Long Products Bulletin 2011

LONG PRODUCTS BULLETINLONG PRODUCTS BULLETINSpecial Edition 2011

Extracts from NewsLetters, editions 2008 to 2011

Long-product Mills

2 Newsletter 1/2011

In spring 2012, ArcelorMittal Hochfeld GmbH with headquar-

ters in Duisburg, Germany, will commence production of a

complete new wire rod mill in Duisburg-Ruhrort enabling a

wire rod production of 690,000 tpy with only one rolling

strand. Tailored accordingly, the wire rod blocks in this high-

performance production line are equipped with the individual

drive technology (MEERdrive®) developed by SMS Meer.

New order from ArcelorMittal

MEERdrive®– more flexi bility and less costs

New

ord

er

The layout, in accordance with local requirements.

Loup Cooling Conveyor (LCC®).

3Newsletter 1/2011

The new wire rod mill has been designed

to roll technically demanding grades,

which are therefore of extremely high

quality, to the closest tolerances. This line

is characterized by compactness and effi-

ciency and achieves an annual capacity of

690,000 t.

Furnace, roughing and intermediate train

The walking-beam furnace for the heating

of billets measuring 155 mm square will

have an output rate of 120 t/h. This is fol-

lowed by a four-stand roughing train com-

prising HL (HousingLess) stands with

downstream free runout and an interme-

diate train consisting of 14 CL (CantiLever)

stands, each in horizontal and vertical

arrangement.

Equalizing section in loop arrangement

The core element of the mill begins with

the cooling and equalizing section in loop

arrangement. Owing to this arrangement,

an optimal run-in temperature for each

steel grade can be preset in front of the

wire rod blocks.

Wire rod blocks with innovativeMEERdrive® technology

The wire rod finishing block with six rolling

units and the FRS® block with four units

(Flexible Reduction and Sizing) – both in

UHD (Ultra-Heavy Duty) arrangement – are

provided with our innovative individual

MEERdrive® technology offering numer-

ous benefits. The most important ones are:

n total flexibility in roll pass designing

n essentially simplified rolling ring

management

n reduced operational costs

Cooling lines for high-qualityfinished products

With the water cooling lines downstream

of the wire rod block and the FRS® block as

well as the 104-m-long LCC® (Loop Cooling

Conveyor) for intensive and retarded cool-

ing, all the requirements for the produc-

tion of high-quality finished products are

fulfilled. Furthermore, the required cooling

strategies based on the CCT® model (Con-

trolled Cooling Technology) developed by

SMS Meer can be simulated, and then ad-

justed and controlled online during oper-

ation. The entire coil handling equipment

designed to be particularly protective to

the finished material is also adapted to the

high-quality finished products.

»High-speed loop laying head.

MEERdrive® technology inthe wire rod finishing blockwith six rolling units.

Long-product Mills

4 Newsletter 1/2011

Temperature-controlled maximum rolling speed of 120 m/s

These facilities allow wire rod to be produced over the full size range from 5.5 to 25.0 mm

by means of temperature-controlled rolling and at a maximum rolling speed of 120 m/s

for 5.5-mm wire rod. This enables ArcelorMittal Hochfeld to acquire a leading position as

supplier of wire rod for the following fields of application: automotive manufacture, me-

chanical engineering, offshore technology, plants for renewable energies and connective

elements.

Opportunities and benefits

n Rolled metallurgical properties such as conventionally annealed wire rod

n Wire rod with characteristics comparable with quenched and tempered steel,

but with improved formability

n Scale which can be easily removed mechanically or chemically

n Closer tolerances of 1/4 DIN

n Reduced spreading width of mechanical properties

n Coil weight up to 3 t

ArcelorMittal Hochfeld orders wire rod mill

Horizontal coil compactor.

5Newsletter 1/2011

Stahlwerk Annahütte, Germany, the oldest existing steel pant

in Europe, is pleased about a new versatile and needs-based

cut-to-length group from SMS Meer fully meeting the de-

mands of the manufacturer of high-quality steel bars.

Constant quality

The new cut-to-length group has been put into operation in

the bar mill at the Hammerau site in Southern Germany.

Ralf Becker, Head of Hot Rolling Mill Divi-

sion at Annahütte: ”The shear works flaw-

lessly and we have had good experiences

working with bars with very different diam-

eters cut.”

Co

mm

issi

on

ing

Stahlwerk Annahütte with new cut-to-length group

Faultless bars at any diameter

The new shear unit prior to delivery.

