New kit for galvanising line

The

(I&S) has received an order from the Austrian company,

, Linz, to equip its new hot-dip galvanising line four with drive and automation technology. The new plant is to start operating in the middle of 2007.

Voestalpine Stahl operates a fully integrated steelworks with an annual production of around five million metric tons. Its main customers are the automotive and automotive-supplier industries, manufacturers of household appliances and the construction supply industry.

Voestalpine is building its new hot-dip galvanising line four within the framework of its “Linz 2010” expansion program. The plant will be used to manufacture high strength galvanised cold steel strip up to 1750 millimetres wide for the automotive industry and will have a capacity of around 450,000 metric tons of finished product.

For the hot-dip galvanising line, Siemens is supplying around 300 drives from the Sinamics family, with outputs of between 2.2 and 1200 kilowatts. The total installed drive power will amount to 15 megawatts. Simatic PCS7 will be used as the control system and the hot-dip galvanising line will be automated by means of sixteen S7 processors, one of which will control the safety systems. WinCC will be used for visualisation.

The scope of supply and services includes supply of all the electrical components as well as planning of the electrical and control system, creation of the software including an integration test as well as all the electrical installation work. Siemens will also be responsible for commissioning the electrical and control systems of the plant. The galvanising line is scheduled to produce the first galvanised strip in March 2007 and will then be optimised in a twelve-month run-up phase.