Advanced Scheduling helps automate foil production

摘要

Norandal's ultra modern, highly automated aluminium foil plant at Huntingdon, Tennessee, uses advanced scheduling and planning solutions from Broner Metals Solutions to optimise output and provide high productivity, flexibility and minimised costs. Norandal USA Inc. manufactures aluminium foil products for the North American market with four plants in the United States including one of the most advanced aluminium production facilities at Huntingdon in Tennessee. This plant is part of the company's 240 million dollars 'Quantum Leap" expansion program, and was designed to use the latest, state-of-the-art technology for casting, rolling and material handling. The goal was to provide increased capacity, high quality and lower costs in order to increase market share in a highly competitive market. The plant is designed to produce over 100,000 t/yr of heavy-gauge aluminium foil using four casters, which cast directly into coils. These coils are then cold-rolled in a six-high, single-stand mill with in-line coil preparation and automated coil handling, spool handling and scrap handling systems to transfer material from one process to the next. The storage and retrieval system is also fully automated and can handle up to 246 coils weighing up to 23 t. There is a high-speed rolling mill operating at up to 6000 ft/min producing foil between 54 and 90 in wide and down to 0.003 in gauge.