OREANDA-NEWS. December 30, 2011. UC RUSAL (SEHK: 486, Euronext: RUSAL/RUAL, MICEX: RUALR, RTS: RUALR), the world’s largest aluminium producer, and RUSNANO announce that RUSAL’s IRKAZ, an aluminium smelter based in Irkutsk, and specialists from RUSAL’s Engineering and Technology Center, have successfully tested Nanocomp Metcast, nanocoatings developed by RUSNANO’s project company ItN Nanovation AG (Germany).

Nanocomp Metcast are innovative nanocoatings tailored to casting machinery. They extend the service life of molds and lengthen the intervals for maintenance of casting conveyors. As a result, the casting process becomes more efficient at a lower cost.

Presently specialists from ItN Nanovation AG and RUSAL are studying large-scale introduction of Nanocomp Metcast at RUSAL’s aluminium smelters. RUSAL would become the first Russian company to use innovative coatings from ItN Nanovation AG, joining a noteworthy list of global metallurgy companies like Nordural (Iceland), Qatalum (Qatar), Hydro (Norway), Talum (Slovenia), EMAL (United Arab Emirates), Konzelmann Metallschmelzwerke (Germany), and AMAG Casting (Austria).

RUSNANO acquired an interest in German company ItN Nanovation AG in May 2011. Its investment in the project was around €16 million.