Continuous-cast bronze profiles with an outer diameter of up to 500 millimeters in a wide range of alloys

KS Gleitlager GmbH is exhibiting solid and hollow rods, hexagonal and octagonal sections and special geometries produced by continuous casting at its 30-square-meter stand. If required, production is customer-specific, but the castings can also be supplied from stock in standard fabrication dimensions in the alloys CuSn7, CuSn12 and, recently, also in CuAl10.

In order to be able to efficiently cater for the greater variety of alloys and the increasing demand for lead-free alloys, the Papenburg plant is also to be expanded to include five smelting and ten casting units. A new, sixth furnace is currently being installed and expected to go into operation in autumn 2019. Thorsten Wasmuth, Foundry Manager at KS Gleitlager in Papenburg, explains: "The rising demand for lead-free alloys with very varying alloying elements considerably increases the complexity of continuous casting production. At GIFA, we are not only seizing the opportunity to cultivate existing customer contacts and address new customers, the event also offers a broad platform where we can demonstrate all our expertise and highlight our investments in lead-free alloys".

Continuous casting, the vertical mode in particular, is an absolutely reliable method of producing premium-quality metal semis in the form of tubes, solid, flat, square, hexagonal, octagonal bars and rods as well as special-profile sections. It is remarkable for the highly uniform distribution of the alloying components, a stress-relieved structure and insensitivity to cracking while featuring high elongation. These characteristics provide outstanding functional reliability while also making the castings excellently suitable for machining.

KS Gleitlager GmbH belongs to Rheinmetall Automotive AG and operates Europe’s largest continuous-casting plant for non-ferrous metals at Papenburg for delivery to customers. For more than fifty years, KS Gleitlager has been specializing in a wide range of copper alloys (non-ferrous metals) in continuously cast quality. These include alloy composites such as gunmetal (copper-tin-zinc-lead), bronze (copper-tin), aluminum multi-metal bronze and related alloys as well as newer lead-free alloys, for example on the basis of copper-zinc-silicon or copper-tin-sulfur.