Elkem unveils new Development Center for studying the alloying of metals.

Elkem Metals Co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has formally opened a new 40,000-sq-ft Development Center for studying the alloying of metals and providing customer support. The new center, located just north of Pittsburgh, will employ about 40 people, including laboratory, engineering and other support personnel.

The center has laboratory and small-scale melting equipment that will be used to develop new and improved alloys that the company produces for the steel, iron, aluminum and silicon industries. Elkem produces silicon, manganese, calcium and specialty alloys.

"We work closely with our customers to improve the efficiency and lower the cost of their operations," said Thomas K. McCluhan, director of the new center. "We will use this knowledge to design new alloys that can improve our customers' processes as well as the properties of the materials that they produce."

To support this development effort, Elkem has installed laboratory-scale induction, resistance and vacuum furnaces that simulate operations at both Elkem's and its customers' plants. The facility also has extensive state-of-the-art metallo-graphic, analytical and computer equipment that can measure and analyze the effectiveness of Elkem's alloys.

Using the facilities of the Development Center, metallurgists and chemists will focus their efforts on developing products to meet the changing requirements of customers. A broad range of areas will be covered. Among them are improved inoculants for gray iron, improved deoxidizers for steel, more efficient desulfurizers for iron, better grain refiners for aluminum alloys, new nodulizers for ductile iron, and new powders for powder metallurgy parts.

The center will also continue its efforts to improve its regular ferroalloy line, such as ferrosilicon and ferromanganese, to meet the challenge of continuous improvement. The new Development Center will assist Elkem's North American plants in improving the computer control of Elkem's processes and will work closely with the company's facilities in the production of new alloys.

The new facility is staffed with metallurgical, chemical and computer-science engineers together with laboratory and secretarial-support personnel. McCluhan said "the decision to locate the Development Center in Pittsburgh was based on the proximity of the company's headquarters in Pittsburgh, the accessibility to air travel at the Pittsburgh airport, and the anticipated association with the strong technology of the Pittsburgh universities and laboratories."

As part of the development effort, the center will work closely with customers in the application of alloys to make sure they are used efficiently. Field engineers, backed by the Development Center's chemical and metallurgical laboratories, will provide this close customer support.

Elkem's new Development Center will also assist Elkem's plants in improving computer control of ferroalloy processes. The center will work to improve the "Safepac" proprietary furnace control system that has been installed in 10 Elkem plants. This system controls all aspects of submerged arc furnace operations, including electrode and transformer regulation, electrode slipping, metallurgy, tapping, alarm response and mix systems.

In addition, the center will coordinate and aid the interchange of technology between Elkem's six ferroalloy plants in North America and the company's plants and research and development center in Europe.

Elkem Metals Co. is the U.S. subsidiary of Elkem a/s of Oslo, Norway, one of the world's largest producers of metals and materials. Besides producing alloying metals in Europe, Canada and the United States, the company is a major European producer of aluminum and is involved in technology for the metals industry.