South Korean aluminum alloy extrusion company AK successfully produced very large aluminum slabs, marking that the company has taken another step towards aerospace and military special aluminum material manufacturing enterprises.
AK's aluminum foundry in Sejong Autonomous Region, South Korea has recently successfully produced a super-large aluminum slab of 700x2400x5000mm. This is the first domestic production of aluminum slabs of this size in Korea. At present, the size of the Korean aviation and defense aluminum market is about 3 trillion won, all of which are imported. Through the successful domestic production of large-scale aluminum slabs, the company's goal is to become the world's fifth to sixth aluminum casting company in the field of aviation materials.
AK was established in 2003 and was formerly Toyo AK Korea. Previously, it was mainly aluminum alloy extrusion business, with an average annual sales of 120 billion won. Its product quality is not as good as imported products, and its development has encountered bottlenecks.
In order to build the value chain of the foundry business, the company cooperated with South Korean military industrial enterprises and accumulated relevant experience. In 2014, it participated in the technology transfer of the Global Hawkeye Project 12 Negotiating Transaction Business from the Director of the Defense Agency. Grumman has acquired production technology for very large aluminum slabs (700x2400mm) and billets (diameter 1060mm). Through this technology, high-quality special aluminum products for aviation and military industries can be produced. Through cooperation with forging companies in California and Oklahoma, the reliability of product quality is further improved.
AK has three factories in Sejong-gu and one in Seoul. The foundry is located in the headquarters of Sejong; it can produce not only aviation aluminum, but also ordinary aluminum alloy products. It is expected to be used in displays, semiconductors, molds, hydrogen storage containers and other fields. Among them, the production of high-quality special aluminum products can also be used in aerial fighters for American fighters, and lightweight materials for Japanese vehicles, and their quality has been widely recognized.
The company plans to add a production line with an annual output of 50,000 tons. After the completion of the production line, the company is expected to become the fifth to sixth aluminum casting company in the world. The goal is to achieve annual sales of 1 trillion won in the next 5 years. On the other hand, in order to expand the export of ultra-large aluminum slabs and billet products, starting from October 9 this year, the company also plans to participate in the "2018 Dusseldorf International Aluminum Exhibition in Germany", set up booths and vigorously promote marketing activity.