CRRC Times Electric Achieves Breakthrough in Aluminum Hot Rolling Mill with Fully Domestic Main Drive System

Recently, the medium-voltage main drive system for rolling mills, developed by the National Converter Center under CRRC Times Electric, was successfully applied in the Guangxi Guochao Aluminum hot strip mill project. The successful commissioning of this project marks the first breakthrough for CRRC’s main rolling mill drive in the aluminum hot strip rolling field, and it also represents the first hot rolling mill in the aluminum sector to achieve fully independent localization of medium-voltage main drive systems.

According to the R&D leader of the National Converter Center, the Guochao Aluminum hot rolling project is a major initiative supported and promoted by the government. It is part of a 200,000-ton annual production project for new energy electromagnetic aluminum foil stocks, planned to produce hot-rolled and cold-rolled aluminum alloy products in 1xxx, 3xxx, 5xxx, and 8xxx series. These products can be widely used in new energy vehicle power batteries, energy storage, packaging, consumer electronics, construction, and other fields.

The roughing and finishing mills of the Guochao Aluminum hot rolling project utilize a total of five AC motors. The main motor drive system adopts two sets of CRRC’s TGS6000 series engineering-type medium-voltage AC-AC main drive systems: one 20 MVA system configured for the two main motors of the roughing mill, and one 30 MVA system configured for the three main motors of the finishing mill. The main drive system employs a four-quadrant rectification, common DC bus scheme, allowing regenerative energy generated during production to be fed back to the grid through the four-quadrant inverter, achieving significant energy savings.

This project is the first collaboration between the National Converter Center, Beijing Metals-Tech Co., Ltd, and China Nonferrous Metals Processing Technology Co., Ltd, holding great significance for advancing the localization of key equipment in the non-ferrous rolling sector. During the commissioning process, all parties overcame multiple challenges, including confined construction spaces, complex installation techniques, and adverse weather conditions, ensuring the success of the initial test run.

Photo: CNPT / Article: Zhuzhou Daily