Nippon Steel & Sumikin Naoetsu Titanium Completes Setting up of the Advanced VAR Furnace, Enhancing Titanium-Alloy Manufacturing System for Aerospace Applications

Apr. 06, 2015

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation

Nippon Steel & Sumikin Naoetsu Titanium Completes
Setting up of the Advanced VAR Furnace,
Enhancing Titanium-Alloy Manufacturing System for Aerospace Applications

Nippon Steel & Sumikin Naoetsu Titanium Co., Ltd., a joint venture of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (President: Kosei Shindo, NSSMC) and Toho Titanium Co., Ltd. (President: Kazuo Kagami, Toho Titanium), completed the relocation of the state-of-the-art Vacuum Arc Remelting (VAR) furnace, which was purchased from Osaka Titanium Technologies Co., Ltd. The completion ceremony was held today on April 6, 2015.　

For the production of titanium-alloy ingots for aerospace applications, a most appropriate setup is considered to be combined use of two types of furnaces, one being the Electron Beam (EB) refining furnace, which is very advantageous in the context of raw materials selection by its permitting the use of a great variety of scrap, and the other being the VAR furnace capable of assuring homogeneous chemical composition.

Nippon Steel & Sumikin Naoetsu Titanium has inherited the EB furnace from NSSMC’s Naoetsu Works, and has now completed the setup of two VAR furnaces, thereby establishing a system of three melting furnaces. By utilizing those two types of furnaces, the company has created the infrastructure needed to respond to various highly specialized needs in material manufacturing. The company intends to provide high-quality competitive materials to companies with needs that are best satisfied by the combined-furnace approach.

Reference: Titanium melting furnaces (image)



Titanium ingots manufactured in the melting furnaces