Latrobe Specialty Steel Wins AIST Award for VIM-VAR Expansion
01/19/2010 - The Association for Iron & Steel Technology will present Latrobe Specialty Steel with its 2009 Project Excellence award for the company’s VIM-VAR expansion project.
Latrobe Specialty Steel has been awarded the Association for Iron & Steel Technology's (AIST) award for 2009 Project Excellence for its VIM-VAR expansion project.
AIST's Project and Construction Management Technology Committee selected the Latrobe project by unanimous vote after evaluating competing projects from Allegheny Technology's Allegheny Ludlum plate manufacturing plant and United States Steel's coal grinding facility.
"Our team headed by Neal Fenton used the most modern project management tools,” said Dan Hennessy, Latrobe's Vice President Manufacturing. “At the same time, they cultivated unique relationships with the construction companies, an engineering firm, a key equipment supplier and the building trades.
Latrobe Specialty Steel and its partners, Continental Design and Management Group, Pittsburgh, and Consarc, Rancocas, N.J., used a modified design-and-build technique to construct the world's largest vacuum induction melting furnace in record time, starting in the snowiest months on a brown-field site.
“The construction project targeted the growing demand for premium vacuum-melted steel for the essential aerospace and defense markets,” added Hennessy. “As a result of this expansion, customer lead times fell precipitously from 72 weeks to about 20 weeks. I congratulate the team on an award they deserved."
The association will present the award to Latrobe Specialty Steel at the next AIST Pittsburgh Chapter meeting.
Latrobe Specialty Steel, in business since 1913 in Latrobe, Pa., has been supplying the aerospace and defense sectors since 1958. The firm employs approximately 800 people.
