, profile, alloy
and channels.
With only a single on-off valve as a regulator you can experience troubles
like surface defects and production difficulties, while with optimized
regulation die by die the quality and the productivity of the production are
increased considerably (pic 2b).
pic 2b
Best Process Reproduction
N5Nitrogen has been designed to maximize the extrusion process: Atie has
developed the BPR technology (Best Process Reproduction) with which
N5Nitrogen can setup all the PLCs with the best parameters stored and
checked dynamically during the process.
With such control, batch by batch, the system stabilizes the process at
the highest possible level, improving it constantly
Alarm Management
For each die/alloy you can set parameter ranges to keep
temperature, pressure, speed and nitrogen consumption under control;
the whole process can be checked under real-time conditions with the
N5Nitrogen control panel If any parameter goes out of the set limits, the
system warns the user and, when required, can edit such parameters to
eliminate the causes and solve the trouble autonomously.
Nitrogen Saving
Using N5Nitrogen you can reduce the consumption of nitrogen by about 20%,
thanks to automatic ramps for cryogenic valve opening and closing that
allow a smart nitrogen dosage.
An optimal curve of nitrogen flow is created for each die/alloy to know the
optimal consumption die by die.
Settings
Operating Manually
Working this way you can define all the nitrogen use parameters:
temperature, speed, nitrogen percentage etc...
The system must be managed manually the first time a die is used and
whenever the operator wants to improve the productive process.
Once the process has been optimized all the data can be saved
to be re-used for the following production.
Operating Automatically
Running in this way the system uses the optimized and saved
settings and automatically sets the PLCs parameters optimizing the process.
Traceability
For each PLC and batch you can save all basic data for nitrogen
management and all the extrusion parameters (for each batch more than
100 parameters; this can change according to plant
specifications and customer's requests).
The data saved can be researched by multiple keys to have complete
traceability of the extruded profile.
Furthermore, the data graphs of the process are saved as well, allowing
in-depth analysis of critical process parameters.
backer
Process repeatability and die productivity increase
A
520°C
container
v1
billet
profile
480°C
die
backer
B
545°C
container
v2
billet
profile
480°C
die
backer
520°C
container
v3
C
billet
The target of any extrusion company is to reach the highest productivity
and stability of the production process.
With N5Nitrogen you can increase the productivity of the majority of the
dies from 10% to more than 50% and stabilize the production process
Pic A shows normal extrusion without use of liquid nitrogen.
Pic B shows what happens when the speed v2 is increased
and the profile temperature exceeds the allowed parameters.
Pic C shows an extrusion with a channeled die, the nitrogen is injected
in the die and the extrusion is managed by N5Nitrogen technology:
extrusion speed v3 is increased considerably but die and profile
temperature don't exceed the set limits.
Increasing the productivity of a couple of batches is quite easy but
producing tons of extruded aluminium with the same productivity,
mechanical and quality characteristics is only possible with a deep knowledge
and perfect control of the production process: due to such reasons process
stabilization is one of the main goals of the N5Nitrogen system.
For optimal use of die cooling with liquid nitrogen technology it is important
to easily be able to control liquid nitrogen management parameters as well
as the extrusion ones: N5Nitrogen has been designed to allow complete
control of such parameters in the easiest possible way.
profile
480°C
channel for liquid nitrogen
die
S
EM
N5
Dialogue with EMS
e
og
r
t
Ni
n
N5Nitrogen system dialogues with Extrusion Management System
(target system for extrusion plants management and optimization).
Liquid nitrogen feeding
Controlled liquid nitrogen feeding is possible thanks to cryogenic valves designed
specifically for precise regulation of cryogenic liquids.
The immediate availability of liquid nitrogen with no state changes in the pipeline
is ensured by special tools provided by us (pic 4a).
A uniform and controlled supply of the cooling liquid to the die ensures the
perfect operation of the whole system increasing press performance, profile
quality, repeatability and providing constant improvement of the process.
Channels are designed according to all the parameters of the liquid nitrogen feed.
pic 4a
Cryogenic pipeline insulation
The target is the continuous and constant supply of liquid nitrogen,
vacuum insulated pipelines are required to reach this target.
In Pic 4b you can see leaks according to the type of pipeline:
the blue line shows leaks with a standard insulated pipeline
(armaflex), the red one shows leaks with a vacuum insulated one.
pic 4b
Management of thermocouples in the dies
The system can manage up to 8 thermocouples in the die/bridge to
properly check the critical points of the die.
Such an option is very useful, especially in the case of highly-critical
profiles, to collect as much data as possible during a first trial and then
adapt the channels to design the most accurate ones to be implemented
in the final die.
A.t.i.e. Uno Informatica would supply the thermocouples and dialogue
with your die supplier to properly position the holes for them.
Pic 4c shows an example of two thermocouples located in the same
point but with different distances from the bearings.
pic 4c
Channels design
°C
pic 4d
pic 4e
The channels for liquid nitrogen distribution are designed to
homogeneously eliminate overheating on the bearings: their design
cannot prescind from a deep knowledge of liquid nitrogen chemical
behavior during the extrusion process.
Dies constructors we work together with and our technicians can offer
the customer the most advanced solutions to reach the highest targets
achievable using this technology.
Depending on the kind of profile, its critical points and the alloy to be
used it is necessary to use different kinds of channel:
- channels in the backer
- channels in the die
- channels in the die and the mandrel
Pic 4d shows a porthole die designed with channels both in the die
and in the bridge to eliminate the extra heating generated in the
highest friction areas.
Pic 4f shows the overheating (°C) of the bearings generated by the
friction between the aluminium and the bridge.