VAW-Imco Guss und Recycling GmbH has commissioned its new secondary aluminum smelter near Stuttgart, Germany. The 120,000-metric tons/year furnace was designed and built by Hertwich Engineering GmbH part of the SMS group.

According to comments by Roland Scharf-Bergmann, VAW-Imco's managing director, the initial operating rate is about 60,000 metric tons/year, and full capacity will not be attempted until demand for secondary aluminum improves. At full capacity, the new operation will raise VAW-Imco’s secondary aluminum capacity to 390,000 metric tons/year.

Hertwich Engineering details the plant’s daily production rate is 150 metric tons, or 9 metric tons/hour. The furnace design features overhead scrap charging via container; a preheating and vaporizing shaft with integrated heat recovery; and a two-chamber melting furnace with an electro-magnetic tube pump to control molten-metal movement and the melting rate.

Charge materials include automobile parts, engine blocks, and various scrap types.

The new plant is reported to have cost $23.5 million to build. It is supplying liquid metal to a DaimlerChrysler casting operation in Stuttgart.

VAW-Imco is an operating unit of Aleris International Inc. that operates aluminum recycling and smelting plants in Grevenbroich and Tging, Germany, and Swansea, Wales.