During the last couple years T&L Foundry, Inc. has struggled through a rash of crucible problems, such as, in-house procedures as well as changes in the crucible industry. Bill Covington, Owner and President of T&L has been more than frustrated by these problems during which he has seen a reduction in crucible life by 35 to 40 percent. This frustration drove Bill to try to find a different solution. He states:

"We were looking for a different approach when we found Brian Chalmers from Advanced Ceramics & Crucible and began talking with him about our crucible concerns. Brian suggested that we try a Nippon crucible and promised better crucible life and hopefully, lower melt rates as well."
T&L first test was a Nippon 900 Bowl that showed crucible results mirroring life standards that T&L saw prior to the crucible industry changes. Bill was impressed by the Nippon performance but was also impressed with the additional support received from Advanced Ceramics & Crucible.

"Not only did we see better crucible life, but Advanced Ceramics & Crucible evaluated our furnaces, made suggestions to regulate our gas usage, and helped T&L to achieve 20 to 25 percent faster melt rate."
T&L felt the initial Nippon test was good enough to systematically replace older, non-Nippon crucibles with 600, 900 and 1000 Nippon bowls. During follow up visits, Brian made other recommendations that T&L feels will help achieve a much needed reduction in natural gas usage as well.