R&D investment pays off as AWI launches new ‘high performance’ alloy
One of the UK’s leading manufacturers of round, flat and profile wire is starting the new year in style by introducing a new alloy to its expanding range.
Brierley Hill-based Alloy Wire International, which supplies to more than 5,000 customers across the world, has seen investment in its research and development programme pay off with the launch of INCONEL: 617®, a Chromium-Cobalt-Molybdenum alloy aluminium.
This delivers a combination of increased strength and stability at elevated temperatures (up to 1100°C/2012°F), whilst retaining the high temperature corrosion resistance of INCONEL® alloy 601.
The high nickel and chromium content makes the alloy resistant to a variety of both reducing and oxidising media, not to mention achieving comparable corrosion resistance to INCONEL 625.
Going forward, this wire is expected to be used to produce components destined for the aerospace, medical, nuclear and petrochemical sectors, all high-tech industries that demand material that performs under the most extreme engineering conditions.
“We’re going to start by offering this grade initially in the size range of 0.025 to 5mm, with each order made to customer specification within three weeks,” explained Andrew du Plessis, technical director at Alloy Wire International.
“Areas of application can include springs and wire forms for aerospace components, land-based gas turbines, power generation, acid processing, petrochemical processing to name but a few.”
He continued: “With our ability to manufacture very small order quantities, engineers have the freedom to acquire just the amount of wire they need for their own R&D or product trials. Better still, wire in this Alloy 617 is also manufactured under our AS 9100 (aerospace) and ISO 13485 (medical devices) approved quality systems.”
Alloy Wire International manufactures round, flat and profile wire in over 60 Exotic alloys, such as Inconel, Monel, Hastelloy, Nimonic and Rene 41.
Founded in 1946 by John Stockdale in an old ambulance station in Old Hill in the Black Country, the company’s founding principles of ‘manufacturing quality, delivering reliability’ has stood the test of time and remains a crucial part of how it deals with its global client base, spanning automotive, aerospace, medical, nuclear and oil and gas.
Today, the firm is employee-owned with most of the staff owning shares in the business, a decision made by existing chairman Bill Graham and the current senior management team.
