State-of-the-art aluminium production

Laminazione Sottile: higher production capacity thanks to the new intermediate cold rolling mill.

Important news from LaminazioneSottile, the Italian company leader in the production of aluminium alloy foil. As of May 2014, an innovative intermediate reversing cold rolling mill built by MINO SpA has come into operation at the San Marco Evangelista (Caserta) facility.
The expected increase in production capacity - from 100 KT produced in 2013 to an estimated 170 KT will enable the company led by the Moschini family to enter onto new markets, consolidating its position of European leadership, among the most important producers of aluminium foil for packaging and finstock for air conditioning.

The rolling mill: how and why
The new facility has two distinguishing features: high performance and quality of the foil produced. The rolling mill harmonically combines power and speed: it is a hybrid system that overcomes the known limits of intermediate rolling mills, which usually don’t go beyond 0.6 mm, by reaching speeds typical of semifoil rolling mills.The plant relies on an X-ray thickness control system at the input and output of the housingmill, as well as a laser-based mass flow control system.

In addition to eccentricity control, the latter guarantees better performance in terms of acceleration and deceleration, while keeping the gauge constant and ensuring optimal foil planarity from the first to the last meter produced.
The new rolling mill is an addition to a second intermediate reversing 1400 mm flat rolling mill, once again supplied by MINO SpA, which consolidates Laminazione Sottile’s position in the market.
Larger production flexibility allows for shorter delivery times and better quality service for clients.

The new plant’s innovative technology features also allow for expanding the range of production and for focusing on the alloys in most demand in key markets. An example would be magnesium alloys, which are increasingly employed in the production of structural components for cars.

Stages of Italian growth
The new intermediate cold rolling mill represents a new stage in the history of Laminazione Sottile SpA, a company founded by Engineer Augusto Moschini in 1923 in Naples, for the manufacturing, among other things, of milk glass bottle caps. This successful company, which today is managed by the third generation of the same family is built on the commitment to a unique principle:the union of the traditional values expressed by the “made-in-Italy” brand - quality, passion, fantasy, accuracy, good taste and culture - and the Mittel-European business style distinguished for its reliance upon rules, planning, cost control and results.
Today the LaminazioneSottile Group numbers four companies (Laminazione Sottile, Contital, Italcoat, I2R), a consolidated turnover of 320 million euros, a workforce of more than 600 employees in Italy and the UK, and an expanding market abroad.

Risultati costruiti in oltre 90 anni di attività, all’insegna di una crescita costante che ha portato prima al trasferimento, negli anni ’60, da Napoli all’area industriale di Caserta, e successivamente all’apertura di un stabilimento per la verniciatura con tecnologia coil coating. A partire dagli anni ’90, il gruppo si è diversificato a valle grazie alla creazione di uno stabilimento per la produzione di contenitori in alluminio, e ancora, superando i confini nazionali, all’acquisizione di uno stabilimento in Inghilterra per la produzione di smooth-wall containers.

These results have been achieved in over 90 years of activity and constant growth, as Eng. Guido Moschini first moved the company, in the 1960s, from Naples to the Caserta industrial area, to then open a painting facility based on the coil coating technology. As of the early 1990s, the Group diversified through the establishment of a facility for the production of aluminium containers and then, through the acquisition, in the UK, of a facility for the production of smooth-wall containers.

Year after year, thanks to the use of new and better performing technologies, Laminazione Sottile has become stronger and managed to affirm itself as a point of reference in the sector, by conquering important market shares that today let it compete with the most important global players. These results are also due to non-stop teamwork founded on solid principles:respect and integrity, individual responsibility that becomes joint commitment to the consolidation of the results achieved and their transformation into a new starting line.