Newsletter 19

ROLLING MILLS | Russula Newsletter No. 19 | November 2019
Sidenor Thessaloniki choses Russula to
upgrade 800,000 tpy merchant bar and
wire rod mill
Sidenor Group (Steel Industry of Northern Greece)
has contracted Russula for a complete electrical
and automation revamp of its merchant bar and
two-strand wire rod mill located in Thessaloniki,
Greece. The hot rolling mill has an annual production
capacity of 800,000 tpy and produces reinforcing
bars, squares, rounds, equal angles, beams,
UPN channels and wire rod.
The steel mill in Thessaloniki began operations in
1962. It is Sidenor Group’s first production facility.
As such, the current mill control layout is a combination
of different hardware platforms and software
generations from many automation suppliers.
As a result, the main goal of the electrical and automation
upgrade is to replace obsolete equipment
and simplify the control platform, which will improve
maintenance and troubleshooting.
The scope of supply for the 15-stand mill includes
all equipment from the roller table after the reheating
furnace to the bar outlet dividing shear and the
reforming tubes of the wire rod mill outlet. The existing
Toshiba PLCs will be replaced by new Siemens
S7-1500 PLCs for the continuous mill and wire rod
outlet. Other PLCS will be converted into new remote
IOs. Russula will equip the mill with new Delta
loop scanners, DC Sinamic drives for the stands, a
new main pulpit desk for the control room, iba data
acquisition system, HMI WinCC interface specifically
tailored for the rolling mill process.
A full factory test of the HMI, PLC and I/O will be
performed in October in the Russula workshop, prior
to shipment to Thessaloniki. Start-up of the upgraded
mill is scheduled for mid-December 2019.
Sidenor Group grants Russula
a contract to up-grade
the automation of its 800,000
tpy merchant bar and twostrand
wire mill. The upgrade
will simplify the current control
platform and replace obsolete
control equipment.
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