Aluminium grain refiner MQP has celebrated its 25th anniversary with a year-on-year production growth of 40%.
This growth has partially been a result of the roll out of MQP’s Optifine grain refiner, which allows casthouses to add 85% less product to their melts, helping with efficiency.
John Courtney, Chairman of MQP, said: “I set up MQP 25 years ago with this vision: to comprehensively improve melt quality in the casthouse by being experts in the key technology around grain refining, fluxing, degassing and filtration. The one that really took off was grain refinement, which resulted in bringing Optifine to market.
“Over the years, we have raised the industry bar, literally saving aluminium producers millions in operational costs. Today, Optifine is used in the production of over five million tonnes of alloys a year at 45 major casthouses worldwide, with both major groups and independent producers such as Metalimex coming on board this year.”
Another MQP advancement has been the development of Optifine 5:1 125 grain refiner, which cuts addition rates by 90% when compared to standard grain refiners.
On the changes to the industry, Courtney added: “Over 25 years, we’ve seen many changes and approaches, and we’ve kept on top of these,
“This includes making our production of Optifine a more sustainable, ‘closed loop’ process and adapting our formulas to meet today’s demand for high tensile and ‘mirror-like finish’ applications, including aerospace and EV. It’s a brave new world and we will continue to push ourselves in our product development.”
