Development of the AP Technology Through Time.

This article presents the historical development of the AP Technology (Aluval, Voreppe, France) pot series starting with the AP13 in the 1960s, followed by the AP18 and the AP30 in the 1980s and 1990s. For most of the modern-era technology, from the late 1970s on, development has been based on a three-stage pattern, the first one being the pot modeling, followed by the pot prototype stage, and then the industrial stage, which fully validated the technology. This development pattern has proven to be successful since it has led to the very robust AP Technology pot design generation and a large number of greenfield smelters built in the 1990-2010 selected the AP Technology design. AP60 is the latest of this series: The development at the prototype level was initiated in the 1990s and is presented in the article. It is now followed by the first industrial realization at Jonquière with the startup in late 2013 and the full validation of the technology in mid-2014. The development of APXe, which aims at very low energy consumption, uses many common elements pertaining to the AP60 design and is presented in the article. AP Technology has also addressed the need for continuous and fast improvement of pot performances adapted to each existing client or site specifics; for this purpose, a new development methodology has recently emerged thanks to the very high modeling capabilities. This methodology, based on the validation of 'technology bricks' and their integration in the final design following a strict process, is presented in the last section of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]