STEEL FORGING IN THE ENERGY SECTOR

For Forge Fedriga, steel forging in the energy sector represents a strong and constantly growing sector.

Forging represents the main focus of our manufacturing, and our company is also increasingly specialized in supplying forged products for the energy industry.

Forging at Forge Fedriga is performed according to a specific cycle: the engineering of forging cycles takes place in the technical department, while production takes place in a department that features an 1800-ton press, a 3000-ton press, five reheating furnaces, five heat treatment furnaces, and five manipulators with a capacity of up to 30 tons. Also recently installed is a fully automatic heat treatment plant consisting of two furnaces (high and low temperature) and a cooling tank with agitator served by a rototranslating telescopic loader.

H2: What is the energy sector, and what production is offered?

The energy sector includes the generation of a variety of energy sources both renewable and nonrenewable. This sector includes all the resources that allow to have access to energy. The energy sources are all those sources of energy that people have available to produce heat or perform work. Almost all of our planet’s energy resources are derived from the sun. For example, the fossil energy of oil, gas, coal, and bitumen is merely the consequence of indirect solar energy conservation. Hydropower is the result of the evaporation of water due to the sun. Similarly, it is for wind energy and geothermal energy.

Energy generation must be distinguished between primary energy sources and secondary energy sources. Primary energy sources are those found directly in nature, such as solar, geothermal, hydropower, nuclear fuels, biomass, firewood, natural gas, coal, and oil. On the other hand, secondary energy sources are derived from primary energy sources because they do not occur directly in nature, such as hydrogen or electricity. Energy production can be classified according to exhaustibility. Here are the exhaustible sources of energy, known as nonrenewable sources, and the inexhaustible sources, known as renewable sources. Among the former are nuclear fuels such as uranium and fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal, and oil. On the other hand, the latter are solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, and hydropower. Finally, renewable energy production can be traditional or unconventional: the former includes geothermal, hydropower, and biomass, which have been exploited for a long time, while the latter includes solar and wind power, which have been focused on more recently.

H2 The importance of steel in the energy sector

Forged products in the energy sector play a major role: an example of this comes from components for gas and steam circuits and impellers for Pelton and Francis turbines. The energy sector represents one of the most important areas for developing new applications and technologies. From this perspective, special and stainless steels have all the characteristics needed for technological evolution, all the more so in the case of hot applications. In fact, special steels for the energy sector are used whenever there is the need for corrosion resistance at very high temperatures or specific issues in terms of cavitation in the presence of fluids become apparent. This applies to nickel and titanium alloys, stainless steels, martensitic steels, and hardening steels. Indeed, it is thanks to steels that it is (and has been) possible to fine-tune and develop systems capable of harnessing a wide range of energy sources such as geothermal, hydro, wind, solar, nuclear, and thermal energy sources.

Would you like to learn more about Forge Fedriga’s forged products for the energy sector? Contact us, and our experts will provide all the information you may need.

H2 POWER GEN

PTOLEMAIDA (Greece)

SOUTH BANGKOK (Thailand)

SEWAREN 7 (USA)

EL CAMPESINO (Chile)

EL BRACHO (Argentina)

DRAX (UK)

KEADBY (UK)

BELCHATOW (Poland)

BLUE WATER (USA)

OPOLE (Poland)

VOGTLE (USA)

SCHKOPAU (Germany)