Dubai Aluminium Company DUBAL, internationally recognized as one of the major aluminium producers, recently commissioned the AED100-million Casthouse-3 machinery in collaboration with the Italian major “Properzi". DUBAL is the first company in the region to install and commission such state-of-the-art machinery.
"This initiative is in line with the directives given by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister for Finance and Industry and Chairman of DUBAL, with an eye on the company's long-term prospects. This is part of DUBAL's constant endeavor to offer products that suit the specifications of the end-users," said Yousuf Abdulla Bastaki, Senior Project Manager, DUBAL.
With the successful installation of this ingot casting machine, Casthouse-3 will enjoy a production capacity of 80,000 tonnes a year of hot metal in different alloys that meet individual requirements of customers in Asia, Europe and North America. DUBAL also has reserved the option to buy two more such casting machines from the Italian company.
Casthouse plays a critical role in aluminium production by converting molten aluminium to saleable product. DUBAL casting is a combination of continuous and batch processes and operates 24 hours a day with a variety of more than 200 different products and a total annual casting capability of over 1 million mt.
Mr. Bastaki added: "This capital investment will add value to DUBAL operations and will enable the company to offer different products for industrial end-use. The focus of this project is also flexibility in designing products for various customers even though automobile manufacturers worldwide are the main end-users."
Installation project of this Italian cast machine started a year ago and was completed on July 25, 2005. The state-of-the-art machine enables high quality production from the initial extraction of the raw material, through its molten process, to the aluminium's final packaged form.
"As part of the project, an environmentally secure monitoring system, specifically designed for measuring the rate of gas emissions in the entire Casthouse-3, was installed. The project was inaugurated only after conducting pre-commissioning checks to obtain safety clearance. The entire exercise was completed with zero-incidents," remarked Mr. Bastaki.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
