In early 2024, I received an email from a procurement manager at a US aerospace supplier. His company produces precision aluminium components for commercial aircraft. They had been sourcing castings from a Chinese foundry for three years. The quality w...

In early 2024, I received a call from a recycling plant manager in Guangdong Province. His plant processes mixed aluminium scrap into ADC12 ingots for the automotive and appliance markets. His metal recovery rate had fallen to 84%. That meant...

Evaluating a Chinese aluminium furnace manufacturer comes down to six things: the factory, the reference list, the service network, the spare parts chain, the certifications, and the financial stability. Price is not on that list. Price is what you com...

Gas porosity is the most common internal defect in aluminium die casting. It shows up as round, smooth cavities on X-ray. It causes leaks in structural parts. It ruins machined surfaces. And it costs foundries millions in scrap every year. In my 25 ye...

A380 and ADC12 are the two most common aluminium die casting alloys in the world. They look similar on a spec sheet. They behave differently in a furnace. If you run both alloys on the same line — as many foundries do — you need to understand the tempe...

Rotary furnaces are the workhorses of aluminium recycling. They handle contaminated scrap, dross, and low-grade material that other furnaces cannot process economically. But they are also energy-intensive. In my 25 years, I have seen rotary furnaces co...