Japan’s largest brass bar maker, San-Etsu Metal introduces an additional melting and casting furnace dedicated to lead-free brass bar production at Tonami plant in Toyama Prefecture, Japan and starts the operation this month. The plant will also install an additional rotary kiln to process brass turning scrap, the main material for brass bar, and start the operation in February 2012. San-Etsu Metal expects for productivity improvement and reduction of substantial material loss such for bismuth by the investment.
Total capex is approximately 370 million yen, 200 million yen for a melting and casting furnace and 170 million yen for a rotary kiln. San-Etsu Metal utilizes Japanese governmental subsidy program related to rare earths and covers a third of total capex. Tonami plant installs a 6-tonne vertical type low-frequency coreless furnace in addition to an existent horizontal continuous casting furnace and three vertical semi-continuous casting furnaces. Tonami plant produces general grade brass bar as well as high value added alloys such as lead-free brass, high-strength brass and dezincing-resistant brass. San-Etsu Metal started commercial sales of new dezincing-resistant brass bar series, named Z00, in July. The orders are increasing and the company’s production volume of dezincing-resistant brass bar including Z00 is expected to double to around 200 tonnes per month soon. The company decided installment of an additional melting and casting furnace to enlarge commercial output. Better productivity and higher product quality is also expected for high value added alloys by dedicating a new furnace to brass-free products. Tonami plant will also install a new rotary kiln dedicated lead-free scrap processing in addition to an existent kiln.