Aluminium
Aluminium is a wetting problem, not a heat problem. The furnaces are comparatively cool, and they destroy conventional castables anyway.
Material systems we route here: Castables · Plastic Refractories · Ceramic Fibre
Where the lining is
Melting and holding furnace hearths, walls and belly bands, launders and troughs, ladles and crucibles, and the reverberatory furnace roof and flue. Operating temperatures are modest by refractory standards, which is exactly why the wrong material gets specified.
What takes it out
Corundum growth. Molten aluminium wets and penetrates a conventional castable, oxidises inside it where oxygen is available, and forms corundum — which occupies more volume than the metal it came from. The growth cracks and lifts the lining from within, and because the reaction keeps exposing fresh surface it accelerates. What you find is a hard, grey-white, cauliflower-textured mass growing outward from the belly band or metal line, with the lining behind it cracked. Magnesium-bearing alloys are markedly more aggressive from around 5% Mg, so a lining that served for years can start failing after an alloy change alone, with nothing else altered.
How we specify against it
Non-wetting castables with barrier-forming and pore-blocking additives, installed dense and given a properly controlled dryout. Non-wetting additives do not compensate for high porosity, so installation quality is part of the specification here rather than separate from it — a correctly chosen grade placed badly will still grow corundum. For rammed work in metal contact the 80% alumina aluminium-contact plastic is the grade, and its lower temperature rating against the standard 80% plastic is deliberate: the duty is wetting, not peak heat. Tell us the alloy mix, especially the magnesium content, before anything else — it changes the answer more than the furnace temperature does.
What we stock for it
Dense and low-cement castables for hearths, walls and launders, the aluminium-contact plastic refractory for rammed and repaired sections, insulating castables and calcium silicate board for the backup package, and ceramic fibre for covers, doors and expansion joints. Holding furnaces spend much of their life at temperature with the lid shut, so the insulation package earns its cost back on gas rather than on lining life — it is worth specifying properly rather than matching whatever is already there.
35 product lines across 3 categories
Castables
FIRECRETE NORMAL
Castables
FIRECRETE SUPER
Castables
FIRECRETE SPECIAL
Castables
FIRECRETE SUPER SPECIAL
Castables
WHYTHEAT A
Castables
WHYTHEAT K
Castables
WHYTHEAT C
Castables
WHYTHEAT K SUPREME
Castables
WHYTHEAT A SUPREME
Castables
WHYTHEAT C SPECIAL
Castables
COIL COAT A
Castables
ACCMON 45
Castables
ACCMON 60
Castables
ACCMON 70 LI
Castables
ACCMON 80
Castables
ACCMON 80 AL
Castables
ACCMON 90
Castables
INSULYTE 4
Castables
INSULYTE 7
Castables
INSULYTE 11
Castables
INSULYTE 11 LI
Castables
INSULYTE 13
Castables
INSULYTE 13 LI
Castables
INSULYTE 15
Castables
INSULYTE 15 LI
Castables
INSULYTE HT
Plastic Refractories
ACCPLAST 50 CS
Plastic Refractories
ACCPLAST 80
Plastic Refractories
ACCPLAST 80 AL
Plastic Refractories
ACCPLAST 90
Ceramic Fibre
Ceramic Fibre Blanket
Ceramic Fibre
Ceramic Fibre Module
Ceramic Fibre
Ceramic Fibre Paper
Ceramic Fibre
Ceramic Fibre Wool / Bulk Fibre
Ceramic Fibre