WCA November 2020

Technology news

AIC upgrades reheating furnace at CMC Florida Automazioni Industriali Capitanio (AIC) has upgraded the reheating furnace Level 1 combustion control system at CMC Florida in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

WTM was requested to develop a specific rigid stranding line to provide a solution for the cabling of Twinax pairs and taking into account the production needs of such a cable in terms of tension, guiding, forming and construction. The rigid stranding bays are available in units with four or six reel positions, with different combinations able to cover a wide variety of cable constructions. Each reel position has its own independent electronic tension control, which can be set or adjusted during running by the operator, and each Twinax pair is guided along the whole path to the stranding point by rollers with a special anti-flipping design. The stranding line can be completed and configured according to the customer’s product needs, by adding taping modules, capstans, caterpillars and take-ups. WTM Srl www.wtmachinery.com CMC (Commercial Metals Company), headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA, operates local recycling centres; steel mini mills and micro mills; fabrication facilities; construction-related product warehouses; heat treating facilities; and other metals-related operations in the USA and Europe. The company’s steel products are used in applications that include infrastructure, construction, agriculture, machinery, service centres and fabrication businesses. Automazioni Industriali Capitanio Srl www.aicnet.it CMC www.cmc.com solutions for the steel industry, with the aim to continuously improve efficiency, competitiveness and safety of the production processes. With more than 1,000 applications worldwide and more than 40 years of history, AIC has experience in both greenfield and revamping projects in melt shops and long-product rolling mills.

The constant demand for tele- communications systems around the world is one of the main reasons for growing requests for high-speed data cables with high transmission speed and low signal loss. WTM is a supplier of Twinax technology machines, taping lines and stranding machines that are necessary to meet the needs of this particular product. In the taping process, from a technological point of view the targets to be achieved vary: precise tension control of the various elements forming the cable (cores, drain wires, tapes); bringing the various elements together in the correct configuration; precise and consistent taping pitch; preventing the cable components from changing position; and full equalisation of extra tensions on the finished cable. These must be achieved while also considering the importance of production capacity. The heart of the system is the taping head with dynamic dancer. This The scope of supply included the field activities, design, manufacturing, internal testing, supply, installation assistance, commissioning and start- up activities of the electrical and automation (E&A) part to control and command the gas combustion within the reheating furnace at the rolling mill. The new PLC/HMI system for the combustion control system is based on the ControlLogix platform from AB and FactoryTalk running on Stratus virtual server and thin client configuration. The upgrade has improved the functioning of the main track for the gas feeding, safety controls and combustion. The commissioning of the complete system was scheduled for February, and it took just one week of shutdown to completely replace the obsolete

❍ ❍ The team on-site at CMC Florida

combustion system. This part of the upgrade increased the efficiency of the plant and the flexibility of the automation system. Some of the targets of the project are to reduce gas consumption and scale at the reheating furnace. AIC has its headquarters, engineering and workshops in Italy, with sales and service in the USA, and sales, engineering and service in India and Brazil. The company is a global system integrator providing advanced and tailored automation and robotic

Taping and stranding – into the future at high speed

system, patented by WTM, allows management of very low tape tension even at high speed – an important factor in an application that requires a precise taping process. To meet the quality inspection and process control needed in this application, in addition to traditional systems (laser gauge), WTM adds the camera-based Visio System, which has a dual function: to continuously measure the taping pitch during wrapping and collect all process data, with the possibility of statistical analyses (taping pitch, tape and wire tension, cable dimension, speed, etc). All data can be uploaded and reported on an internal company network. WTM taping machines are configured according to the needs of the customer’s product, with the possibility of different primary sizes, one or two drain wires, one or two heating systems and different payoff and take-up reel dimensions.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2020