Laminazione Sottile unlocks new potential with its aluminium hot finishing mill in Italy

Laminazione Sottile, one of the leading European players in the aluminium transformation industry, renowned for producing high-quality rolled products like coils, sheets, and circles, has officially accepted the new hot finishing mill at its Caserta plant in Italy.

Image Source: Mino 

The acceptance was followed by a rigorous phase of trial production and performance testing.  Supplied by MINO, this advanced mill enhances the facility’s capabilities, positioning it as one of the few plants globally that can cast 600 mm slabs and roll them to ultra-thin gauges using equipment from a single manufacturer.

The Caserta plant alone produces over 120,000 tonnes of aluminium annually, offering coil, sheet, and circle products with thicknesses ranging from 6 mm to an ultra-thin 6 microns. For more than 40 years, Laminazione Sottile has partnered with MINO to enhance its rolling capabilities continuously. The facility is equipped with a hot mill featuring twin up-coilers, two cold mills — the most recently commissioned in 2015 — and three state-of-the-art foil mills, with the latest added in 2022.

Key features of the hot finishing mill

The new finishing mill streamlines the production process by being seamlessly integrated with the existing 1+1 MINO hot rolling line and hot roughing stand. The roughing stand executes the initial passes, transforming slabs into transfer bars, while the finishing mill performs precise final passes to refine the material. This setup significantly boosts thickness consistency, strip profile accuracy, and surface quality. The improvements are largely driven by the mill stand’s specialised mechanical design, paired with advanced actuator control systems that optimise thickness and strip flatness.

The hot finishing mill is equipped with an integrated side trimmer and scrap chopper for precise on-line edge trimming and two down-coilers featuring unload cars, enabling flexible rolling schedules. The innovative down-coiler design ensures a defect-free upper strip surface, making it ideal for downstream processing. The system is powered by state-of-the-art medium voltage AC drives with synchronous motors for enhanced performance.

Improved strip surface quality is also achieved through optimised coolant control and carefully engineered tribology, specifically tailored for the final passes at the finishing stand. This configuration allows for the use of specialised emulsion formulations and precise roll roughness in the hot finishing mill — without the risk of compromise from the initial roughing passes.

Equipped with advanced process control systems

The hot finishing mill can process strips up to 2,150 mm wide, with a minimum thickness of 2.5 mm for soft alloys and 3.0 mm for hard alloys, supported by an impressive maximum rolling force of 3,500 t. Equipped with advanced process control systems, the mill features automatic gauge control (AGC) and real-time profile measurement.

It also integrates a sophisticated self-learning Level 2 (L2) system, developed in collaboration with Centro Sviluppo Materiali (CSM), ensuring precise management of thickness, strip profile, and final coil temperature. The hot finishing mill is the latest enhancement to the Caserta plant, making Laminazione Sottile the sole operator of a 1+1 hot rolling line in Italy and one of the few in Europe. This strategic investment reinforces the company’s leadership in aluminium rolling, boosting efficiency while delivering exceptional product quality.