Novel installation for preheating aluminium sheeting in Argentine company

Novel installation for preheating aluminium sheeting in Argentine company



This is the second installation of its type in the world

GHI has developed an original proposal for aluminium sheet hot-rolling plants, with a view to providing sector companies with solutions that are more competitive, more productive and more sustainable. On this occasion, the customer is Aluar, the only producer of primary aluminium in Argentina, with a workforce of 2200 employees and over 70% of its output destined for export.

Until this plant was commissioned, there was only one other of its type in the world, owned by a company in the USA. This just goes to prove GHI’s ability to offer cutting-edge technology to its customers. Given its capacity for a smaller number of sheets, this new chamber furnace design is particularly suitable for processing smaller batches, which makes it highly adaptable. Equally, it is particularly suitable as a complement for increasing the production capacity of existing plants equipped with pusher furnaces which need to be able to adapt to process batches of different-alloy sheets with high added value.

The plant is equipped with sensors and technology 4.0, which considerably enhances control of the production process, reduces energy consumption and cuts gas emissions into the atmosphere. It is a modular installation comprising three chamber furnaces for heating the sheets which are to be rolled, and a set of auxiliary equipment which, completely automatically, feeds in and extract sheets from the heating furnaces and then transfers them to the hot-roller conveyor. The furnaces are of the horizontal chamber, intermittent type. By means of high-specification, forced air recirculation fans designed specifically for the purpose by GHI, and studied design of gas circulation inside the furnace, very rapid heating times are achieved along with very even heating speed of the different sheets loaded into the furnace.

Traditional pusher furnaces are semi-continuous, which means that all sheets are exposed to the same temperature, heating and holding times. This feature makes this type of furnace ideal for processing large series of same-alloy, same-dimension sheets. However, since the new chamber furnace design can accommodate a smaller number of sheets, it is particularly suitable for processing small batches of sheets and even sheets of different sizes.