Votorantim Paz del Rio contracts Russula to upgrade block drives

Votorantim Paz del Rio, the second largest steel producer in Colombia, has contracted Russula to upgrade the block drives of line 2 of the wire rod mill. Existing ABB DCS 500 drives will be replaced with two ABB DCS800 model. Russula will supply the electrical equipment, hardware engineering, software engineering, integration into the existing HMI system, installation supervision and commissioning support. The plant is in located in the Hacienda Belencito, Boyaca, Colombia.

The collaboration between Russula and the Paz del Rio plant began with the audacious project to streamline the performance and quality of the 2-strand wire rod mill, originally built in the 1950s. In 2014, the Paz del Rio and Russula team performed a mechanical, electrical and control upgrade. Russula supplied a new table for two horizontal loopers. After the upgrade the plant recorded sustained improvements in mill utilization rate and metallic yield.