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ROLLING INDUSTRY
Addressing market requirements in <strong>aluminium</strong> flat products
Sean Carter and Detlef Neumann, Danieli Fröhling
In order to succeed in today’s very competitive
<strong>aluminium</strong> plate, strip / sheet and
foil markets, it is not sufficient to only
fulfil <strong>the</strong> standard basic requirements
when developing plant concepts for both
rolling mills and downstream cutting lines
but to define and deliver enhanced solutions
for <strong>the</strong> future. Particularly, when
considering developments in <strong>the</strong> processing
industry with demands for increased
production levels, larger coil densities,
thinner finished products and increased
material quality <strong>the</strong>se factors have to
be taken into consideration. Danieli is a
100% metals focused company with over
8,700 employees, with in-house manufacturing
in Italy, Germany, Thailand
and China; along with its process partner
Innoval Technology, Danieli supplies <strong>aluminium</strong>
rolling and processing solutions
as well as plate stretchers and turnkey
(including FSTK) projects.
General market consideration
Generally, <strong>the</strong> world-wide market for technology
to produce downstream <strong>aluminium</strong> products,
for example rolled products, is quite different
when looking for <strong>the</strong> expected investments
in <strong>the</strong> near to mid future. Europe’s and
North America’s strategy will be to maintain
and build upon its leading position <strong>of</strong> efficien-
cy, quality and service but without significant
expansion into new capacities while realising
maximum pay-back on <strong>the</strong> existing assets.
The well-established production companies
will concentrate on:
• Process and yield increase
• Relocation <strong>of</strong> facilities and /or consolidate
production capacities at cen tral points
• Investing in modernisations and revamps
to maximise current potential as well as
increasing coil density, processing speeds
and product quality
• Improving finished strip quality
• Concentrating on high-end products such
as foil, lithography, etc.
• Customer service (reduced lead times,
just-in-time production)
Danieli Wean United Hot Finishing Mill Photos: Danieli Fröhling
• Development <strong>of</strong> new niche high value
products such as clad material, sub 6 μm
foil, bright finished stock, etc.
• Development into new uses for <strong>aluminium</strong>
rolled products.
These measures will be increasingly important
when considering <strong>the</strong> competition that comes
from <strong>the</strong> large new investments and production
capacity currently being implemented in
Asia and also partly in South America and
Russia. In <strong>the</strong> near future Asia will emerge as
<strong>the</strong> dominant market for <strong>aluminium</strong> flat rolled
products in <strong>the</strong> world and Asian producers
will try to supply into traditional markets that
are still occupied by European and American
suppliers. Here, both quality and quantity as
well as supply lead time will be <strong>the</strong> key issues
that purchasers <strong>of</strong> rolled materials will
look for.
An example <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> <strong>aluminium</strong>
products is in aerospace industry that
is constantly pushing <strong>the</strong> design barriers with
increasingly complex metallic or hybrid aircraft
fuselage skin and structures. This includes
<strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> new alloys, for example
damage tolerant Al-Cu-Li fuselage sheet and
high strength alloys containing Scandium (Sc),
Aluminium-Glare composite material and
ever larger very heavy gauge plates for <strong>the</strong>
manufacture <strong>of</strong> aircraft spars and ribs.
With <strong>the</strong> increasing word-wide demand for
automotive, aerospace, and canstock products
this paper focuses on <strong>the</strong> latest developments
in cold rolling technology and strip processing.
Modern <strong>aluminium</strong> rolling
technology and market trends
In general, <strong>the</strong> <strong>aluminium</strong> rolling market can
be considered in three broad sectors relating
to <strong>the</strong> flat finished products and <strong>the</strong> associated
equipment to produce <strong>the</strong> rolled material:
• Hot rolling – plates, shate and coiled
feedstock for cold and foil rolling
• Cold rolling – sheet for automotive, aero-
space, canstock, lithographic, foil feed-
stock and general applications
• Foil rolling – foil for food, cosmetics,
tobacco and pharmaceutical packaging;
technical applications such as heat
exchangers and cable wrap; household
applications.
Danieli has expertise in all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> above-mentioned
technologies.
The majority <strong>of</strong> <strong>aluminium</strong> cold mills rolling
sheet products today are a 4-high singlestand
type, which in many cases produces a
quality product meeting end-user requirements.
However, such conventional mills are
now approaching or have reached <strong>the</strong> technical
limits <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> latest market requirements
that can include:
1. Increasing coil dimensions including wide
strip width ranges <strong>of</strong> less than 1 metre to 2.7
metre or greater
2. Achievement <strong>of</strong> excellent levels <strong>of</strong> strip
quality including flatness, thickness, surface
finish, dryness, coil build-up, etc across an
ever increasing wide range <strong>of</strong> products with
16 ALUMINIUM · EAC CONGRESS 2011