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ALUMINIUM RoLLINg INDUSTRY
ming line 15 years ago, which was used to just
trim the strip edge, has now been adapted to
trimming lines for up to four finished strips.
This kind of combined trimmer with a slitting
function can operate at the same high speeds
as the conventional trimming lines.
Danieli’s expertise in aluminium heating
and heat treatment was introduced by Danieli
Olivotto Ferré. This company has over 80
years of experience and is a major European
producer of heating and heat treatment furnaces
for aluminium flat products. Recently
the company installed an innovative integrated
system of batch and continuous furnaces
for reheating and homogenising processes. Its
capability of offering flexible production and
energy efficiency became a benchmark for
modern flat rolled products.
Danieli’s heat treatment and coating lines
were introduced by Danieli Wean. The increase
in demand for heat-treatable automotive
alloys is changing the processing equipment
requirements with the necessity for
continuous thermal treatment of cold-rolled
aluminium sheet.
operational know-how – a key
factor for Danieli’s success
All aforementioned innovative aluminium
rolling technologies are technically supported
by Innoval Technology, which became part
of the Danieli Aluminium Strip Division in
2012 as a leading provider of independent
technical expertise to the global downstream
aluminium industry. Both companies see mutual
benefits in this move: for Danieli, the integration
of the Innoval team provides exclusive
added value for all the aluminium plants
it supplies. Innoval sees its position as technical
consultants to the world’s aluminium
rolling industry being strengthened by the
umbrella of a large manufacturing group. The
integration of Innoval into Danieli follows
five years of successful co-operation between
the two companies in the design and marketing
of the Danieli Fröhling Diamond Mill concept.
With the help of Innoval, Danieli can support
its customers selectively with their new
products, since new product lines have to be
monitored all along the entire process chain.
That begins with casting, progresses through
heating, heat treatment, hot and cold rolling,
and follows on with the slitting – all these
being processes that have different requirements
in relation to adjustment of the parameters
from one alloy to another. This demands
a profound knowledge of production, which is
available from Innoval.
In his closing address to this very first
Danieli Aluminium Symposium, Mr Alzetta
summarised that Danieli has now proven its
advanced technologies in various areas of the
aluminium production chain, some of them
being already in a market-leading position
such as the slitting and edge trimming lines
and the diamond rolling mills for automotive
products. Danieli will persist with its record of
product and processing innovation in accordance
with the group’s aforementioned mottos
‘innovaction’ and ‘we don’t shop around’.
As a final highlight Danieli announced that
Alcoa has recently chosen Danieli Fröhling
for a major revamp of its cold rolling mill in
Samara, Russia.
At the end of the Forum the participants
were shown round the Aleris Works in Duffel
and the first 6-high Diamond Mill for 2,300
mm wide automotive body sheet, supplied
by Danieli. This prestigious project was implemented
in a very short time of only 19
months, from order placement until the first
coil was rolled. Aleris expressed its complete
satisfaction and emphasised the excellent cooperation
with the Danieli team throughout
the entire project implementation period.
Author
Dipl.-Ing. Bernhard Rieth is a marketing specialist
and freelance technical journalist. As proprietor of
Marketing Xpertise Rieth in Meerbusch, Germany,
he advises equipment partners of the NF metals
semis industry on marketing-related matters.
Clean, low-cost reduction technologies on the horizon
Latest R & D project findings in the USA
could lead to universal changes in electrolysis
technology for conventional aluminium
cell reduction.
The Advanced Research Projects
Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) in the
USA has outlined its latest Award
schemes under new programmes that
provide options for a more sustainable
and secure American future
through supporting commercialisation
of new research results. In its
‘Metals’ category Light Metal Systems:
Technical Approach: Primary
Production – Aluminium, funds will
be directed to support the development
of new breakthroughs in primary
aluminium production.
Allocated a USD1 million funding
award under the scheme, Infinium, located in
Natick, Massachusetts, says that its innova-
Spent carbon anodes
tion, based on patented Pure Oxygen Anode
technology, provides a unique clean and lowcost
production route for aluminium.
In a parallel announcement and in recognition
of the process advantages, the Massachusetts
Clean Energy Centre (MassCEC) is
providing grant funding to match the ARPA-E
award in support of Infinium’s development
and commercialisation of this new reduction
technology. Prior to the grants, Infinium had
demonstrated an early-stage approach for primary
production of aluminium. The ARPA-E
award will enable the company to
apply its previous demonstration
work to develop a technology said
to operate at lower production cost
levels than electrolysis regimes conventionally
employed, using only half
the energy and generating virtually
no emissions. These process advantages
could transform the USD100
billion global aluminium production
market.
“Production of aluminium using
electrolysis has made only incremental
progress since the invention of
the Hall-Héroult process in 1880,”
comments Steve Derezinski, chief executive
of Infinium. “Our inert anodes make possible
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