Tailor-made furnace delivering the best result at Cognor
The Cognor Ferrostal Labely plant specializes in the production of long hot-rolled steel products for the building, construction and creative industries.
Due to the increasing demand for high-quality square bars on the domestic market, the company had to expand its furnace capacity to meet the new production requirements.
“We recently invested in the modernization of our plant to be more competitive in the market and engaged Fives to renovate our existing pusher furnace to reheat high quality square billets. We greatly appreciate Fives’ commitment to developing a customized solution and delivering tailor-made equipment to achieve higher production while decreasing operational costs”, says Wojciech Stefanczyk, Chief Technology Officer at Cognor.
Improved efficiency
The new pusher furnace, with a capacity of 75 tonnes per hour, reheats square billets with a thickness of 120 to 160 mm to feed a new rolling mill and a spooler line. A customized side charging machine smoothly loads and positions billets into the furnace, eliminating typical inaccuracies.
The furnace is equipped with first-generation AdvanTek® wide-flame burners in the preheating zone, which ensure optimal combustion control, reduced gas consumption and a significant decrease in scale formation. In addition, the new automation software enables fully automatic operation of the furnace, reducing manual intervention and increasing safety.
“It was a challenging project due to the technical constraints of the existing furnace. We had to maintain the original equipment configuration while improving the overall efficiency and reducing operating costs. We are proud to have successfully produced the first hot billet on time and reached full production within a few weeks,” says Imanol Bilbao, Thermal Technology Manager at Fives Steel Spain, a Fives’ subsidiary specializing in long product thermal solutions.