Trametal
The Customer
The Metinvest Trametal Plant is located in San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD) on an area of 150,000 square meters, of which 50,000 are covered; it produces plates through a IV reversible rolling train. With over half a million tons of plates produced, about the 50% of which exported mainly to Germany and Northern European countries, it is the largest steel plant in the industrial area of Aussa Corno.
The factory fonunded in 1992 as Metallurgical San Giorgio, was taken over at the end of 1994 by the Malacalza Group of Genoa that, thanks to a multi-year investment plan, increased the installed capacity of the plant to the current 600 kton/year.
In 2008, the plant was acquired by the Ukrainian Group Metinvest Holding LLC.
Piombino (LI), lo stabilimento dell’azienda siderurgica Lucchini, nella foto l’altoforno 2010-09-28 © Majlend Bramo/Massimo Sestini – 2010-09-28 Piombino (LI), lo stabilimento dell’azienda siderurgica Lucchini, nella foto l’altoforno 2010-09-28 © Majlend Bramo/Massimo Sestini 176816_0002_2950934.jpg – fotografo: / SESTINI
Why the simulation
In 2007, the Executive Committee approved a series of investments on machinery aimed to production increase, production optimization and product quality improvement.
In the frame of designing the optimal layout hypotheses, the problem was raised of the impact that the installation of new machinery could have in the production flow of the various processes.
The different layout scenarios hypothesized have convinced the Metinvest Trametal staff of the need for support by an instrument that would allow, by means of numerical simulation, to highlight any criticality not detectable by traditional spreadsheets.
The aim was to assess the impact of a different production plan (for both the number of pieces and the variety of products), and then to verify its compatibility with the addition of new facilities and machinery prior to installation.
The Project
The Project objectives were:
- Constructing a so-called “As Is” simulation model to represent as faithfully as possible, the operation of the existing plant;
- Parameterizing the “As Is” model and first assessing of experiments by modifying the processing times of the existing facilities;
- Constructing the “What If” model based on the layout proposed by the factory management;
- Optimizing the the best layout identified by fine tuning of the parameters that make up the various process blocks.
The simulation model took into account all the process blocks contained in the covered area of the factory (about 50,000 square meters), with a deep level of detail of the machines that make up the reversible IV train and the normalization, trimming and finishing lines.
The results
Iso Sistemi generated a detail specification derived from the results obtained by launching the various scenarios of the “As Is” and “What If” simulation models. The specification highlighted improvements and some critical aspects, as well as providing important suggestions about the operating practices to be adopted.
The role of Iso Sistemi
Iso Sistemi supported the Metinvest Trametal staff at key stages of the decision-making process, providing valuable information about the ways of dealing with critical situations, unforeseeable without the use of a simulator.