Smelting and Specialty Metals
Attracted by the abundant supply of lignite coal as a power supply, Alcoa builds a smelting plant southwest of Rockdale in 1952. This was the first aluminum smelting plant to use lignite as a fuel for generating electric power.
The smelting plant is capable of producing 1.15 million pounds of aluminum per day.
Rockdale Operations comprises 35,000 acres.
Produced at Rockdale Operations are:
- Sheet ingots, weighing 40,000 pounds each. These are shipped to fabricating plants to be formed into plate sheet and foil.
- Primary ingots or "pig" which is sold for remelting.
- Aluminum powder, used for a variety of chemical and commercial applications, including cosmetics, paint, and as a component in solid rocket propellants for NASA.
Construction of the Rockdale Atomizer to produce aluminum powder began in 1966.
The Rockdale Atomizer can consistently and economically produce more than 200 grades of high quality fine atomized aluminum powder.
