The Greek aluminium manufacturer ElvalHalcor SA has installed the SMS Group's Airwash™ technology at its cold rolling production site in Oinofyta, close to Athens. Elval gave the SMS group the final acceptance certificate for the project's successful conclusion in the fall of 2022.
However, with this investment, ElvalHalcor has made another significant step toward even more environmentally friendly aluminium manufacturing and protection.
A portion of the rolling oil evaporates during the cold rolling of aluminium. The Airwash™ system receives the removed fumes. Rolling oil is primarily present in the exhaust air as a gas, with some droplets and less gas. The Airwash™ technology can separate and recover droplet and gaseous components, unlike mechanical separators, which can only separate droplets. The absorption and distillation of the rolling oil ensure the highest recovery, which makes Airwash™ systems highly effective. Another benefit of the Airwash™ system is the recovered rolling oil, which is returned to the rolling oil system after being perfectly cleaned.
In delivering the Airwash™ system to ElvalHalcor, the size of the system presented a particular challenge, as it was designed to cover not only the exhaust air volume of two existing cold rolling capacities but also the exhaust air volume of future cold rolling capacities. It is also the first Airwash™ system to be installed on a roll shop floor below.
SMS is the most extensive Airwash™ system, with an exhaust air capacity of up to 450,000 cubic meters per hour. Theoretically, 425 kilograms of rolling oil per hour can be recovered and returned to the rolling process.
The Greek premium aluminium producer has previously trusted SMS as a supplier of critical vital components in its production facilities. Since the late 1990s, ElvalHalcor has run an SMS aluminium cold rolling mill. SMS also supplied ElvalHalcor with a four-stand hot strip mill, which will be operational in May 2020.
ElvalHalcor is highly pleased with the new AirwashTM system, its performance, and SMS's overall project management during the sales and implementation phases.
The customer praised the design work and the resulting components' reasonable accuracy, considering all interfaces to the surrounding trades. This resulted in an efficient and smooth assembly.
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