metal-powder.net12 MPR January/February 2014

Centorr Vacuum Industries increases MIM furnace salesCentorr Vacuum Industries is building its sixth MIM-Vac M furnace in 2013, expand-ing its customer base for the metal injection moulding (MIM) market.

This includes multi-ple furnaces to Dynacast International for its new MIM operation.

Dynacast is a global manu-facturer headquartered in Charlotte, NC. In February 2013 the company said that it would be adding MIM to its service offering. The addition of MIM as a manufacturing process means that Dynacast will expand its ability to pro-duce small, complex compo-nents using a wider variety of metals, strengthening its commitment to producing higher quality, precision engineered components for its customers.

Centorr Vacuum Industries (CVI) has over 30 years of MIM furnace building experience. Its new busi-ness is comprised of a smaller research-sized unit designed with a 2 ft3 hot zone (1×12×24) and a larger production size unit at 9 ft3 with an 18×18×48 size hot

zone. Other sizes are also available.

CVI adds that the new MIM-Vac M (modular design) has a number of design improvements including advanced molybdenum hot zones with ‘wide-flow’ gas-plenum retorts using Sweepgas technology for consistent gas flow dynamics over all parts. It has a com-pact furnace layout with con-struction on a structural steel base for fast installation and easy hookup of all utilities and provides full access to major components for ease of maintenance, with no pan-els to remove.

It now has a dry mechani-cal pumping system with CVI’s proprietary T/P (trap-over-pot) binder condensing trap, providing clean and efficient handling of MIM binders with a second large trap after the vacuum pump for improved process cleanli-ness. Using molybdenum alloys (lanthanated moly and TZM) in the hot zone and retort offers improved creep resistance, higher recrystal-lisation temperatures, and longer service.

VSMPO 25% profit rise lifted by aerospace demand

VSMPO-Avisma, the world’s biggest producer of tita-nium, says that it expects profits to rise 25% to some US$250 million this year due to robust demand from the aerospace industry.

A trend towards using more lightweight composite materials for building planes is also working to VSMPO’s advantage, chief executive

Mikhail Voevodin toldReuters.

“Since aluminium and steel corrode with composite mate-rial, titanium consumption is increasing sharply,” he said.

VSMPO, which supplies 37% of the global aerospace industry’s titanium needs, sees demand from that mar-ket growing 5-7% a year to over 85,000 tonnes by 2018.

Titanium profits will rise due to aerospace demand.

Miba “cautiously positive” about third quarter resultsMiba says that it has nearly reached prior-year levels in the first three quarters of 2013–2014 (February 1 to October 31), with the result that its outlook for the whole year is “cautiously positive”.

Consolidated revenue amounted to €460.0 million, which equates to a mini-mal reduction of only 0.4% compared to the first three quarters of 2012–2013. EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) amounted to €54.1 mil-lion and was thus also only slightly below the prior-year comparative (€54.2 million).

“Given the market condi-tions, which have been more difficult than in the prior-year comparative period,

we can be really proud of this result,” said F Peter Mitterbauer, Miba’s chair-man of the management board.

In the past few weeks the automotive industry, which contributes about 40% to Miba’s total revenue, has per-formed better than expected, especially in the USA. The company also benefitted from the continuing strong glo-bal demand for agricultural machinery, for which Miba manufactures engine bear-ings and friction materials. In addition, after a difficult 2013, the truck market, for example, is showing positive trends for the forthcoming year, especially in China.

MIM specialist expands Colorado operationsAdvanced Forming Technology Inc (AFT), a division of Worldwide Inc’s precision components group, has begun expanding operational capa-bilities at its Colorado location.

Expansion completed to date represents the first of several phases, with the planned expansion expected to be complete by December of this year.

“This capital expansion and infrastructure upgrade

will enable us to meet cur-rent demand and grow our business for the future,” said Jedidiah Rust, director of operations for AFT Colorado. “Our continued focus on operational excellence will provide the company with the strengthened ability to expand volumes, provide additional value added proc-esses to our customers and increase our 3D printing capabilities/services.”

MPR0114_News Sec1:12 29-01-2014 10:18:13