“We have a new product which we will launch later this year. It’s a camera system which runs underneath the casting table,” Ola Furu & August Riise from Hycast AS
AL Circle was delighted to welcome a delegation from Hycast AS last month and discuss how Hydro’s technology partner is taking aluminium casting to the next level globally. Ola Furu, Head of Project and Sales of Hycast AS, and August Riise, Senior Project Manager of Hycast, were in conversation with our Director of Operations, Soumyadip Chakraborty, which turned out to a deep insight into the market of aluminium casting. Mr Furu & Riise discussed the products and services and how Hycast incorporates sustainability into the technologies it provides. They also revealed the new technology they would be launching this year. To know about it all, continue reading the interview:
AL Circle: Please brief us about Hycast and the kinds of products it offers to the aluminium value chain.
Ola Furu: Hycast is a company that originated from Hydro R&D department more than 30 years back. The R&D department needed a company that could commercialise the technology. So, Hycast was created and started with billet casting equipment. We are 100% owned by Hydro and are a technology and development partner for Hydro. Since 2009 we have been selling the technology outside Hydro, and subsequently, grown quite rapidly. Today, we are one of the major players in casting equipment – billet & slab, for complete casting line, which is a launder and degassing casting system with high-level automation. We are located in Norway, Europe, and do business all across the globe.
AL Circle: In over three decades, Hycast has grown from strength to strength while offering different types of technologies for the casting universe. Would you like to share a little bit about that journey in terms of technical excellence and some of the unique features of Hycast?
Ola Furu: What separates us from other technology providers is the strong link to the operation in Hydro. Hydro is our mother company and the biggest billet producer in Europe, and by utilizing their competence in operation with our competence in technology development, we have a competitive edge, which competitors do not have. We know what works in operation and we get feedback directly from operation if things are not working.
August Riise: Hycast is located only 200 metres away from the largest smelter in Europe, and our employees, who are located in different sites, have been working for years in the casthouse operation of the largest smelter. So, the employees working for us worked in casthouse for 15 to 20 years before they started working in Hycast. So, of course, they bring a wealth of experience and know-how.
Ola Furu: There is also the biggest research centre in the same location as Hydro. We have a big smelter, a research centre facility where you can test equipment and validate alloys before putting them into operation, and Hycast. So, that competent triangle is the key to the development of Hycast through the years. We are a community of 5,000 people, 99 per cent of which is working in aluminium. So, what we do is we are born with that in our DNA.
August Riise: Other strength is some contractors are settled in our location. This symbiosis and ecosystem within Hycast and Hydro living next to each other, with also some sub-contractors located around, is a good recipe for our 30-years product.
AL Circle: Could you please enlighten us about your monitoring system?
Ola Furu: When we are talking about the overall control system of technology, the heart of it is our know-how and the competence of the process. By utilising this competence, we have developed software, a fully-automated control system, which requires only a touch of a button to start the cast, and then it runs until the end. Everything is automated, so you don’t need too many people.
Another thing we are working very hard on is to remove people from dangerous processes, keeping in mind the safety aspect. For producing aluminium, you need liquid aluminium first, then you need it to be crude, and then you need water; combining water with liquid aluminium is a risky business. So, we are using all our competence to find ways to remove operators from the dangerous processes because accidents do happen in this industry. But fortunately, we have never had an accident with our equipment leading to a severe injury. We are proud of that, and we would like to keep it that way. So, safety for workers is our No. 1 priority.
AL Circle: If we shift a little bit towards different geographies where Hycast is present through its customers and technologies, which are those regions you are focused on?
Ola Furu: I think we are still pretty young as an external company. So, we are learning and trying to gain as much knowledge about the different pockets as possible. We started very new after we were allowed to sell externally. We began with our focus on China because we saw tremendous growth there. So, China has been one of our big markets for the last 5 to 7 years. We have also set up a separate office in Shanghai to support that market. We also have a big presence in North America, Europe as a home market and the Middle East. We have also increased our focus on India, with our first major project there, which will be delivered later this year. The equipment is already on site.
Hydro has a big team of analysts working. Being associated with Hydro, we can tap into that knowledge. That is important because analysts say India will be an important market in the next decade. That’s also one of the reasons why we are here.
August Riise: Coming to India and being part of such a prestigious project of Vedanta and Balco is a privilege. Definitely, we have a job to do here in order to position Hycast in the minds of all the aluminium producers and smelters since we are focusing on this market. But hopefully, the project we have now will help us map India.
AL Circle: How is Hycast incorporating sustainability solutions in casting technology to enable clients to reduce their carbon footprint?
Ola Furu: It is a big and important question. When it comes to sustainability, it also includes people because they are also part of it. So, ensuring people's safety is crucial and that we have been focusing on for the last 30 years. So, that is covered already, and now we must continue improving. When it comes to our technology, we actually have technology in our portfolio that generates less carbon footprint. We have products which are degassing service that is drain free, so you don't have to empty metal and remelt. We are not supplying equipment with chlorine because that's also something we want to avoid. We are also working on reducing travelling as it is a significant source of carbon footprint, at least for us. We support our customers worldwide, and we can't have offices everywhere. So, we have a slightly different approach, like serving our customers remotely. We have a customer room like the NASA facility where we can connect to customers, communicate with them, troubleshoot and fix the problem online. It is important not only from a sustainability point of view but for the customers who will get assistance in 5 minutes instead of 1 hour, 5 hours or 10 hours. Sustainability is, of course, on top of our mind, with safety as part of it, and to work for solutions that will improve our footprint.
August Riise: To add to that, sustainability is also about delivering quality equipment that will last for 30 years. We are known for it and something very proud of. It is profitable as well to provide quality equipment.
AL Circle: What is your primary focus in 2023 in terms of customer acquisition and new product or technology introduction?
Ola Furu: Well, we have a big year ahead of us and are already there. We, as several other companies, faced critical challenges during covid that made some of our deliveries to customers deferred. So, we have some of our due work to complete from the last couple of years. We have a new product which we will launch later this year. It’s a camera system which runs underneath the casting table, helping the operators to spot problems. It can detect challenges on its own, removing people from the task of checking the status manually with a torch light. This camera system we have been developing for the last 3 to 4 years. It looks like a little thing, but it is a big thing because it will help the casthouse deliver better performance, avoid downtime, and improve maintenance. With this new product, we are the game changer in the industry, and that’s what we are proud of. We also see others trying to copy our solutions, which validates that we are doing something right.
