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InnoTrans 2012

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0300

Together with the CuproBraze Alliance, Finnradiator is participating in the International Trade Fair for Transport Technology. InnoTrans 2012 will take place in Berlin on 18 - 21 September, 2012.

Maszbud 2012

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0300

Finnradiator is participating in Maszbud in Kielce, Poland. Maszbud is an international fair for construction equipment and special vehicles.

Maszbud will take place on 8 - 11 May, 2012.

Polish Version of Finnradiator’s Website Published

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0200

We have published a polish version of our website. From now on, we will publish all our news and expert articles in Polish as well.

At the same time, we would like to wish you welcome to our stand at Bumasz 2012. Bumasz 2012 will take place on 24 - 27 January, 2012 in Poznań, Poland. It is an international fair for construction and road building machines, vehicles and equipment.

Mr. Bartlomiej Wojtowicz (M.Sc. eng.) is our Sales Representative in Poland. You can contact him by phone: +48 600 966 277 or e-mail: bartlomiej.wojtowicz (a) finnradiator.com.

Thank You For a Great Year

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0200

Year 2011 has been dynamic and succesful for Finnradiator Ltd. Thanks to our versatile customer base and the fact that we are partnering with companies who are market drivers in their own spesific sectors, we’ve been able to remain competitive during the economic climate of post-crisis period.

We’ve seen upturn in almost all industries and customer segments, including agriculture, material handling and construction sectors. For Finnradiator Ltd orders increased significantly and were getting closer to pre-crisis levels. The export share of sales increased as in the previous year, which is an vital parameter for us.

This year has not been without challenges. We saw copper prices averaging above US$ 10,000 per tonne during Q1 of 2011, which is an unbearable level for most of the markets. In comparison to year 2010, the average copper price alone rose by 57 %. Outstanding demand of red metal from China and other emerging markets combined with shrinking production and speculations on the part of investors and raw material funds has driven up copper prices, and exhaust almost all exchange stocks. Price levels which we have seen 2011 has increased the risk of copper being replaced by other materials such as aluminium in heat exchanger market. This is the reason, why we at Finnradiator Ltd, have developed our CuproBraze technology to serve the demand from sectors where operational and environmetal requirements favor the use of more precious metals. As a rule of thumb, these sectors and applications include most of the heavy-duty on- and off road vehicles.

Finally, we want to thank our customers, suppliers and other partners for the year 2011. We appreciate your business. We at Finnradiator are looking forward to a continued and mutual cooperation also in 2012 and the years beyond.

Environmentally Sound CuproBraze Technology in iVT International

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0200

The article Taking the Heat of Tier 4 was published in the Engines and Emissions Edition of iVT International. It introduces CuproBraze technology as an environmentally and economically sound solution. It can be read free of charge in the electronic version of the magazine.

Our New Website Has Been Launched

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0200

The redesign of our website has been completed. Cutting-edge technology and a customer-oriented approach have been the focal points when redesigning the content and outlook, so finding what you need should be quick and easy.

Over the next couple of months, other language versions will be added. If you have any comments regarding the site or our solutions, feel free to contact us.

CuproBraze – From An Idea to Global Production

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0200

From Henry Ford’s time onward, all radiators were made from copper-based materials. Until the late 1970’s, copper maintained a radiator market share of close to 100%. But, particularly in the last three decades, copper-based automotive heat exchangers have seen heavy competition from aluminium.

In the early 1990’s, the International Copper Association (ICA) decided to start a development program to demonstrate copper’s superior capabilities for the manufacturing and use of all kinds of automotive heat exchangers.

The new technology, called CuproBraze®, was specifically developed for the manufacturing of heavy-duty mobile and industrial heat exchangers. CuproBraze® is a registered trademark owned by ICA.

The new fin alloy SM0502, tube alloy SM2385, and brazing alloy OKC600 were developed and patented by Outokumpu Copper, which currently belongs to Aurubis BL Flat Rolled Products. The materials offer high strength as well as excellent retention of strength at elevated operating temperatures. They can withstand high-temperature brazing processes without substantial loss in strength.

