Siemens has received an order from the Chinese company Henan Zhongfu Industrial Co Ltd to equip a new 2560 millimeter aluminum rolling mill with automation and drive technology. The rolling mill will be assembled in Gongyi in the Henan Province where the first strip is due to be rolled in December 2012. The value of the order lies in the double-digit million Euro range.
The new hot aluminum rolling mill is part of Henan Zhongfu comprehensive expansion project to develop its production of high-quality strip and sheet metal for new types of packaging materials. The 2560 millimeter hot rolling mill is designed for an annual production of 760,000 tons of flat products. The plant comprises four heating furnaces, a reversible roughing mill consisting of a horizontal stand with edger and a downstream four-stand tandem hot rolling mill with coiler and pallet transport system.
Siemens will supply the complete automation and drive equipment for the hot rolling mill from the furnace outlet side to the coiler, as well as for the coil conveyor to the high-bay warehouse. The automation equipment includes the basic automation, together with the technological control systems, the human-machine interface equipment and the associated sensor systems. One important element is the process automation, which has integrated profile and flatness control to calculate the set points of the rolling plant online on the basis of analytical mathematical models. Self-learning neural networks adapt the models precisely to the given production conditions, thus facilitating flexible production planning while still maintaining the same high product quality. Sinamics S150 medium voltage converters and Sinamics S120 low-voltage converters will be supplied for the drives.
All the systems and components used are drawn from the integrated Siroll ALU solution platform for hot aluminum rolling mills. Their modular design and high degree of standardization guarantee a fast production ramp-up and safe, easy to maintain operation. Siemens will also be responsible for supervising the installation, commissioning and customer training.
The deciding factors which enabled Siemens to win this order were its technological competence and the large number of worldwide references which it has accumulated in the aluminum industry. With this project, Siemens extends its leading position in the equipment of hot aluminum rolling mills still further.
Henan Zhongfu Industrial Co Ltd is a subsidiary company of Henan Yulian Energy Group Co Ltd. This group of companies not only owns aluminum production plants but is also active in the fields of electrical power generation, district heating and water supply.
