In late 2022, I received an email from a foundry manager in Indiana, USA. He had found my blog through a search for “aluminium furnace maintenance checklist.” His message was short: “Our maintenance costs are out of control. We run two gas-fired reverb...

In early 2023, I received a call from a die casting plant in Shanghai. They were running two gas-fired reverberatory furnaces, each with a capacity of 3 tonnes. They melted around 18 tonnes per day of ADC12 alloy. Their energy bill had risen ...