The cut-to-length group comprises a pinch

roll unit and a combined drum-type/two-

crank shear as well as a scrap deflector and

is able to cut round bars with tempera-

tures up to 1,000 °C. For threaded bars i.e.

rebars with a ribbing designed as thread,

the temperature is approx. 200 °C and the

maximum tensile strength of the bars is

1,800 N/mm2.

High requirements met

The shear operates optionally as crank

shear or as rotary shear with knife arms

and cuts round bars with diameters from

12 to 50 mm.

”The machines supplied by SMS Meer are

highly versatile and exactly meet our high

requirements which we are having as sup-

plier of the automotive and tool manufac-

turing industry. These bar steels are suited

for numerous applications and range from

alloyed and non-alloyed steels for case-

hardened steel grades up to and including

steels for springs, chains and ball bearings.

The range also includes Q & T, cold upset-

ting and cold working steels,” Ralf Becker

stresses.

Long-product Mills

6 Newsletter 1/2011

Southwest Siberian Metallurgical Plant Novokuznetsk, a com-

pany of the EVRAZ Group, modernizes its production facilities

for heavy sections in the city of the same name. To achieve

this, the plant operator has placed an order with SMS Meer,

Germany, for the supply of a new universal mill for rails and

other sections. To set up Russia’s most advanced rail and sec-

tion mill, the production with the old equipment will only be

stopped for four months. Thereafter, the steel company will

be able to produce 100-m-long rails.

As the largest rail producer in Russia, the customer intends to man-

ufacture the rails with state-of-the-art processes which meet all

current needs. Therefore, rail rolling operation will be modernized

with a comprehensive program. By using our new rolling methods

and advanced mill stand concepts, the productivity, flexibility and

availability of the plant will be increased. In addition to that, top-

quality finished products can be produced.

Universal mill for Novokuznetsk

Russia’s most modern rail mill

New

ord

er Altogether, 1.3 million t of sections per year. The new mill with

a total capacity of then 1.3 million t of sections per year is sched-

uled to go into production in October 2012. 950,000 t of the annual

production are rails, including 400,000 t with a maximum length

of 100 m. Such long rails can be used for high-speed rail tracks or,

with hardened rail heads, also for high axle loads on heavy goods

trains. In addition, the new mill produces beams, channels, rounds

and sections.

Latest CCS® technology in the rolling mill

Upgrading is realized in several sub-projects. For the rolling area

of the section mill, SMS Meer supplies the rolling technology, the

complete mechanical and electrical equipment and the automa-

tion system. The latest CCS® stands will be used in the universal

mill. This stand type is characterized by high rigidity, hydraulic roll

gap adjustment and fully automated stand changing devices. With

the tandem reversing rolling group, it is possible to produce not

only rails but also beams and channels in the universal rolling

process. This cost-efficient beam production is performed by

means of our proven XH® reversing rolling method.

Two-high reversing roughing stand in CCS® design. Use of a laser profile gage.

7Newsletter 1/2011

Extensive additional supplies. The key

components of the mill also include ma-

nipulators, grip-type tilters upline and

downline the tandem stand group, trans-

port facilities and a hot saw. For the quality

check, a laser profile gage (Propgauge) is

employed for inline measurement of the

finished profiles. The supply package from

SMS Meer also includes the supervision of

erection and commissioning, the training

of customer’s personnel, and spare parts.

Novokuznetsk on the Tom River is a large

Russian city in the Coal Basin of Kusbass

in the Kemerowo Oblast in Southwest

Siberia. The city has a population of

about 560,000 (as of 2009) and is situ-

ated approx. 300 km south of the re-

gional capital Kemerowo.

The new universal mill produces rails for highlydemanding applications.

The core element of a modern heavy-section mill: Tandem reversing rolling group in CCS® design.

With inline measurement, the quality of rolled rails can be checked.

Long-product Mills

8 Newsletter 1/2011

At Hmisho Trading Group, Syria, SMS Meer has modernized the

existing rebar rolling mill. Our engineers employed the Ebros®

system for the endless rolling of sections, leading to a signifi-

cant increase of the overall annual production by 5 %.

A further benefit of the new system is: less crop-end losses and a

reduced number of short bars, whereby the metal yield is im-

proved by 1.5 %. Moreover, less labor is required since fewer cob-

bles means less transports of non-conforming products.

