Aluminum casthouses are under pressure to use more post-consumer recycled aluminum without sacrificing melt quality, recovery rates or production efficiency. Lightweight scrap, machining chips and other low-density materials are difficult to introduce into conventional melting furnaces, making efficient scrap feeding and submergence essential. The challenge does not end with scrap preparation: temperature and chemical composition must remain consistent throughout the molten bath, so circulation and stirring equipment must support heat transfer and metal movement while limiting process interruptions and metal loss.
Conventional mechanical pumps are widely used, but they depend on immersed rotating components. These components can deteriorate through exposure to molten aluminum, dross accumulation and contact with refractory debris. That reliability penalty is the opening Zmag America is targeting with magnetic engineering for molten-metal circulation, furnace stirring and scrap recovery.
From eddy currents to molten metal
Zmag's technological foundation is the industrial application of magnets and magnetic circuits. Its history includes magnetic engineering and the commercialization of eddy-current separation, a technology used to recover non-ferrous metals from mixed material streams. The company later expanded into molten-metal applications and developed its patented zPMC, or Zmag Permanent Magnetic Circuit, as the basis for equipment that stirs, circulates and submerges material in molten aluminum.
The distinction between permanent-magnet and conventional electromagnetic systems is central. Rather than relying on a conventional electromagnetic stirring arrangement, zPMC uses a permanent magnetic circuit to generate the field that moves the molten metal. Zmag describes the resulting movement as a virtual impeller, which allows circulation without conventional immersed mechanical impellers. That is a design proposition; the source material does not provide independent, comparative performance data beyond the cited installations and trials.
MagStir, MagPump and Typhoon
MagStir is a non-contact stirring system for aluminum melting and holding furnaces. It uses the permanent magnetic circuit to generate movement in the bath and support homogenization of temperature and alloy composition. Zmag offers configurations for furnaces from 15 to 200 metric tons. Because it has no immersed mechanical stirring component, it is positioned as a way to improve melt circulation without adding moving parts to the molten-metal environment. New Zealand Aluminium Smelters installed it in a casting furnace and later extended it to additional furnaces; a 2017 technical case study reported improvements in temperature control during furnace preparation. A MagStir unit was also fitted to a casthouse furnace at Rio Tinto-operated Boyne Smelters in Queensland, Australia, in 2019.
MagPump extends the approach to pumping and circulation. It is designed to fit a standard pump well without furnace modification. Unlike conventional mechanical pumps, it has no physical impeller and is marketed as a nearly hands-free alternative with no consumable parts and minimal downtime. At the TANDEM Division of TST Inc. in Fontana, California, a seven-week trial replaced an existing mechanical pump in a production furnace. The findings described smooth operation and reduced disturbance to the molten-metal surface, and plant management reported that the system avoided the splashing seen with conventional pumping as the furnace metal level fell during draining. A TMS 2023 presentation discussed its use in side-well, multi-chamber furnaces and potential applications in gas injection and scrap submergence alongside metal circulation.
Typhoon addresses scrap submergence and chip melting. It introduces lightweight aluminum scrap and machining chips beneath the molten-metal surface rather than letting them remain on top. Its magnetic circuit generates a vortex-like movement that draws material into the melt and supports heat exchange and recovery during remelting. At Neuman Aluminium's Marktl facility in Austria, the system was incorporated into a furnace modernization project intended to expand processing of low-density post-consumer scrap. The targeted material included lightweight fractions with a bulk density of about 375 kg/m³, which had challenged conventional charging and melting.
Neuman set a target of one metric ton per hour while continuing to melt solid charge in the same furnace. During operation, Typhoon processed almost twice the planned scrap quantity within the expected time without disrupting normal furnace operations, according to the published account. The company also reported low operator involvement and no negative impact on melt or finished-product quality. Typhoon operates at 5-15 kW, including its air-cooling blower, and can submerge up to five metric tons per hour of machining chips. Its vortex intensity can be adjusted to suit operating requirements, allowing it to maintain molten-metal movement when scrap or alloying material is not being charged.
Adoption and the competitive field
Technical fit is not the only constraint. In an August 2025 interview, Eishin Takahashi, president of Zmag America, identified limited familiarity with the technology as a barrier to wider adoption in the United States. He observed that aluminum producers globally tend to be conservative and more comfortable with equipment and processes they already know. That points to a familiar industrial challenge: a different operating principle must overcome established purchasing habits, integration requirements and risk assessment.
The market includes established suppliers, though not all offer direct equivalents. ABB supplies its AL-EMS electromagnetic stirring system for melting, holding and alloying furnaces and reports more than 430 installations; in April 2026 it announced a further order from Arconic for a fifth stirrer at a Hungarian casthouse. Presezzi Extrusion Group's Melting Technology division offers the L.E.C. Low Energy Consumption Stirrer for melting and holding furnaces, along with remelting and casthouse equipment. Pyrotek provides electromagnetic pump systems and LOTUSS low-turbulence scrap submergence technology; its EMP systems circulate molten aluminum using electromagnetic forces, while LOTUSS uses a circulation pump and refractory well. Rockwell Automation operates in adjacent industrial automation, including furnace and ladle-shop control systems, rather than offering a like-for-like permanent-magnet stirrer.
What the evidence shows
Across the three Zmag products, the common proposition is to create or maintain molten-metal movement while removing or reducing immersed mechanical components. The reported cases point to temperature control, surface stability, scrap submergence and the ability to process low-density material. But the evidence base is made up of installations, trials and company or customer-reported outcomes. It does not establish plant-wide economics, maintenance intervals or superiority across all furnace types and operating conditions. Nor does the source provide performance comparisons against the competing systems on a like-for-like basis.
The practical question for a casthouse is fit: furnace capacity, pump-well arrangement, scrap mix, charging practice and quality requirements. Permanent-magnet systems may be most relevant where immersed parts create disturbance or where low-density scrap handling constrains recycling rates. As producers seek to use more challenging recycled feedstock, the ability to manage molten-metal movement without conventional immersed mechanical components could become a more relevant consideration. Whether that translates into broad adoption will depend on demonstrated performance in specific operations as much as on the underlying magnetic design.