The need to increase market opportunities and gain business opportunities has always been a significant driver of progress in the sectors where we operate, including steels for the construction industry, and special medium to high-carbon steels destined for the engineering and automotive industries, to name but a few.
We rely on a dedicated R&D team and specific activities to improve, in line with three focus areas:
- Developing new products and unprecedented steel quality to extend the production range of special steels.
- Reducing defects and improving steel quality in the mill, in terms of less internal and surface cracks, porosity, unwanted components and inclusions.
- Reducing defects in long products and improving product calibration and packaging.
Over time we have developed new solutions for these aspects of our plants, and carried out testing and sampling in conjunction with the entire production chain, including collaboration with customers and partnerships with universities and research bodies.
Activities have involved national and international projects mainly targeting Quality Integration i.e. adopting a supply chain logic from the steel mill to the rolling mill.
We set up all actions possible, in terms of plant improvement, modification testing, operational practices, and the implementation of Industry 4.0 simulation and control systems.
Feralpi's main actions concern:
- Internalising skills in the steelworks area and testing to develop new steel qualities
- Developing rolling mills with thermomechanical treatment at Caleotto
- Implementing software systems in line with an Industry 4.0 logic to monitor and control the entire production chain
- Developing measurement systems along the entire production chain, from preparing liquid steel to casting and rolling, to detect 'out-of-process' situations and defects and be able to correct any issues quickly.
- Implementing ongoing product tracing systems.