Ebros® system installed in rebar mill

At Hmisho: New technology increases production by 5 percent

Technology from rail construction. SMS

Meer has developed the Ebros® system

under a license agreement with Steel

Plantech, Japan. It is based on the welding

technology employed in the construction

of tracks for high-speed trains. The two

companies have transferred this technol-

ogy to steelworks construction: to weld to-

gether consecutive hot billets (1,100 °C) as

they come out of the furnace.

Benefits of endless rolling. This process

makes ”endless rolling” of sections possi-

ble, whereby productivity and material

yield are increased and a higher plant uti-

lization factor is achieved. At the same

time it ensures a constant product quality.

In the Hmisho mill, billets of 130 mm x 130

mm square and 12 m length are welded

and the billet throughput is 60 t per hour.

Market leader in Syria. The complete rebar

rolling mill of Hmisho equipped with HSD®

(High-Speed Delivery) system was supplied

by SMS Meer in 2007. The annual capacity is

350,000 t and it is the fourth plant which has

been supplied by SMS Meer to Syria.

The new Ebros® system pays off for Hmisho: higher productivity, improved materialyield and constant quality.

Mod

ern

izat

ion

9Newsletter 1/2011

Section steel producer Celsa, Barcelona,

Spain, has signed a service agreement

with SMS Meer ensuring reliable func-

tionality of the ”Technical Control Sys-

tem” (in short TCS) and offering optimal

support during rolling. The TCS pro-

vides an exact roll position and, conse-

quently, allows top product quality.

Celsa’s section mill: preventing downtimes

”Technical Control System” – in top form thanks to service contract

The aim: Error prevention. The modules

of the service contract with SMS Meer have

been customized in cooperation with Celsa.

The main goal is to make sure that prob-

lems on the plant are prevented in the first

place. Should a fault occur despite all the ef-

forts to prevent this, it will be eliminated

quickly and expertly in a very short time.

In future, the section mill of Celsa will be taken care of properly by SMS Meer.

Fast fault diagnosis. Thanks to advanced

technology – per email, phone and inter-

net system (VPN) – you can look at the

plant directly. A fault diagnostics can thus

be generated rapidly by our experts. Reg-

ular checks, maintenance measures and

local staff training are rounding off the

range of services.

Annual system check. The second mod-

ule includes the annual system check. For

this purpose, a technician from SMS Meer

is on site for at least three days, installs new

computer systems and then informs cus-

tomer’s staff on their handling. Moerover,

he also provides training.

Other customers. Besides Celsa, other

customers rely on our service for TCS

equipment, including among others Ger-

dau Ameristeel and Steel Dynamics in the

U.S.A. as well as Changzhi in China.

The TCS system provides an exact roll position.

New

con

trac

t

Minimills

10 Newsletter 1/2011

Minimal energy consumption. For the generation of energy, Taiwan

depends almost 100 percent on oil and gas imported from abroad.

The country generates high emissions of greenhouse gases, and as a

result of this, the government is making efforts to reduce energy con-

sumption and the emission rate. In response to these efforts, we

have materialized an innovative approach for the new minimill of

Tung Ho in order to reach a minimum energy consumption.

Reheating furnace dispensed with. The new plant optimally im-

plements the basic minimill concept: short ways and a direct link-

age of the rolling mill to the steel plant. The hot billets running out

of the continuous caster (with a capacity of 40 to 45 t/h per strand)

are immediately brought to a uniform temperature in the induc-

tive heating plant. Then, the billets run directly into the rebar

rolling mill. In this way, a gas- or oil-fired reheating furnace up-

stream of the rolling mill could be dispensed with. Under certain

conditions, even an inductive heating is not required since the bil-

lets are shaped in such a way that they hardly lose any heat during

the subsequent production process.

Every year 72,000 t less carbon dioxide (CO2)

Tung Ho Steel, Taiwan: Minimill sets new standardsfor rebars

In mid-2010, Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corpora-

tion, Taiwan, has successfully taken a minimill for

rebars into operation which has been built by

SMS Meer and SMS Concast. What is so special is

that the new minimill in Taoyuan near Taipei can

be operated without a conventional reheating

furnace. Instead, an inductive heating plant from

SMS Elotherm has been integrated.

Consequently, Tung Ho saves energy and the environment is less

polluted, since 72,000 t less carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced.

And the operational costs are also substantially lower.

The works bays.Joining forces: Experts from SMS and Tung Ho Steel.

