ElvalHalcor Hellenic Copper and Aluminium Industry S.A. signed the final acceptance certificate, which was granted to MINO S.p.A. for the new six-high cold rolling mill installed at the company’s plant in Greece. The certificate was issued after completing an extensive period of performances tests and trial production on a diverse selection of aluminum alloys, during which all guaranteed performance parameters have been achieved or even exceeded. These tests were carried out by technicians from MINO Group in collaboration with Elval’s technical team.
The new six-high mill is capable of producing up to 150.000 tons per year of the widest spectrum of aluminum alloys, ranging from foil-stock to can-stock alloys. The mill features a 2,400 mm wide barrel length and a maximum rolling speed of 1,800 m/min. Minimum achievable gauges are 0.10 mm on soft alloys, 0.15 mm on medium alloys, and 0.19 mm on hard alloys.
This mill is driven by powerful medium voltage AC main drives and is complimented by the latest design concepts and a full suite of enhanced state-of-the-art control solutions. This includes its own fully-automatic coil circulation system, which is interfaced with a high bay coil storage system, coil preparation station, entry side trimmer, pup-coil unwinding station, automatic spool transfer device, automatic strapping, and marking. In addition, it includes MINO Process Control’s AVANTI™ TCS system for AGC/AFC control. The AVANTI system includes unique model based predictive control algorithms for further enhancement of the thickness control.
Furthermore, the mill is equipped with advanced sensors and monitoring systems, such as bearing temperature control, strip temperature control, vibration monitoring, and edge crack detection. All these systems are designed and supplied by MINO from within its Automation Division, which also developed the omplete Level 1 and Level 2 automation control system.
To provide precise flatness control at higher speeds, the mill is outfitted with the latest work roll induction type hot edge system coupled with a long stroke shifting system for the intermediate rolls. These design features allow the mill to cope with different values of strip thickness and of strip width and to roll in constant stable condition whilst maintaining the strip flatness at the strip edges, up to the maximum rolling speed of 1,800 m/min.
Ongoing Cooperation
For almost 50 years, ElvalHalcor has been recognized as a trusted partner and innovative aluminum manufacturer, with a broad portfolio of quality products for the packaging, construction, shipbuilding, automotive, energy, industrial, and HVAC markets. Through an established global commercial network across 21 countries, the company exports approximately 80% of its production to more than 60 countries and offers reliable and competitive solutions that meet the requirements of the most demanding global customers.
The new six-high cold rolling mill is only the latest project in the cooperation between ElvalHalcor and MINO, which goes back three decades, when MINO was awarded a contract for the comprehensive revamp of a cold mill and a tandem mill that were installed in ElvalHalcor’s U.K.-based subsidiary, Bridgnorth Aluminium Ltd., based in Shropshire, England. MINO was later awarded a complete rebuild project at Bridgnorth where a pre-owned cold mill was relocated from Spain to the site and completely modernized. The rolling mill was re-designed to roll thin gauge products for lithographic products.
During the same period, MINO also supplied four rolling mills and a milling line for copper and brass strip to ElvalHalcor’s Sofiamed plant, based in Bulgaria.
In 2015 and 2018, MINO successfully undertook two further revamping projects in the ELVAL plant in Greece — a cold rolling mill for can-stock production and a thin strip cold rolling mill