According to Primetals, the project entailed installation of a new vertical compactor and an unloading station designed to allow the automatic loading of loose coils from a floor-mounted cradle onto a vertical compacting system.
 
"The previous horizontal compacting system was slow as well as ineffective and did not provide the necessary coil package for efficient downstream processing," Primetals said in a statement. 
 
"The novel solution also includes a special feature located after the shot blast process, which delivers a denser coil package prior to compacting. The system is fully automatic without a dedicated operator, where forklift drivers simply drop off loose coils at a loading station and pick up compacted coils from an unloading station."
 
Primetals said the new system is capable of processing a 1.1-ton coil without scratching and tying four wire bindings every two minutes. It has a variable compactor force range of 2 to 20 tons.
 
Ugitech annually produces more than 200,000 tons of stainless steel long products, including bars, wire rods and wires. Part of the Schmolz + Bickenbach Group, the world's largest manufacturer, processor and distributor of special steel long products, Ugitech has seven producing and processing plants in France, Italy and Germany, Primetals said.