| When Douglas Maxwell
attended a foundry conference in Chicago in 1993,
he had little inkling it would herald the start
of a new business venture for himself and also
see the introduction of the "performance
metal of the Nineties" into Australia. "In
Chicago, I met John Keough, President of Applied
Process Incorporated, world leader of Austempered
Ductile Iron (ADI) technology. Already an
established metal in the US, where it has been in
use for more than thirty years, I saw immediately
its potential to revolutionise the foundry
industry in Australia."
Within a few months of this meeting with John
Keough, Doug had secured exclusive rights to the
technology for Australia and the Pacific Rim area
and, in 1994 established a new company - ADI
Engineering Process and Heat Treatment Pty Ltd -
to meet the now fast rising demand for the
material.
|
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| Mr.
Douglas Maxwell |
| Managing
Director -ADI |
|
| In setting up ADI Process and
Heat Treatment, a division of Steele and Lincoln
Foundry, Doug has drawn extensively from the
experience and expertise of Applied Process Inc,
the preferred austempering source to the Big
Three U.S.A. automotive companies, along with
manufacturers of construction, railroad,
military, agricultural and industrial equipment
and components. "ADI production in the US
is now running at around 30,000 tonnes per annum
with hundreds of foundries involved in its usage
and production. New applications are being
developed constantly." - John Keough.
The Australian market very much resembles the
US experience in its earlier years.What is needed
now is greater education.
ADI Engineering has access to an exclusive
atmosphere-to-salt technique which allows batch
processing of gross loads up to 6,000 pounds and
parts up to eight inches thick. The proprietary
design features on its AFC batch Ausquench
furnace allows the company to
"supersaturate" the salt bath with
water, increasing the quench severity and
virtually eliminating the need for expensive
alloying in the casting.
"With three decades of production,
austempering and consulting experience behind us,
advanced prototype laboratory and
state-of-the-art test facilities, we're confident
that Australian-made ADI will soon reach US
market proportions - with similar savings on
machining and material costs and increase its
wear resistance." Doug concluded.
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