secat

1. SECAT PROVIDING ALUMINUM ANSWERS The scientists and engineers at Secat provide in-depth analysis using state-of-the-art metallurgical tools. Their advanced education combined with industrial experience provides a unique and valuable resource for aluminum companies. Secat is housed in a specially designed 10,000-square-foot research facility in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. Secat has a wide variety of metallurgical R&D equipment, including SEM with EDS and EBSD, surface roughness tester, mechanical testing equipment for plate, sheet and foil, XRD for texture, hardness, earing, formability, and metal cleanliness (Alscan, Prefil, and Leco-Hydrogen). In addition, thermal treatment facilities with hot and cold rolling pilot capabilities enable Secat to develop new processes and alloys from casting to finished product.

2. Plate, Sheet & Foil TechnologySecat offers the following services • Sheet product selection and development for specific applications: • Can and Can Lids • Common Alloys • Aerospace Applications • Automotive Applications • Foils for Packaging and Capacitor Applications • Sheet manufacturing process development and improvement • Microstructural evaluation and material testing of sheet products, including texture, fatigue, etc. • Formability evaluation and forming process modeling, including forming limit diagrams

3. Billet/Extrusion Technology • Extruded product selection and development for specific applications • Extrusion process development • Microstructural evaluation and material testing of extruded products, including texture, failure analysis, etc. • Pilot scale extrusion capabilities • Extrusion billet casthouse improvement and quality assessment: • Evaluation of Billet Microstructure • Metal Quality • Energy Audits

4. Casting Technology • Molten metal quality assessment and improvement, including Prefil and Alscan • Casthouse safety assessment • DC ingot casting modeling using ProCast • Ingot microstructuralevaluation • Secat visited a customer facility with our mobile laboratory to help them identify existing inclusion and gas levels in metal using the PrefilFootprinter® and Alscan®, and help to determine how those levels correlate with the rejections received from field.

5. Materials Testing & Failure Analysis • Microstructural evaluation, including optical, SEM, TEM, etc. • Material testing and evaluation • Failure analysis • Metal quality assessment • Formability evaluation and forming process modeling, including forming limit diagrams • An aluminum producer needed assistance in determining the cause of fractures that occurred during fatigue testing

6. Product Applications • Market surveys prior to introduction of new products Substitution of aluminum for other metals Finite Element Analysis (FEA) studies • Alloy selection • Manufacturing mode such as casting, extrusion, fabrication, etc. • New alloy development Evaluation of new and competing process technologies Melting technologies • Molten metal stirring • Dross removal and fluxing • Reverse engineering of parts to determine alloy and temper or production method

7. Marketing & Business Analysis • Secat offers Marketing and Business Analysis Services to solve customer problems and/or identify new growth opportunities. These services are performed by experts to solve complex business problems and identify business opportunities for growth and improved profitability.