A UK aluminium specialist in high value fluxes and other products to improve casthouse operations has won a business award for innovation.
Aluminium Casthouse Technologies (ACT), which is based in Birmingham with manufacturing around the world, won Most Innovative Company at the international BizX 2025 awards for seeking out and exploiting new technologies to help customers improve melt quality and reduce costs.
The annual awards, hosted this year by Rachel Riley, TV presenter and mathematics expert from Channel 4’s Countdown, brought together 1,000 entrepreneurs and business leaders from the UK and EMEA.
ACT won the award for its product portfolio, including the BatchPilot furnace weight measurement system, its bone ash-free Casiflux launder coating and Refinal environmentally-friendly fluxes.
Director John Courtenay, a former technical director at Foseco Aluminium, said: “Winning this award is amazing.
“We started up in 2016 as we wanted to revolutionise our part of the industry, reduce waste and poor quality material and ensure better quality finished products across the board.
"But we were hit quite badly by the pandemic and had to build the business up to full strength again.
“For the past two years, we’ve been full steam ahead and are excited by our innovation and how our very unique solutions are appealing to the industry."
John added that it was an exciting year ahead for the company. “New innovation includes a brand-new flux product, which will be a game changer for casthouses looking to bring down the number of aborted casts,” he said.
“We will also continue to work closely with revered research institutions including BCAST at Brunel University London, ensuring we stay ahead in innovation to benefit global casthouses.”
ACT’s products are manufactured in Canada and China and exported around the world.
Customers include some of the biggest groups in the aluminium industry, who are making everything from high tensile alloys for EV and aerospace through to foil and canbody stock.
Every product is developed by the company’s professionals in aluminium technology and complementary disciplines.
ACT also actively supports the industry by working alongside casthouse personnel and has agents, distributors and technical personnel all over the globe to provide product information, technical help and back-up services.