Alfa Acciai completes mill revamp

Italian rebar and wire rod maker Alfa Acciai has completed the modernisation of its rolling mill in Brescia, Kallanish learns from Danieli, which carried out the upgrade.

The upgrade allows Alfa Acciai to increase its production of coiled rod, in line with current market demand. The project involved the complete renewal of the mill automation system as well as some new equipment. Bar Mill no.2 is equipped with Danieli billet-welding capability, joining two billets to produce a spooled coil weighing about 3 tonnes. For small-diameter products produced by twin split rolling, four billets are needed to obtain two 3t coils, the technology supplier says.

Before the modernisation, just one strand of the split rolling line fed the spooler line and the alternate strand delivered material to the cooling bed as straight bars. Following the modernisation, it is possible for both strands to feed two coilers simultaneously. As a result, Alfa Acciai will increase spooled bar output from 50% to 80% of hourly production and reduce straight bar output to 20% of the total.

The Brescia plant is one of Italy’s largest electric arc furnace mills. Alfa Acciai also owns the Catania-based Acciaierie di Sicilia, the only steel mill in Sicily; Ferroberica, which pre-shapes and assembles rebar at its sites in Vicenza Catania and Udine; and Brescia-based Tecnofil, a drawing mill for wire rod. Alfa Acciai employs 1,100 workers for an annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes.