News

After the initial step of modernization and grouping of all facilities in only one plant, Villares Metals SA has been continuing the investments to complement total modernization of Sumare plant.

Conventional melting shop: To fulfill all increase of capacity of the plant production and to modernize the melting refining process of the electric arc furnaces, the melting shop received important investments:

►      Increasing capacity by enlargement of the EAF-I

►      Foam-slag process and automatic slag removal system

►      Improved ingot pouring lay-out

►      Revamp and additional mold size for the billet continuous casting machine

Acquisition of new 4.000 tons forging press: This investment is already in progress to start operation in 2009. The new forging press will increase the total capacity of forged bars and forged profiles by open die from 40.000 to 50.000 tons per year. Complementary re-heating and heat treatment furnaces will be also installed.

Pit furnace plus facilities improvements of the blooming rolling mill: In order to increase capacity and to improve process capability for rolled bars up to Rd 180,00 mm, a new revamp is in progress in the blooming rolling mill. The operation in fully capacity of the equipment requires new re-heating pit-furnace. The Villares Metals guiding principles regarding environment protection required the use of natural gas regenerated class flames. A new electric motor increased power of the equipment will complement the reforming, for total capacity of 12.000 tons per year of finished rolled bars of specialty steel and Nickel base alloys from Rd 77,00 to Rd 180,00.

Special melting shop process-ESR: By the increasing participation in the specialty steels and nickel base alloys market, the company decided to increase capacity for re-melted production process: a new set of VIM melting furnace and ESR re-melting furnace were installed to double capacity of production.  New furnaces started operation in March’08 to delivery additional 1200 tons per year of finished bars.

After complement of this investment phase, the plant will be prepared to produce in 2010 a total capacity of 110.000 tons per year. The Villares Metals production is about 50% shared between internal Brazilian market and exporting market to Europe, North America and South America. Supplied market segments are chemical, petrochemical, oil & gas, aerospace, and automotive. Quality homologations and quality excellence programs are continuously in progress to make the company able to participate in the worldwide market of specialty products.   

VILLARES METALS BRAZIL IS CERTIFIED FOR ISO 14001:2004
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Aiming to achieve harmony between industrial operation and environment preservation, the Villares Metals plant in Brazil has been certified for the ISO 14001:2004 (click here to download certificate) environmental management system.
The certification was performed by the “Bureau Veritas Certification” after an intensive program including employee training, investment in facilities, and other activities in order to optimize as much as possible nature preservation. In addition to various other improvements, Villares Metals invested in:      
o Operational residuals treatment
o Barriers for sound pollution
o New dust collectors and filter cleaner
o Garbage selection for recycling processes
The newly approved environmental management system confirms the commitment of the company to maintaining and continuously improving the “Villares Metals Excellence” program in line with the increasing environmental protection policy worldwide. 

VILLARES METALS INTERNATIONAL APPROVED FOR ISO 9001:2000.

On March 26th, 2007, Villares Metals International has obtained the approval for ISO 9001:2000 (click here to download certificate). The certification is very important to successfully operate in an increasingly demanding market environment in terms of efficiencies, services and technical capabilities, supporting Villares Metals International in the process of continuous improvements, as laid down in our quality policy, which reads "To ensure our competitiveness and customer satisfaction through continuous product- and process improvement and participation of all employees".

VILLARES METALS IS APPROVED AS SUPPLIER OF 15-5 PH ALLOY FOR EMBRAER – THE BRAZILIAN AIRCRAFTS MANUFACTURER

Villares Metals S.A. was qualified by EMBRAER, the Brazilian manufacturer of aircrafts as a homologated supplier of precipitation hardened stainless steel 15-5 PH, which belongs to the PH stainless steel group of steels. These special steels were developed to perform high mechanical properties and good corrosion resistance. The homologation was concluded at 4th of November 2005, after all material qualification tests. The Villares Metals Quality Management System was already approved by Embraer in September 2003. The homologation process was developed through the production of the alloy by the Vacuum Arc Remelting – VAR – an upgrade process of production, in order to achieve all restricted requirements specifications according to the AMS 5659L specification and additional specific customer requirements.

This approval is extended to all aircrafts components manafucturers that are producing accoding to Embraer specifications, which company will produce 140 aircrafts in 2006. Already next year these Brazilian and also international companies could be using Villares Metals materials for their production. The current growing aerospace market worldwide made it necessary for Embraer to develop new suppliers or special steels and alloys, making Villares Metals the first homologated Brazilian mill in these specialties. It is the forecast to extend the certification for all other PH alloys applied to Embraer production.

The strengths of Villares Metals, revealed by Embraer in the homologation process were the Quality Management System and the Chemical Laboratory. The fatigue testing was performed by an independent laboratory approved by Embraer materials engineering departments.

Traditional producer of special steels and alloys for the Automotive, Oil & Gas and Chemical industries, Villares Metals has in progress new homologations for special steels and alloys with aerospace components manufacturers, as well as the renewal of the AS9000 certification, in order to have the approvals to produce the main products for aerospace application and to increase the participation in this selected market.