The FV10699 grant project was completed at the end of June 2019 in the
Precision Casting Division (PCD). It dealt with the development of new castings made of superalloys based on cobalt and nickel. The main objective of this project was to design new types of alloys for the production of spinner discs used in the production of glass wool and to test them in operation.
Spinner discs work at temperatures of up to 1050 °C. Such high temperatures inevitably have a negative impact on the service life of these types of castings. With standard alloys, a service life of 250 to 300 hours of operation is currently achieved. After this, the spinner disc has to be dismantled and replaced.
The objective of the project, which lasted from 2016 to 2019, was to find alloys which could be used for the production of spinner discs in order to increase their service life by at least 20%.
The PCD has closely cooperated with the Institute of Physics of Materials of the Czech Academy of Sciences and UJP Praha while working on this project. The cooperation consisted of solving the issue of testing new materials and performing material tests. On the whole, several alloys were designed and tested within the project, using both cobalt and nickel as a base. Specifically, these were the 141I, 141J, 141Jap, Co-Stelit and Ursa-Stelit alloys.
While working on the project, we managed to begin cooperation with Swiss company Sager, where testing of the produced spinner discs was performed directly in production, rather than only in laboratory conditions.
The whole project resulted in an increase in the service life of spinner discs up to 350 to 380 hours. Thanks to this know-how, we are currently able to offer our customers these alloys, which are able to endure temperatures of up to 1050 °C and have a service life of about 350 hours. This is a significant advance in the service life of spinner discs.
The PCD has managed to develop an alloy which increases the service life of spinner discs by about one third