Alzenau Facility Melts 1,000th Silver Ingot

1,000 is a pretty big number, especially when you are talking in terms of tangible items or actions. Pushups. Miles traveled. Pages read. You name it, 1,000 of anything is a lot and deserves a bit of recognition. And that is exactly what our Alzenau, Germany facility got when they melted their 1,000th silver ingot just a few weeks ago.

Where the heavy lifting happens

The Alzenau facility is responsible for manufacturing high-purity sputtering targets made from both precious and non-precious metals, which includes the use of silver. These targets are used for glass coatings and often utilize ingots which are blocks of silver weighing in at around 880 pounds (400 kilograms). The ingots are then melted, cast and processed for use.

The ingots melted in Alzenau are done primarily for the processing of large silver targets with lengths up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) which are manufactured in the Alzenau facility. Once manufactured, the targets are delivered throughout the large-area glass coating industry around the world.

Meet “Trude”

Since the beginning of production on July 18, 2018, the Alzenau team has been manufacturing silver ingots in a safe and high-quality manner with their output coming in at an impressive 100%. And on March 16th, when the production lines came to a close for the day, their 1,000th silver ingot had been melted. So, how exactly do they do it?

Through the use of their smelter VSG 350 which is a 2-chamber vacuum induction smelter with one melt and one mold chamberer, they are able to continue with production at full capacity to help service customers who use this specialized product.

Fondly named “Trude”, this machine has been operational for 20 years and has a melting capacity of more than 800 pounds (400 kilograms) of silver, producing more than 13,000 melts in its time in production.

Congratulations to the entire Alzenau team for reaching such an impressive milestone. Here’s to melting 1,000 more ingots safely and with the utmost precision.