A Brazing Centre was established to support the technology in a practical way - to build prototype heat exchangers based on these new alloys and to demonstrate the CuproBraze® process. The centre is currently located at the Aurubis copper strip plant in Finspång, Sweden.

Specialized brazing pastes, brazing foil, and application machinery for them, and also brazing furnaces, are available for all capacities of production lines. Companies and other organisations with different types of commercial interests in this technology formed the CuproBraze Alliance in 2003 to jointly strengthen their marketing efforts. This alliance also runs the website www.cuprobraze.com which has about 11,000 unique visitors per month.

By using high-strength and high-conductivity copper alloys, it is possible to manufacture strong, efficient, and compact heat exchangers at a competitive cost with an environmentally friendly process. CuproBraze technology is now being applied globally in manufacturingadvanced heat exchangers. It also enables the manufacturing of charge air coolers that can withstand higher temperatures than existing aluminium-based equipment, allowing the transportation industry to continue reducing emissions and increasing fuel efficiency by providing an option to the temperature-challenged aluminium charge air coolers.

Finnradiator is one of the pioneers in developing CuproBraze technology and especially one-shot brazing for charge air cooler application.

Markku Ainali

Managing Director of CuproBraze Alliance

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0300

Warm regards from Asia-Pasific’s International Mining Exhibition. Now that the show is over, it’s time to summarize the key outputs of last week. First of all, with more than 22,000 m² of exhibition space and over 600 exhibitors, AIMEX was an impressive show and certainly has it’s place among the largest mining exhibitions in the world. Despite the deepening Eurozone crisis and continuing uncertainty over the United States economy, it was a great pleasure to see the amount of enthusiasm and “can do spirit” of the exhibitors and visitors at the Sydney Showground. Thanks to the Australian resources industry, the country has been able to fight the Global Financial Crisis, which is now strongly reflected in the value of the local currency - Aussie. Please forgive me, but as an old school type of economist, I can’t help myself being satisfied to see the benefits when a country’s economy has a solid background in the resources industry (thanks to hard working drillers and diggers), instead of the dominating finance sector.

The exhibition had lots of news and technology to offer. Caterpillar’s Bucyrus buy, finalized just prior to the show, was seen as an important step that will generate wealth and benefits for the companies as well as CAT’s distributors and end-customers. Concerning technology development, one of the big topics at the show was the driverless vehicle and equipment strategy where, for instance, haul trucks are computer controlled. With the help of sophisticated IC -technology, fleet-owners and OEM’s have a chance to increase the real-time visibility of the key parametres, which enables more accurate predictive maintenance, higher productivity and operator security.

Finally, let’s get to the real deal – heat exchangers used in on- and underground mining vehicles. First of all, the Australian market has a lots of special characteristics that must be well studied and understood before implementing non-value adding technical solutions to the market. We talked to numerous operators, fleet-owners, service managers, and technical managers, and their consensus of opinion was that long service distances, ambitious productivity targets, and extreme ambient temperatures combined with challenging terrains favour copper-brass based radiators, charge-air-coolers, and oil coolers. I was glad to see that more than 90% of the heat exchangers seen at the show where based on copper alloys. For me, this is a clear message that the technology is evolving naturally to reflect local environmental and operational requirements.

Nevertheless, most of the products seen at the show where still soft-soldered, so there’s a great opportunity for almost factor 3 improvement in joint strengths while moving from soft-soldering to brazing. Besides the CuproBraze Alliance, there were companies already introducing CuproBraze product portfolios to the market. So, if you demand robust structures that can withstand vibrations and heatload, and allow operator-friendly field-maintenance – it’s time to turn to CuproBraze technology.

Finally, on behalf of the CuproBraze Alliance, we want to express our thanks to Reed Mining Events for organizing such a great show, and to visitors to our booth!