Yuri Adno

A

new line for painting aluminum sections has been commissioned at the MosMetalloKonstruktsia Plant (MOSMEK) in the town of Vidnoye, the Moscow region. This technology will considerably boost the production potential of the enterprise that specializes in making construction structures. Taking into account a high demand in the market of coated metal products, it will also ensure a significant sales growth.


The new line costing $1.6 million has been developed by Italy’s Trevisan and has the production capacity of 1.5 million square meters a year. Its uniqueness is the built-in channel for chemical preparation of sections’ surfaces to get painted. So, the duration of the production cycle is significantly reduced. Preparing metal surface is done in accordance with the European Qualicoat standards. Along with the use of high-quality powder enamels all this guarantees the resistance of the decorative and protective coating for as long as no less than 30 years.
The line includes two boxes with automatic control for painting sections and an infrared furnace of preliminary polymerization. The technology allows to switch during painting from one color to another without losing time. The high quality of painting is ensured through turns of sections in a painting box by 180o. As a result, the even coating of sections with the most complex shapes is achieved. The intermediate infrared furnace prevents crumbling of powder enamel in the polymerization furnace.
With the start-up of the new line the production potential of MOSMEK with respect to painting sections will increase 30%. It is expected that the design capacity will be reached by the end of 2004. The enterprise intends to fix its solid positions in the market of aluminum structures for the construction industry, which is now experiencing a significant increase of demand.
MOSMEK is the main enterprise of the Aluminum Construction Structures (ACS), the division of the RUSAL company. This division is accomplishing strategic tasks of RUSAL in making products of deep processing and advancing them to the market of construction materials. It also expands and modernizes enterprises, provides them with raw materials, logistics and management.
MOSMEK was built in 1971. Today it has production capacity volumes amounting to 13,5 thousand tons of pressed sections a year. These semi-finished products are used for making windows, doors of different modifications, stained-glass windows, transparent rails for balconies and loggias, facades, suspended ceilings, inside partitions, commercial stands and pavilions.
The plant has the full cycle of processing aluminum that includes the smelting process stage with two 12-ton furnaces of the shaft type, mixers and vertical smelting units as well as the homogenizing furnace. The press production includes 4 automated lines: two of them are made by Japan’s UBE with the press effect of 1,400 tons and the other two are of the German company SMS’ make with press effects of 1,600 tons and 2,500 tons. The finishing process stage includes two anodizing lines and four lines of painting with powder enamels as well as a unit for sections’ polishing. The assembling production facilities are equipped with units made by leading European companies. Besides, the enterprise has a production section to manufacture component parts for assembling products, a section to make sheet products, tool production section and appropriate auxiliary services.
Along with construction products the plant makes machine-building, technological and electrical sections. In recent years MOSMEK steadily increased its production volume: from 9,1 thousand tons in 2000 to 12,000 tons in 2003.
To a large extent the plant’s market success is achieved thanks to the potential of the ACS Engineering Center, which is engaged in researching and developing new technologies of using aluminum-made architectural systems. These works are done in a close contact with customers and this ensures the guaranteed market sales of new products. RUSAL is interested in the development of the plant as one of efficient enterprises, which is capable of further expanding the manufacturing of products with high added value. In 2003 the volume of investments in MOSMEK amounted to $2 million, including $1.8 million directly in developing its production capacities.
The use of aluminum in Russia’s construction industry is comparatively small. Precisely because of it the market of light construction structures can be considered one of the most promising fields of expanding sales of aluminum. Materials made of aluminum are used abroad as walling (construction scaffolding, spans), load-carrying structures (panels, girders, roofing, bridges), finished construction components (window frames, doors, facades), etc. By different estimates, construction industries consume over 20% of the world volume of aluminum, mostly as sections and sheets. This amounts to about 4.5 million tons. The share is significantly higher in the developed countries. For example, in the last ten years the use of aluminum in the construction complex of the EU countries was increasing by exceptionally high rates and at present it accounts for about 35% of total aluminum production volume. The construction complex in the U.S. consumes nearly half of all pressed sections made of aluminum.
Although aluminum is significantly costlier than galvanized steel, its low consistence and minimal ‘consistence : strength’ coefficient make aluminum the indispensable material for constructing the most important and loaded elements of buildings, such as frames of roofs, domes, protective visors and so one. The excellent set of various advantages, including lightness, strength, manufacturability, corrosion resistance, superb decorative qualities ensures considerable economic advantages of this metal and a wide use in constructing different industrial and civil structures.



Comparative properties of construction structural materials

Average properties Aluminum Steel Reinforced concrete PVC
sections sections sections sections

Consistence, kg/m3 2,700 7,000 4,000 1300
Tensile strength, MPa 180 350 10 60
‘Consistence : strength’
coefficient 15 20 400 22

Average cost, $/ t 3,000 1,000 200 6,000

Cost of unit with
equal strength, $ 45,000 20,000 80,000 130,000
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Source: MetalTorg.ru