Innovation on a roll Beltrame Group

iNNovATioN oN A RoLL

The Beltrame Group is the European leader in the production of rolled steel sections and is the main supplier of special steel bars for shipbuilding and earth moving machinery. Philip Yorke reports on the company’s latest innovative, high-tech solutions that are keeping it well ahead of its competitors.

Today the Beltrame Group is at the forefront of technology and innovation within the steel industry. The company boasts a century-old tradition that was pioneered by the Beltrame family at the end of the 19th century and continues today through its Lamines Marchand Europeens French subsidiary.

Antonio Beltrame founded the company in 1896 in Vicenza, northern Italy. In the 1920s the steelworks “Ferriere Vicentine” was created by the family. Strong growth during the 1930s saw new production choices and the commercial reorganisation of the company. With globalisation and the opening up of international markets in the1960s, the Beltrame steelworks moved towards the production of merchant laminates for buildings, and iron structures for civil engineering works and industrial buildings.

Today the Beltrame Group’s distinctive points of difference are the exceptional quality of its products and its ability to satisfy its customers’ needs through a range of dedicated client services. With nine strategically located plants, it is the only European steel-rolling operation with production exceeding three million tonnes per annum. The Beltrame Group employs over 2,000 people and its products are distributed worldwide.

Focus on sustainability and efficiency

Sustainable development is at the core of the company’s efforts to minimise production waste and significantly reduce emissions. This long term commitment to protecting the environment allows the Beltrame Group the dual benefit of reducing the exploitation of limited natural resources whilst simultaneously reducing production waste. Bearing the CE mark the inert ‘Beltreco’ aggregate is available in a variety of ratios and is produced according to the EN 13242 for road foundations, and EN12620 for reinforcing steel in concrete.

The Beltrame Group Management System is also certified in accordance with ISO 9001, ISO14001 and OHSAS 18001. These international standards ensure Beltrame’s consistent reliability and efficiency. These certifications also underscore its commitment to the environment, employee health and safety and customer expectations, which in turn supports the company’s continuous process of improvement.

All the company’s products are fully certified and all hot rolled steel products bear the CE mark thus demonstrating fitness for use as construction products for concrete in all major European countries. Furthermore, all Beltrame’s products meet the stringent inspection standards of the ship classification societies worldwide, ensuring they are fit for shipbuilding. The company’s special steel products undergo ultrasonic testing to ensure they meet the standards for use in the most demanding applications.

optimising control processes

Recently the Beltrame Group began a search for an HMI/Scada solution in order to better visualise and control processes within its multiple steel plants. Key objectives of these processes included lowering pollution within the fusion furnaces, cooling, stocking and the insertion of iron alloys in silos. Each plant should have its own graphical interface, settings and alarm requirements.

In addition to a robust system for the set-up, monitoring and control of its plants, AVF Beltrame required a solution that was easy and fast to design and deploy.

The selected system would need to easily handle several thousand tags and I/O points, working with existing Allen Bradley PLCs. An additional requirement was the integration of the company’s existing Microsoft SQL Server installation. As a result of these diverse needs, Beltrame selected the Iconics Genesis32™ OPC Web-enabled HMI/Scada suite to assist in the production of its rolled steel from iron scrap.

Currently the company has more than 30 installations between its steel plants and rolling mills. This state-of-the-art system has allowed the company to save thousands of euros and has significantly sped up its own internal application development times. The flexibility of the Genesis32 system also provides Beltrame with the ability to better adapt to new processes or environmental changes and allows additional applications beyond the present fusion furnace pollution abatement, plant cooling and iron alloy stocking/silo insertion.

unrivalled service

The on-going success of the Beltrame Group is not only based upon its innovative, high quality products, but also its unrivalled customer services. A spokesman for the Beltrame Group said, “We serve our customers anywhere in the world faster and with a more extensive range of products than any of our competitors. We are the clear market leaders in the merchant bars market for one clear reason - we offer the best complete service.

“We have operated in the steel industry for well over a century producing rolled sections for use in construction, shipyards and excavators. Our high-tech facilities across Europe have the capacity to produce more than 3 million tonnes a year and include four electric furnaces and ten rolling mills. With our other facilities across Europe, Beltrame also has a strategic advantage in terms of its broad spread.

“We know that we have a unique competitive advantage in that we have learned extraordinary things about delivering the best possible merchant bars over the last century alongside being resolutely modern. Our workforce is dynamic, and our facilities are equipped with the latest machinery and technology – this is a powerful combination”

The Beltrame Group is committed to producing quality, environmental sustainability and energy conservation and to making strategic decisions that achieve key objectives designed to support these core values into the future.

For further details of the Beltrame Group’s latest innovative products and services visit: www.beltramegroup.it