Leading systems engineering company SMS group will be presenting its entire range of services at the aluminium trade fair in Düsseldorf, from melting and casting to forging, extrusion and flat rolling of aluminium – automation and digitalisation included. The systems engineering company demonstrates what this looks like in practice using the example of the first integrated aluminium flat rolling mill to be constructed on a greenfield site in the USA in more than 60 years.
“The ADL project is an impressive demonstration of how we at SMS group combine technological innovations and sustainable production methods”, says Ralf Ohrndorf, Head of Technical Sales Aluminum Rolling Mills, SMS group. According to him, this project not only drives technological progress, but also paves the way for a more sustainable aluminium production.
In the past year, Aluminum Dynamics, LLC, a joint venture of US steel firm Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI), commissioned SMS, the world leader for aluminium hot and cold rolling mills, with building a new aluminium complex. The new ADL aluminium flat rolling mill will be completed in Columbus, Mississippi, by 2025. It will have a production capacity of 650,000 tonnes of aluminium strip per year, mainly for applications in the markets for sustainable beverage packaging, automobiles and general alloys. SMS is supplying the integrated hot and cold rolling complex, including the hot strip mill, two tandem cold rolling mills, a single-stand cold rolling mill and two high rack warehouses. These are all the systems in the rolling mill, including electrical and automation technology. The integrated approach that SMS pursues is intended to help shorten the plant’s ramp-up time and increase the overall performance of the entire aluminium flat rolling mill.
SMS and SDI are connected by their shared history in the steel industry. SDI’s steel complex in Sinton, Texas, which was constructed by SMS and began operations in in 2021, is considered one of the most advanced steel sites in the world. SDI is not only one of the most productive steel manufacturers in the USA, but also recycles steel, aluminium and copper. SDI’s first aluminium plant is also intended to use a significant proportion of recycled aluminium scrap as primary material for production, thus making an important contribution to sustainable aluminium production. The aluminium scrap will be supplied by SDI’s metal recycling platform OmniSource. According to the company, even secondary aluminium scrap can be valorised using new sorting technologies.
Source: SMS group
