Automated Metal Cleanliness Analyzer (AMCA)—An Alternative Assessment of Metal Cleanliness in Aluminum Melts

The established industry standards for assessing the cleanliness of aluminum melts are PoDFA (Porous Disc Filtration Apparatus) and LiMCA (Liquid Metal Cleanliness Analyzer) analyses. PoDFA provides the necessary qualitative and quantitative differentiation between the inclusions present in the molten metal, but it is slow and subject to human biases. LiMCA provides real-time data without sufficient differentiation, limiting its usefulness for metal quality and process control. Complementary solutions are in demand that can provide similar quality results as PoDFA at the speed of LiMCA. With the Automated Metal Cleanliness Analyzer (AMCA), an alternative solution is suggested that combines the strengths of both established approaches by standardized on-site sampling and automated image analysis for real-time quality control. The present study shows a validation of the image analysis method by replicating the main cleanliness indicator of PoDFA in real industry samples at high precision.