Hertwich Engineering. Rio Tinto Alcan puts homogenizing and sawing line into operation

Hertwich Engineering, Austria, has handed over the first expansion phase of a homogenizing and sawing line to aluminum producer Rio Tinto Alcan in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. With this investment, Rio Tinto Alcan Iceland will be able to produce top-quality billets.

When changing between standard and special alloys with different holding times a special furnace design ensures high flexibility and throughput. The new plant complies Rio Tinto Alcan´s eco-friendly operating policies and sets new standards in the area of safety and energy efficiency. The plant is designed for an annual capacity of 157,000 t of standard alloys.

The supply package comprises a linear ultrasonic inspection station (UT), a preparation station for retrofitting a helical UT and an upstream billet saw including specific scrap removal. Other supply items are an electrically heated continuous homogenizing furnace, cooling station as well as a downstream packaging station.

A robot is used for the first time to assemble the strapping machine with wooden planks which are placed in deposits for an entire shift are then transferred from the robot, to the strapping machine. Consequently, the strapping device operates fully automatically over the entire shift.

Step 2 of the expansion project is scheduled to be commissioned in 2014.

The picture shows a similar plant

Based on SMS Group information