Trimet puts new recycling furnace into operation

The new rotary furnace significantly increases remelting capacities at the Trimet plant in Gelsenkirchen. Along with its installation, the infrastructure and exhaust system of the secondary smelter were modernized and expanded. “The employees have put their heart and soul into the planning and remodeling with a great deal of flexibility. We are proud of this, because only in this way could everything be carried out smoothly without interrupting operations. At the same time, we are all happy that we can now fully concentrate on remelting aluminum scrap into high-quality products,” said Jens Meinecke, head of TRIMET’s Gelsenkirchen plant. 

The furnace is equipped with a self-controlling burner system that switches between oxygen and air during the production of the fuel mixture, depending on requirements. This not only significantly reduces energy consumption, it also increases the proportion of recycled metal. In addition, the furnace is equipped with intelligent charging technology, which enables faster filling and can process larger quantities of material per smelting process.

At the Trimet plant in Gelsenkirchen, around 100 employees produce standard alloys and customer-specific special alloys from recycled aluminum. Most of the scrap comes from customers in the region. The aluminum recycled without any loss of quality is often delivered to them for further processing in vehicle construction applications or in the electrical and the mechanical engineering industry.