Qatalum's Casthouse starts joint collaboration with Qatar University

Academic collaboration allows for further research in developing metallurgical competence in Qatar and Increases competence on specific casthouse products for process optimisation. This results in a wider product portfolio of high quality aluminium products for a larger global market.

Qatalum's casthouse has defined a joint student project together with Qatar University. The project's objective is to study microstructure development during the homogenisation process of aluminium alloys. Therefore, further developing aluminium metallurgy competence amongst the students. The specific research and development case concerns a commercial alloy and is directly related to Qatalum potentially gaining increased market share with extrusion billet alloys containing chromium.

This type of alloy is outside what is defined as standard alloys and is therefore of strategic interest in order to increase Qatalum's gross profit margin. However, this type of alloy requires strict control of process parameters through casting and subsequent heat treatment (homogenisation). Increased understanding of the material response during heat treatment will thus increase the potential for long term success in this market segment.

The students and professors from Qatar University visited the Qatalum Casthouse and Laboratory to get real life experience of the casthouse process related to the ongoing collaboration project. The complete casthouse process was demonstrated, with special attention to alloy preparation, casting and homogenisation. The students were also taken to the laboratory whereby they were trained in different aluminium metallography characterisation techniques. This new competence will be used at the Qatar University lab in order to obtain the results planned for the experimental part of the project.

Stian Tangen, Casthouse Production Manager said, "This collaboration project is directly linked to a real life business potential in the casthouse, whereby, the overall objective is to increase the competence on the metallurgy aspect of a new specific alloy, therefore enabling control of the casthouse process in maximising product quality."

"This student project is the first step towards reaching this objective and we also believe it can develop other competencies through further collaboration projects which can lead Qatalum to achieve strategic product optimisation within the casthouse product portfolio."

The collective impression given by students, post visit, indicated that the Qatalum tour had enabled them to learn more during their 4 hour tour than they had during a full course at the University. Of further note, one of the students actually applied for an internship immediately after finishing their visit to Qatalum.