stories on hard material matters - Ceratizit S.A.

18
ÅKERS, SWEDEN
Roll machining with
CERATIZIT tooling
Customer report from the Åkers roll foundry in Sweden.
Machined with CERATIZIT tooling & inserts: the Åkers rolls weighing up to
sixty tons.
They weigh up to sixty tons and are the ‘flat makers’
in the roll mills: the huge rolls which convert the most
varied metals into sheet metal or strips. When machining
rolls the Åkers roll foundry in Styckebruk (Sweden) relies
on ceramic and carbide inserts from CERATIZIT.
Åkers Styckebruk is situated close to Stockholm in the
Swedish province Södermanland. The landscape is
extensive with little development. The motorway is
almost empty. Forests, meadows and lakes follow one
another. In this quiet, almost forgotten area operates the
largest roll manufacturer in the world: Åkers.
Since 1580 the company has been involved in casting.
Once Åkers produced cannons for the Swedish army. The
first roll was produced as far back as 1806. Today 1,400
employees produce high-quality rolls for sheet metal production
in 12 factories in 6 countries achieving a turnover
of 300 million euros (420 million US-dollars). Other Åkers
production sites can be found in Belgium, France, Slovenia,
the USA and recently also in China.
Every week up to 50 rolls are produced, more than
123,000 tons per year.
Every week the Styckebruk site produces between 35
and 40 medium-sized rolls and around five large rolls.
In 2006 the total production of the group amounted
to 123,600 metric tons, out of which 44% were sold in
Europe, 24% in Asia and 25% in North America. Åkers is
imp:act 01/08
Fireworks: an Åkers employee checks the temperature of the molten iron
before pouring it.
a solid family-owned company which successfully relies
on sound corporate values. The goal of Åkers is to
secure and further extend its position as the worldwide
leading roll manufacturer. Some of the Åkers customers
are steel works like Mittal, Tata and Bao Steel.
From the car body to the coin – everything made of sheet
metal
Sheet metal is the base material for numerous products
used in everyday life i.e. car bodies, housings of
electronic devices, coins and sinks are stamped or
formed out of sheet metal. These sheet metals are
produced in steel mills. Aluminum or steel billets are
rolled to sheet metal applying a warm forming
procedure with several roll passes at temperatures
between 1,300 and 2,200 °F until they have the required
thickness. Depending on the end product, cold rolling is
used to make hot rolled strips thinner and to improve the
surface quality.
Everything is larger
Åkers thinks big - and in this company everything is larger
than elsewhere; the workers in the halls resemble
miniature figures. Kennet Önnestig, Production
Engineering, describes the production process. “In a first
step the rolls are cast. For this purpose the requested iron
alloy is melted and subsequently poured into a casting
mould. The base material is iron scrap which is bought
in locally and then alloyed. Åkers applies two casting