Dec 24 2010
Ma’aden Alcoa has made a procurement order with Germany-based SMS Siemag for a totally incorporated hot and cold rolling system for aluminum flat products. This rolling system includes automation and electrical package as well.
The ongoing Greenfield project in Ras Az Zawr, Saudi Arabia is being executed by the joint venture of Ma’aden Alcoa, which includes Ma'aden, Saudi Arabia-based mining company and Alcoa, US aluminum manufacturer Alcoa. The estimated yearly capacity of the rolling system is approximately 400,000 tonnes of aluminum strips, which is used in the production of beverage cans. The operations at the mills are likely to commence by the end of 2012.
SMS Siemag will deliver total roughing and finishing mills for the hot rolling mill. The four stand roughing mill can handle aluminum ingots of maximum thickness 635 mm and weight 32.5 ton. It also facilitates quick cropping as well as detaching head and tail components from the ingot after roughing by means of a light and heavy hydraulic crop shear.
The finishing mill comprises four stands and it enables rolling the roughed aluminum ingot. In a single pass, the ingots of initial thickness of approximately 30 mm will be rolled to a final gage thickness between 2 mm and 7 mm. The rolled strip is trimmed on its sides in the outlet section of the mill. The trimmed strip is fed into a hot-strip coiler featuring a belt wrapper.
A similar complete cold rolling mill will also be delivered by Siemag. The entrance section of the rolling mill includes a coil preparation station and the outlet section features an offline strip monitoring station. The incoming feed of hot aluminum strip of width up to 2100 mm will be rolled to final gages of width 0.15 mm. The mill also includes actuators, which feature positive and negative work-roll bending, hydraulic modification and CVC plus technology.
Both these mills will include open and closed loop control systems for ensuring competent process control of the completely automated rolling operations. The electrical and automation package delivery includes the Alu-Control automation system, which is exclusively developed to cope with the process demands of aluminum rolling in both the mills.
Source: http://www.sms-siemag.com