Pennsylvania-based Latrobe Specialty Steel's expansion for the production of VIM-VAR (vacuum induction melting/vacuum arc remelting) steel,- special steel commonly used in military and commercial aerospace applications - has won by unanimous vote the US-based Association for Iron & Steel Technology's (AIST) award for 2009 Project Excellence.
AIST's Project and Construction Management Technology Committee looked at competing projects from Allegheny Technology's Allegheny Ludlum plate manufacturing plant and US Steel's coal grinding facility, but picked Latrobe Specialty Steel's expansion, a Latrobe press release said.
Latrobe Specialty Steel and its partners, Continental Design and Management Group, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Consarc, Rancocas, New Jersey used a modified design-and-build technique to construct the world's largest vacuum induction melting furnace in record time starting in the snowiest months on a brown-field site, the press release added.
Latrobe Specialty Steel, in business since 1913 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, has been supplying the aerospace and defense sectors since 1958. The company employs approximately 800 people.