ProForge hall, the largest investment project at Böhler Edelstahl’s site in Kapfenberg, Austria, officially opened on Sept. 22. The production facility houses a large GFM longitudinal forging machine RF100 with a forging force of 2,000 metric tons. The new forging plant will enable Böhler Edelstahl to produce steel bars up to 15 meters long, with a diameter of up to around 550 mm and a unit weight of up to 8 metric tons. The steel plant and finishing capacity were adjusted to handle the increased forging and heat handling capacity.

A new gag press, peeling machine, grinder and cold-cutting unit will be housed in the existing hall 2 of the finishing area, and a combined inner and outer surface checking facility has been installed in a new parallel hall. The products are temporarily stored in an automatic high-bay warehouse. The capacity of the mechanical workshop was also extended with a new heavy-duty lathe and a vertical turret lathe to make use of the new forging opportunities for free-form products.