McIntyre Machinery Launch TARDIS Generation 6

Hydro Texas, USA has become the first user of the latest Generation 6 TARDIS aluminium dross pressing and cooling system. The Tardis 1062 machine was purchased towards the end of 2002 and commissioned in December of that year.

TARDIS is a fully patented hydraulic unit designed to increase metal yield from aluminium dross and improve foundry environment by removing dust and fume. Over the past 7 years, McIntyre have been working on a continual improvement programme with its 130 worldwide customers in order to maximise aluminium recoveries. These improvements have seen the system develop from a single ram, simple hydraulic press to a twin ram machine able to exert over 160 tonnes pressure on the dross. All Generation 5 systems come complete with: a rocking head, to increase metal drain; forced air cooling, to prevent oxidation, enabling the machine to handle aggressively thermiting material; and a ceramic fume extraction system to handle dust and fume.

In addition to all of these features, the Generation 6 machine purchased by Hydro included: Safe Automatic Cycle (patent pending) whereby the doors are programmed to open at the end of the dross pressing cycle for ease of operation, without compromise to operator safety. The machine also featured a multi-diagnostic light beacon assembly which will self-diagnose machine faults and allow the operator to follow the progress of each pressing cycle. For those companies operating in hot climates, a further improvement to Generation 6 machines is the addition of a hot weather pack, which allows all TARDIS systems to operate more efficiently in high ambient air temperatures.