Voith installation at Novelis, Oswego

The couplings will be applied with a 120 inch wide aluminium hot strip reversing roughing mill powered by two 4000HP motors that produces rolled aluminium products. The SafeSets, optimised through extensive testing by Voith, are to be integrated with the centre sections of existing slipper spindles. They are engineered for possible future application with Voith Universal Joint Shafts.

Novelis’s Oswego manufacturing plant recently expanded via the addition of a $200 million hot finishing rolling mill to produce five times more aluminium for an increase of 200,000 mt/year. The expansion created the need for more reliable and productive technology, generating interest in the Voith SafeSet Couplings.

“The couplings limit torque created by overload events such as mill wrecks thereby protecting the driveline from catastrophic damages,” said Jim Fraser, Product Sales Manager at Voith Turbo. “SafeSets minimise operating downtime and increase production uptime. The couplings can also be operated with tunnel drilling machines, crushers, and many other industrial applications.”

Oswego is the first SafeSet application with Novelis worldwide, with the expectation for more at Oswego and elsewhere. Novelis is the world leader in rolled aluminium products, delivering unique solutions for the most demanding global applications, such as automobiles, architecture and consumer electronics. Novelis is the world’s largest rolled aluminium producer in terms of volume shipped, and the largest purchaser of aluminium as well.