Russula North America recently started up a new rolling mill control system at the Gerdau Ameristeel Structural Mill in Whitby, Ont.

The mill was upgraded with a new Russula automation system using ABB AC800M control hardware, Wonderware, new operator desks and an iba high speed data acquisition system. The existing mill drives were updated with new digital front-ends, a cost effective method of bringing older drives up to modern standards of performance and diagnostic capabilities.

Russula also provided training, commissioning and installation advisement services.

The goals of the investment were to replace obsolete hardware that was increasingly difficult to maintain, provide a recipe based set-up system to ease operator input and increase quality and production through more consistent rolling. These goals have been achieved.

The rolling mill was restarted on September 7, 2004 after a 10-day shutdown. The startup has been significantly better than plan, with 100% of planned daily production achieved after only 6 days. For the balance of 2004, the mill is on track to increase production by slightly more than 8%.

Russula successfully upgraded the Whitby bar mill in 2003.

This startup marks the 17th mill that Russula has upgraded for the Gerdau Group in North and South America, and the 64th mill revamp for Russula worldwide since 1991.

Russula is an independent systems integrator specializing in the upgrading of rod and bar mills, with offices in Spain, Brazil and Milwaukee, Wis.