RCC begins using German robots at its metallurgical plant in Novgorod

22.03.2012 — News

Novgorod Metallurgical Plant, CJSC (a subsidiary of Russian Copper Company) has introduced the use of a cathode-stripping machine that employs robot manipulators made by the German company KUKA Roboter GmbH. The Finnish company OUTOTEC designed the equipment, and 750 thousand euros were spent on this upgrade.

Russian Copper Company's press office told RusBusinessNews that the robotic system to remove metal from cathode is part of a new generation of strip machines that are used by global producers of copper and nickel in order to reduce their consumption of energy and materials.

This new unit with a technical capacity of 200 cathode matrices per hour will allow Novgorod Metallurgical Plant to increase its production of copper cathode to 75 thousand tons a year. The cathode-stripping machine will ensure that the cathodes are precisely positioned - up to 1 millimeter, which will lower production costs and reduce the influence of human error on the quality of the finished product. The equipment will produce TACO cathodes (in which the cathode sheets are connected at the bottom and the total weight of the cathode is 100 kilograms). This new way of producing copper cathode at Novgorod Metallurgical Plant satisfies the most up-to-date global standards. This is the first time such technology has been used in Russia.

A comprehensive program to update the facilities is being adopted throughout all of Russian Copper Company's subsidiaries, and is designed to increase productivity, efficiency, and environmental safety. In 2005, RCC launched the first business in Russia to use underground leaching technology for the industrial production of copper - Uralgidromed, CJSC. In 1995, the Kyshtym Copper Electrolytic Plant, CJSC pioneered the use in Russia of the first generation of substrate-free technology for electrolytic copper refining, and the company adopted a new method of substrate-free electrolytic refining in 2005, after modernizing its equipment. A new sulfuric-acid facility is being built as part of the technical upgrade at Karabashmed. It will use double contact/double absorption (DCDA) technology, which was developed in order to dispose of sulfur-containing gases from metallurgical production.