Russula upgrades furnace drives at Gerdau Petersburg
Gerdau upgraded the reheat furnace drives of its structural steel mill, located in Petersburg, Virginia, USA. The purpose of the upgrade was to replace obsolete equipment with modern AC drives that removed bottlenecks and improved plant performance.
The existing AC multidrive, controlling the stock, coming either from the cold or caster lines or the charging and discharging furnace areas, was replaced with the ABB ACS880-X04 multidrive series with Regenerative Rectifier Units (RRU).
Besides the electrical equipment, Russula also provided engineering services and spare parts. The AC drives were assembled in the Russula workshop at the end of 2018. Subsequently, the factory testing occurred in January of this year and the startup was in late February.
