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ElvalHalcor Begins Second Stage of Aluminum Rolling Expansion in Greece

elvalhalcor-main image© by ElvalHalcor

ElvalHalcor Hellenic Copper and Aluminium Industry S.A., owned by Viohalco, is expanding its aluminum rolling mill operation in Oinofyta, Greece. The company is investing EUR 150 million in equipment, technology, and infrastructure as part of a five-year plan to more than double its flat rolled aluminum products capacity. This will also support the further modernization of the plant, introduce the latest industrial technology, increase energy efficiency, and improve the company’s overall environmental footprint.

The investment reinforces ElvalHalcor’s commitment to provide more sustainable world-class aluminum products and solutions, contributing towards a circular economy. It will also allow the company to meet increased demand for aluminum in the packaging, industrial, transportation, and architectural applications — as well as providing a base capacity for expansion into the automotive and aerospace sectors.

Phase One – Hot Finishing Mill

In 2018, ElvalHalcor ordered a new four-stand aluminum tandem hot finishing mill from SMS group. The new hot tandem finishing mill will be able to process hot rolled strips ranging from 1.8 to 12.7 mm in thickness and up to 2.6 m in width. All four mill stands of the new finishing mill will be equipped with CVC®plus technology, providing flexibility to handle a demanding mix of upmarket products. The high strip quality will be ensured by the X-Pact® automation and control system.

The new mill will be installed downstream from an existing reversing mill, which will be upgraded and serve as a roughing and plate rolling mill in future.

Start of production of the new hot rolling line is scheduled for 2020.

Contract signing for a new hot finishing mill (L-R): Lampros Varouchas, managing director, ElvalHalcor, and M. Schäfer, head of Aluminium Business, SMS group.
Contract signing for a new hot finishing mill (L-R): Lampros Varouchas, managing director, ElvalHalcor, and M. Schäfer, head of Aluminium Business, SMS group.

Phase Two – Cold Mill

The company ordered a new high-speed, 2 m wide, 6-Hi cold rolling mill as phase two of its multi-year expansion from MINO S.p.A.

The new cold mill is designed to target various products for diverse applications, providing cutting-edge performance, while also achieving a high level of production flexibility and adaptability. It will be supplied with a state-of-the-art solution for coil preparation, automatic coil handling, automatic spool transfer, pup coil disposal, and roll coolant filtration in order to provide highly efficient and reliable operation of the mill.

A typical 6-Hi cold mill for aluminum during pre-assembly in MINO’s workshop in Alessandria, Italy.
A typical 6-Hi cold mill for aluminum during pre-assembly in MINO’s workshop in Alessandria, Italy.

Additionally, the mill will be equipped with advanced sensors and monitoring systems, such as bearings temperature control, strip temperature control, vibration monitoring and control system, and edge cracking detection. It also includes an advanced and high performance process control system incorporating the latest generation of AVANTI™ TCS system for AGC/AFC control, which includes unique model based predictive control algorithms. This is accompanied by powerful AC main drives and controls, also engineered in-house by MINO Automation, for precise operation at high rolling speeds.

The cold mill will be able to utilize up to 150,000 tpy of the plant’s hot rolling capacity. This will more than double after the completion of the four-stand hot finishing mill from SMS group that is being completed this year.

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