Hulamin improves product quality in aluminum rolling mill

Aluminum producer Hulamin is modernizing its cold rolling mill at its Pietermaritzburg site in South Africa. Newly implemented Hot-Edge Inductors from Primetals on the outlet side of the aluminum cold rolling mill enable the production of high-quality cold-rolled aluminum strip that meets the requirements of the can packaging market.

Recently, Primetals signed the final acceptance certificate (FAC) with aluminum producer Hulamin following the successful installation and commissioning of new hot edge inductors for its cold mill rolling line (S5) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. This upgrade effectively addressed the tight edge issues in aluminum strip that occurred during high-speed rolling, leading to improved product quality. The implementation has enabled the production of high-quality coils for demanding markets, such as the can packaging industry.
The moving induction heating head assembly has been installed on the exit side of the mill, below the exit delivery table. These assemblies are positioned close to the roll surface, just outside of the strip width, effectively counteracting the thermal camber that causes tight edge issues during high-speed rolling.
The hot edge inductors have successfully resolved the tight edge issues by providing additional heat to the work roll at the strip edge, expanding the roll and alleviating tight edges. This improvement has led to better control of the strip edge shape, enabling Hulamin to achieve its key objectives of high product quality and maximum cold mill capacity.
As part of an integrated series of upgrades to Hulamin’s cold rolling system, the implementation of the hot edge inductors has yielded encouraging results. The aluminum producer has observed noticeable improvements in the on-line strip shape performance and continue to further optimize and refine the use of these powerful actuators in its rolling programme.
Source: Primetals Technologies