The Gazoldo degli Ippoliti (Mantua – Northern Italy) HQ of Marcegaglia, the industrial holding company recently hosted the annual meeting of the Technical Group Steel no. 5 (Finishing and Coating), of the European Commission (Research Fund for Coal and Steel), held to assess the steel industry projects being financed, mainly by means of the RFCS (formerly CECA) fund, which has been supporting innovation in the industry since 1952.
The meeting, also attended by company Chairman and CEO Antonio Marcegaglia, provided the opportunity for the presentation of the intermediate results of the ACE-PICK demonstration project, launched to industrialise and validate the world’s first Alternating Current (AC) electrolytic pickling process/technology.
The process was initially developed on a laboratory scale by Centro Sviluppo Materiali, the company which still owns the relevant patent, before being put into industrial operation at the Marcegaglia plant at Gazoldo degli Ippoliti with positive outcomes over a period of more than 15 months. For stainless steels, the process has delivered a significant reduction in environmental impact thanks to the lower specific consumption of reagents such as hydrofluoric and nitric acids.
