Previous good experience with the S800 I/O system, made Elektrokoppar look at process control solutions from ABB’s Compact Product Suite
Upgrading control systems for wire profiles
Elektrokoppar is one of the classic companies in the south district of Helsingborg, Sweden. The story begins in 1799 when Count Eric Ruuth founded a sister company that would much later become Höganäs AB. The company’s structure would change orientation several times before Elektrokoppar came about in 1953, with 75 percent of the company owned by Asea/ABB and 25 percent by Ericsson. The company is now owned by the Liljedahl Group.
Elektrokoppar manufactures rolled and profiled wire for cables. The majority of the copper comes from Boliden. Six days a week, a copper train arrives in Helsingborg from Norrland. “It’s a train with about 500 tons of copper cathodes aboard,” says Thomas Roslund, who heads the company’s electrical department. The raw materials are extracted from the Aitik mine, among others, just outside Gällivare. They are refined at the Rönnskär mill in Skelleftehamn before being sent to us. The copper cathodes, which weigh about 50 kilos, arrive in Helsingborg in compartments with 10 tons in each.”
A few years ago, it became necessary to assess the control systems for profile production at Elektrokoppar.The oldest components were from the 1980s. At this point, Elektrokoppar went shopping for a new system. Because the company previously had good experience of the S800 I/O system, which is used in the rolling mill, they looked at ABB’s control system, Automation System 800xA. “But it was too large for us,” says Thomas Roslund They instead settled on ABB’s new compact system. “It was just the right size and more moderately priced.”