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SMS Meer Provides World’s Largest Ring Rolling Plant with Industrial Robots
01/27/2011 - Ovako Tube & Ring has successfully commissioned its new ring rolling plant from SMS Meer. The new plant is the world’s largest ring rolling plant in which industrial robots transport and position the work pieces.
Ovako Tube & Ring has successfully commissioned its new ring rolling plant from SMS Meer.
The new plant, a type RiWa 2000/80, is the world’s largest ring rolling plant in which industrial robots transport and position the workpieces. It expands the annual capacity of the works in Hofors in Central Sweden to 55,000 tonnes.
The fully automated plant comprises a ring-blank press with three permanent work stations and a radial-axial ring rolling machine. Modern industrial robots perform work piece transfer within the press and between the forming units. "The largest types of robots currently available on the market are in use here. We have equipped them with special gripping tongs for the specific application,” said Robert Düser from the Ring Rolling Product Unit at SMS Meer.
Ovako Tube & Ring uses its new plant to produce profiled rings with rectangular cross-section and outside diameters from 200 to 1,200 mm. Maximum ring height is 350 mm, and the weight lies between 50 and 250 kg. The products are used in the automotive and machine engineering industries.
This is the fourth ring rolling machine from SMS Meer actively in operation in Hofors. Ovako has already ordered a fifth ring rolling machine from SMS Meer, which is scheduled for delivery in 2012.
SMS Meer GmbH is a company of the SMS group, which is, under SMS Holding GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It comprises the two Business Areas SMS Siemag and SMS Meer. In 2010, some 9,000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of EUR 3.1 bn.
