There was a lot going on at the INTECO booth at Metal & Metallurgy in Beijing last week.Beside lots of passers by taking pictures of the alpine style booth the INTECO team was glad to welcome many prestigious Chinese customers and offer them delicious Austrian wine and snacks. Interesting discussions were held about finalized – but also projects that are right now being put into operation as well as future plans and innovations.

End of March INTECO signed the FAC (Final Acceptance Certificate) with a confidential customer in Italy. The ESR plant which was designed, delivered and started up by INTECO consists of three static mold melt stations to be operated by four fully equipped furnace heads with electrode exchange technology. Ingots up to 120 tons with a diameter of 1900mm have been successfully commissioned. The customer is more than satisfied with the performance of the plant as highly critical steel grades for power generation have been remelted. The test results showed that the ingots produced in INTECO´s plant do not only meet the end user´s demanding specification but even exceed them. After the successful start up at the ESR plant supplied to Saarschmiede in Germany, this furnace is now the second large size ESR plant (ingot weight > 100t) INTECO has completed with success.

Since a few years INTECO’s employees have the possibility to have lunch at the Norske Skog canteen, where they can enjoy various delicious lunch menus every day for a very good price.
Now the canteen was awarded the “Green Plate” by Styria Vitalis for not only offering tasty BUT also HEALTHY food. The great number of INTECO employees crossing the Wienerstrasse every day at lunchtime to the Norske Skog canteen proves that healthy is also very yummy

As last year INTECO again is industrial partner of one mechanical class of the HTL Kapfenberg. Last week the students had the chance to visit the INTECO headquarters in Bruck. Michael Breitler head of the INTECO mechanical department showed the students around and gave them an insight on how it is to work for a company like INTECO. Furthermore Katrin Gaber, responsible for Human Resources, gave them tips on how to apply for a job.

In February 2012 another modification of an ESR plant at BGH Freital was successfully completed.After ESR plant 3 now ESR plant 4 was modified and reconstructed analogically to the previous one.As a result the same static molds can be used with similar process operation.Due to the more extensive and time intensive reconstruction - mainly because a dislocation of the plant was necessary – all involved persons had to work in an even more accurate and quicker way.

Again the close and flexible teamwork of BGH Freital and INTECO led to a successful project completion in due time. After two completed modification projects INTECO is already working on the engineering for a new plant, which will be started up in summer 2012.

30 years ago INTECO delivered the first ESR plant to the stainless steel facility in Ravne, which is still in operation. Beginning of 2012 the first heat at the new ESR plant, a combined plant with two melt stations, one for collar and one for static mold operation, took place. INTECO’s start up team and Ravne’s metallurgists were able to melt a 4t ingot of excellent quality.

The first heat in the second melt station, with which ingots up to 50t can be produced, will take place in the following weeks.

Since fall 2011 INTECO is part of the so called „Ökoprofit“ project with the goal to strengthen the headquarters in Bruck thanks to innovative integrated technologies in a sustainable way and to improve the ecological situation in the community and region. In the following years INTECO wants to minimize costs through investments in environmental protection and to enhance ecological efficiency. Small steps can make a difference – INTECO’s employees were advised not to print every single document or leave their computers and monitors switched on overnight in order to improve the awareness for a cleaner production. If the project proves successful further member s of the INTECO Group shall be included.

Im Rahmen der Initiative „andersgleich“, dich sich gegen Rassismus und Ausländerfeindlichkeit wendet, wurde zu Beginn des Jahres eine Plakatkampagne ins Leben gerufen. Auf diesen Plakaten sind vier Athleten der ECE Bulls und des KSV 1919 mit Migrationshintergrund und dem Slogan „Ich bin weder Ausländer, noch bin ich Inländer. Ich bin MENSCH.“ abgebildet.  INTECO freut sich als internationales Unternehmen mit Mitarbeitern aus unterschiedlichen Ländern diese tolle Kampagne zu unterstützen.

This November INTECO has been awarded to supply engineering services and equipment for a new ESR furnace to the German special steel producer BGH Freital.

This most modern furnace will be designed as a static mold plant consisting of one furnace head and two meltstations and will be equipped with all state-of-the-art features such as protective atmosphere remelting, full coaxial deisgn, etc..

After two modernisation projects on existing furnaces executed to the full satisfaction of BGH, the successful cooperation between BGH and INTECO will be continued with this brand new ESR plant.

The erection is scheduled to take place in June 2012 and first ingots will already be produced two months later.

Reference picture of a Static Mold ESR furnace.