Aluminum King Manufacturing, Inc700 East Van Buren Street, Mitchell , Idaho, United States

Aluminum King Manufacture is the leader in manufacturing Aluminum Smelting Furnaces for the purpose of recycling aluminum. Each aluminum melting furnace is made to order and can be fitted with a wide range of burners to meet all the different fuel needs. 
There is a demand for aluminum ingots because the manufacturer knows their composition. Smelted aluminum makes for a cleaner product that is ready for the mill. An aluminum recycler can send samples to the mills for analysis, that then determines the best price that the ingots can bring. There can be a 10 cents per pound spread in the various types of products that come from recovered aluminum. When looking for a furnace, one of the most important steps is to make sure it meets Federal regulations and local ordinances (which can be more strict than Federal). Furnaces must have afterburners and computerized data loggers in order to use the furnaces legally. All our furnaces come with a combustion chamber with a temperature probe to show the average 1600 degree temperature (as required by law) and a data logger. The data logger tracks and saves the temperature information and how long the gas is retained in the chamber into a computer file, which can be accessed by inspectors. It used to be that the log was printed out on a machine that was like a ticker tape, but that is not legal anymore. There is less chance that the data can be tampered with on the computer. Aluminum sweat furnaces generally handle between 500 to 2000 pounds per hour depending on the size of the unit.

Jerome Mostek, owner of Aluminum King, said his company consulted the Environmental Protection Agency when the law's concerning sweat furnaces were being rewritten. The afterburners/combustion chambers must hold the gases produced from the melting of aluminum for at least 8/10th of a second and the temperature must average 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. All Aluminum King furnaces are designed with afterburners, but if you are looking at a used furnace that does not have an afterburner, we can design one for you.

The afterburner keeps the gases containing these substances enclosed and the substances are burned away before they can enter the air stream. After making sure a manufacturer has an afterburner and data logging system with their furnace, customers need to look at the structure of the furnace. The structural design, the thickness of the outside steel plates, and reinforcement are essential. Getting the right size furnace for the amount of aluminum you have to melt is necessary in the melting process and for fuel consumption. Most recyclers melt transmissions, cylinder heads, and manifolds. Aluminum furnaces can handle other items though, such as railroad cars, trailers, four-wheel, all-terrain vehicles, and motorcycle aluminum. All material melts in the same manner. You have to match their air/gas flow to the size of the metal you are trying to heat. A good melting cycle is 15-20 minutes. There are certain ways to melt—lighter metals burn more quickly than say a motor. You can mix all aluminum together, but if you can segregate the different types of aluminum, you will get more money, 50 to 60 percent recovery.

Getting the right amount of burner means a higher recovery rate. Some products have a 25 percent recovery rate, while some thicker, denser aluminum can have 50 to 60 percent recovery. The largest expense of running a sweat furnace is the fuel cost. The furnaces use natural gas, propane, or #2 diesel oil. Permits can be granted for the use of waste gasoline and waste oil as well. Fuel costs can run from 2 cents to 4 cents per pound of aluminum melted. Other factors that go into the total cost include operators, forklifts, maintenance, and so on. 
Maintenance includes taking care of the rare refractory and firebrick lining of the smelters. Mr. Mostek said there is putty made of a high refractory cement that can be used on any chips or cracks. As long as workers do not put in items that will burn up the lining, a recycler can get about three million pounds through a furnace before doing any relining. Burner tune ups and retraining of staff can also add to the life of the lining and the furnace. Proper training of the staff and retraining sessions are really important. Correct operation of the furnace is the key to maintaining a good product and long lasting equipment.

Furnaces

Our standard furnace runs off of propane or natural gas. Other burners are available for an additional cost. The prices listed reflect the standard furnace. We are able to fit the furnaces with waste oil burners, specialty natural gas burners(often required by certian areas of the country), or combination burners that can be run off of both waste oil or natural gas.

SPECS:

• Overall Size: 90"Hx35"Wx46"L
• Feeding Door Opening: 23"Hx35"W
• Rake Out Door Opening: 11"Hx27"W
• Inside Chamber: 50"Hx27"Wx37"L
• Shipping Weight: 10,800 lbs. approx.
• Accessories: 2 - 500 lb. sow molds, 2 - Rakes, 1 - Plug
• Electrical: 110 volt hook-up
• Fuel: Natural gas or propane
• Construction: 1/4" steel sheel, 4 1/2" of fire brick
• Warranty: 1 year on electrical, components & burner, 6 months on structure fabrication
• Main Burner: 750,000 to 1 million BTUs
• After Burner: Same as main burner