Health checkup of the machine
Mechanical, hydraulic, electrical and control condition reviewed against how the line is actually being run — not against how it was specified years ago.
ALUFORMIX supplies complete extrusion lines and keeps existing ones running: revamping aimed squarely at dead cycle time, reverse engineering and retrofitting, annual maintenance cover, critical and consumable spares, line inspection, die-cavity guidance and technical consultancy. The scope can begin with a single part and extend to a complete plant.
The nine areas below are what ALUFORMIX offers its customers. Each one opens the page or the section that explains it.
Supply of complete aluminium extrusion line equipment and machinery — billet preparation, press zone, downstream handling, heat treatment, packaging and the automation that ties them together.
Read moreRebuilding the line you already run around one objective: less dead cycle time on the press, so output is recovered without the capex and opex of a new line.
Read moreRe-engineering of obsolete or undocumented equipment, retrofitting into the existing line, and automation taken to an Industry 5.0 basis.
Read moreAnnual maintenance contract cover for aluminium extrusion lines — planned visits, an agreed response route and a maintenance plan the plant can staff against.
Read moreThe mechanical, hydraulic, electrical and automation parts that stop a line when they are not on the shelf, listed by station and failure mode.
Read moreExtrusion dies, dummy blocks and container liners, supplied new and refurbished where refurbishment is the sounder engineering and commercial call.
Read moreA health checkup of the installed line: condition review, bottleneck analysis and a prioritised list of what to change first.
Read moreGuidance on the correct number of cavities for the alloy being run, so die life, extrusion speed and surface quality are not traded away against each other.
Read moreIndependent technical advice to extruders on process, equipment, tooling, capacity and problem diagnosis — with or without an equipment order attached.
Read moreNot every gain needs new equipment. An existing line often has time sitting idle inside the cycle, and finding it is an engineering exercise rather than a purchase.
Mechanical, hydraulic, electrical and control condition reviewed against how the line is actually being run — not against how it was specified years ago.
Findings come back as options, each with what it costs, what it should return and how much downtime it needs, so the plant can choose.
The objective is less dead cycle time — the minutes the press spends waiting rather than extruding — and a higher sustainable extrusion speed. Recovered cycle time is capacity the plant already owns, which is why revamping is so often the cheaper answer on both capex and opex.
An extrusion line rarely goes obsolete all at once. More often one assembly does, its drawings are gone and the maker no longer exists — and a working press waits on a part that cannot be bought.
Automation is taken to an Industry 5.0 basis: the line reports what it is doing, and the reporting is built around the people who run it — readable alarms, usable diagnostics and controls an operator can act on, rather than data that only leaves the plant.
The wear parts, tooling, seals and control components an aluminium extrusion line consumes, grouped by where they sit. Open a group to see what each part is made of and how it typically fails.
| Part | Station | Material | Typical failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extrusion die | Extrusion press | H13 / AISI P20, carbide inserts where specified | Wear, cracking, ring-out, die failure |
| Mandrel and bolt-on tooling | Extrusion bath | Tool steel / H13 | Wear and distortion |
| Container liner | Press | Tool steel / H13 | Scoring and wear |
| Dummy block | Press | H13 | Wear |
| Press slide wear strips | Press die slide and guide bed | Bronze / composite | Wear |
| Part | Station | Material | Typical failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butt shear blades | Extrusion press | Hot-work tool steel such as H13 / 4Cr5MoSiV1, typically heat treated to 48–55 HRC | Cutting edge blunt; regrinding required |
| Hot shear blades | Billet / log shear | Hot-work die steels chosen for thermal-shock and wear resistance — commonly H13, or grades such as 6CrW2Si and Cr12MoV depending on cutting speed and billet alloy | Cutting edge blunt; regrinding required |
| Hot saw discs | Billet saw | Thermal-fatigue and wear-resistant steels — hot-work tool steel (H13 variants) or high-speed steel | Insert life exhausted; teeth broken where r.p.m. and cutting speed are not synchronised |
| Part | Station | Material | Typical failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heaters and heating elements | Preheating furnace | Kanthal / NiCr | Element failure |
| Thermocouples | Furnace and press | Type K / Type J | Drift and failure |
| Cooling tower and heat-exchanger coils | Cooling | Copper / stainless steel | Fouling and corrosion |
| Part | Station | Material | Typical failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hydraulic seals and O-rings | Press and handling | NBR / Viton | Leakage |
| Press ram seals | Press | Polyurethane | Wear and leakage |
| Hydraulic pump and motor | Press hydraulics | Steel, to OEM specification | Wear and leakage |
| Part | Station | Material | Typical failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roller bearings | All rolling and pulling stations | Chrome steel / super-precision grades | Wear and brinelling |
| Drive couplings | Puller and haul-off | Steel with rubber insert | Fatigue and tearing |
| Gearbox internal gears and planet sets | Puller and belt train | Alloy steel | Wear |
| V-belts and tensioners | Auxiliary drives | Rubber / EPDM | Wear and breakage |
| Part | Station | Material | Typical failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLC and I/O modules | Control cabinet | Electronic assemblies | Failure, or end of life through obsolescence |
| Inductive and proximity sensors | Conveyors | Stainless steel / PBT | Failure to detect |
| Encoders and feedback devices | Puller drive | Metal-bodied | Signal loss |
| Panel cooling fans and filters | Electrical panels | Aluminium / plastic | Burnout |
| Air compressor filters and separators | Auxiliary / utilities | Steel / plastic | Contamination |
Expected service life depends on alloy, extrusion speed and duty cycle, so it is quoted against your actual production data rather than published as a fixed figure. Send us your line details and we will come back with a recommended holding list.
The tooling an extrusion line consumes rather than keeps. Each item is supplied new, and each can be refurbished while the base component is still sound — usually the faster and the cheaper of the two routes.
Solid and porthole dies in H13 and equivalent hot-work steels, nitrided and supplied against your profile drawing, alloy and press. Correction, polishing and re-nitriding carry a die well past its first campaign.
Fixed and expandable blocks matched to the container bore and the stem. Wear on the sealing face shows up as butt-thickness variation and metal behind the block long before it shows up as a breakdown.
Liners in hot-work tool steel, supplied for replacement or re-lining. Scoring and bore wear cost sealing pressure and let metal past the block, so bore condition is measured rather than estimated.
Refurbishment is proposed only where it is genuinely the sounder call. A die that has lost its bearing geometry, or a liner worn past its usable bore, is replaced — not reworked into a second failure.
Adding a cavity multiplies output per stroke — until the alloy, the press or the quench refuses to follow. ALUFORMIX advises on the cavity count for the alloy actually being run, before the die is cut.
The recommendation is developed with the die maker rather than around them, and it is given as a range with the reasoning attached — because the same profile in a different alloy is a different answer.
An annual maintenance contract turns unplanned breakdowns into planned work. What the contract covers is agreed in writing before it starts.
Service coverage, response time, remote access, travel, consumables and spare availability are defined in the applicable proposal or support agreement. This keeps responsibilities clear and prevents unsupported service claims.
Capacity basis, press size, billet range, line arrangement and what a given product mix will really demand of the equipment.
Diagnosis of speed limits, surface defects, recovery losses and the downtime that has quietly become normal.
Die design inputs, cavity count, alloy behaviour and the quench and ageing practice each combination needs.
An independent technical review of competing equipment offers against the process you actually run.
Give us the equipment, its current condition, the production impact, the location and the timeframe you are working to, and we will identify the right technical response.
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