With the completion of a two-stage modernization project at the end of 2008, Austria-based giant engineering and plantmaking company Siemens VAI Metals Technologies has helped to increase the annual production capacity of Italian steel producer Ferriera Valsabbia, located in Odolo, province of Brescia, to 750,000 metric tons of reinforcing steel.
The prime reasons for the achievement of this approximately 25 percent increase in output were the installation of a hot-charging system for billets as well as a system for single-bar high-speed delivery that allows rolling speeds of up to 27m/sec in two-slit rolling mode.
Siemens VAI had received the order to modernize the rolling mill in 2006. The project was carried out in two phases; during 2007 and during 2008. Existing equipment and spatial restrictions had to be taken into account in the project planning process in order to minimize down times and production outages.