ASUKA ALUMINIUM NEWS NO.677 NOVEMBER 2０
2０17
Asuka Seminar opens splendidly
The 54th Asuka Seminar was grandly held on October 6 and 7 at the Kira Kanko
Hotel in Mikawa Bay National Park as one of the biggest annual events. Seventy
customers of Asuka’s products were invited and attended.
At first, President Takashi Amano addressed welcome speech, and then the allattendants devoted themselves to the informative seminar, which was summarized asfollows. The photo on page two is Mr. Nakaba Ichikawa lecturing on stage andenthusiastic attendants.
Is your molten metal clean really? (Part 2)
Mr. Nakaba Ichikawa
Chief Manager, Eco System, LLC.
Flux
There are many kinds of flux as follows, and the proper usage of flux is necessity.
(1) Flux for getting rid of dross – separation of surface oxide.
(2) Flux for molten metal processing – to float oxide on surface.
(3) Dross processing – to recover metal by thermite reaction.
(4) Flux for addition of elements – to add Na, Ti, B, P and others.
(5) Flux for removal of elements – to remove Mg, Ca and Na.
(6) Covering flux – to stop oxidation of surface and adulteration of hydrogen gas inmolten aluminum.
(7) Flux for clean wall – to clean oxide attached furnace inner wall.
(8) Flux for degassing – to remove hydrogen gas.
In these various fluxes, (1) and (2) are very important and indispensable fluxes for us,molten aluminum business.
Flux and oxide
Molten aluminum becomes easily aluminum oxide with oxygen in the air. At first it
is very thin film on the surface of molten aluminum, but the thickness increases onand on. As the gravity of molten aluminum and aluminum oxide is similar, they easily
mix together. It is very difficult to separate them.
The aluminum oxide in molten aluminum invites degradation of physical quality ofcasted products, and sometimes invites lower liquidity of molten aluminum, and also
invites outbreak of inferior products.
Traditionally, it had been thought that the increase of Si brings better liquidity, buttoday we understand that the perfect flux processing shows better result. The higher
content of Si invites the breakout of hard spots.
Conclusion
Recently, the effects of flux is visualized with ALTEC, which we developed with
Asuka’s study team. It can check out automatically the situation of crystallization andcasting condition through molten metal cooling curve within some minutes. We canknow the best effect of flux with it.
I think it is important that we have both traditional casters’ eyes and modern
numerical control system. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Grand party is held generously
After Mr. Ichikawa’s s informative seminar, a grand party was held in traditionalJapanese fashion. At first President Takashi Amano gave welcome and opening words
as the photo on page three shows, and Mr. Ichikawa, speaker of the seminar, performed the toastmaster. Every attendant enjoyed himself the autumn taste in Mikawa
Bay.
Then they moved to Night Salon, where all attendants had a very good time,singing karaoke and tasting mellow drinks thoroughly until midnight. The open-air
bath has favorable vies, stars, small isles and peaceful bay water, and everyone had aquite good time throughout this evening.
Asuka cup Golf Competition opens
Following regular custom, 29th Asuka Cup Golf Competition was held at Kira
Country Club on the morning of October 7 for golf devotees. After a very hard fight,winners are;First prize Mr. Masanao Okada (Asuka Industries, Inc.)
2nd. prize
Mr. Shinji Ikeda (Hekkai Koki Co., Ltd.)
3rd. prize
Mr. Kazuhiro Okuda (Okuda Industry Ltd.)BB prize
Mr. Kouichiro Ohta (Itochu Metals Co., Ltd.)
Congratulations everyone! Let’s fight here next year again.
Observation tours obtain excellent results
Comfortable season has come, and we welcomed three Asuka plant observationtours as follows. At first on September 29, Nagoya City Environmental Dpt. sent us 18members, and on October 11 Ohbu City Environmental Dpt. sent us 27 members、andalso on October 17, 47 pupils and 3 teachers visited us from Nakabata Primary School,.
Nishio City.
At first every group walked around our plant to see the process of aluminum
recycling, and then at meeting room they watched video of aluminum can recysling.
Then they received lectures on environmental problems.
Through the tour, everyone was impressed to see directly real aluminum recycling
process, and got a big knowledge on environmental problem.
The photos on page four show from top, the group of Nagoya City Environmental
Dpt., the group of Ohbu City Environmental Dpt. and the pupils and teachers fromNakabata Primary School, Nishio City.
The Japan of today
New 465 sheets are elected
The campaign of Lower House election is over, and on October 23 the results weredisclosed. The media reported that the Liberal Democratic Party led by P.M. Shinzo
Abe won by a “land slide”. But in a simple comparison with pre-election figures, allmajor parties appear to have lost seats except Yukio Edano’s Constitutional
Democratic Party.
The Liberal Democratic Party won 284 seats, down from the 290 it had before theelection, the Constitutional Democratic Party won 54 seats up from 16 before.