11Newsletter 1/2011

Good for the environment and for returns. Eyery year the steel

plant with electric arc furnace, ladle furnace and a five-strand billet

caster from SMS Concast is producing 1.2 million t of billets and

the rebar mill from SMS Meer has a capacity of 800,000 tpy. Due

to the innovative energy concept, Tung Ho Steel every year re-

duces the emission rate of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 72,000 t, of sul-

fur dioxide (SO2) by 410 t and of nitrogen (Nox) by 225 t. In addition

to this, the investment costs for the inductive heating plant are ap-

prox. 25 to 30 % less than with conventional furnace concepts. At

the same time, the operational costs for each t of rebars are re-

duced by approx. 25.00 US dollars.

Excellent references. Dr. Joachim Schönbeck, President and CEO

of SMS Meer: ”This mill shows yet again that our customers benefit

from integrated all-inclusive solutions of the SMS group. Two plant

manufacturers which are leaders in their respective fields, SMS

Concast and SMS Meer, join together their innovative concepts

within a seamless process chain. In doing so, they spare our business

partners from time-consuming and costly interface problems – and

thus allow the mill to be put into operation early.”

In the minimill segment, SMS is one of the world-

wide leading plant manufacturers with refer-

ences in the whole world. Currently, we are build-

ing large plants in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. »

The innovative energy concept with inductive heating reduces the carbon dioxide rate every year by 72,000 t.

Reliable and smooth casting.

Minimills


Layout of the minimill at Tung Ho Steel

Steel plant with 120-t EAF

The electric steelworks built by SMS Concast provides a 120-t elec-

tric arc furnace with dedusting system. The power consumption

of the furnace is 120 MVA. To supply additional energy, we apply

our Conso oxygen technology (oxygen/gas burner) which reduces

power consumption and increases productivity at the same time.

The tap-to-tap time is 43 min.

Downstream of this is a ladle furnace which is used for exact tem-

perature setting providing liquid steel for secondary-metallurgical

miroalloying.

Furnace tapping. The continuous casting plant has five strands and is expandable by a sixth strand.

120-t EAF with Conso-Oxygen technology for reduced energy consumption.

The EAF has a tap-to-tap time of 43 minutes.

13Newsletter 1/2011

Five-strand billet caster

The casting machine has five strands with a

casting radius of 10.25 m. An expansion to six

strands has been considered in the layout. The

range of dimensions comprises square billets

in the formats of 130, 150, 160 and 200 mm. The

special equipment includes among others the

Invex® mold tube technology for high-speed

casting and the hydraulic mold oscillation sys-

tems. The casting machine is able cast billets in

various sizes in a parallel mode.

Rebar mill for bars with diametersfrom 10 to 43 mm

In front of the rebar mill the billets are heated to

an uniform temperature by the inductive heat-

ing plant, if necessary. The downstream rolling

mill includes 14 mill stands in horizontal/verti-

cal and tiltable configuration. A compact design

of the ”HL” stands ensures that close tolerances

of the finished products are maintained. Bars

with small diameters are finish-rolled in two fin-

ish-rolling blocks with six rolling units in V

arrangement.

Straight bars are transported with up to 40 m/s

to the cooling bed by the H.S.D.® (High-Speed

Delivery) system. Then they pass through the

finishing facilities.

The roughing train of the rolling mill.

The minimill is designed for 800,000 tpy of rebars.

Induction heating section.


Steelworks for Long Products

600,000 tpy of blooms/beam blanks and heavy sections

SMS Concast and SMS Meer supply steel complex to Bahrain

The contract is for the construction and supply of one 120-t

electric arc furnace, one ladle furnace, one bloom/beam

blank casting plant and one heavy-section rolling mill. The

order will be realized in cooperation with Samsung Engineer-

ing as EPC partner (Engineering, Procurement & Construc-

tion). Commissioning of the overall plant is planned for the

second half of 2012.

With the awarding of the order for the technological core equip-

ment including the complete automation system to SMS Meer and

SMS Concast, United Steel selected best performing production

technology for long products.

SMS Concast will supply a state-of-the-art steelworks with an an-

nual capacity of 850,000 t. It will comprise one 120-t Ultra-High-

Power EAF for continuous DRI charging, a ladle furnace and a

three-strand continuous casting machine for various near-to-net-

shape bloom and beam blank sections. The delivery also includes

the material handling system for ferroalloys addition and a pow-

erful dedusting system.

United Steel Company (Sulb) in the Kingdom

of Bahrain awarded SMS Concast and SMS

Meer the order to design and supply on a

turnkey basis a steelworks for blooms/beam

blanks and heavy sections. The minimill will

be part of the new, fully integrated steel com-

plex in Al Hidd, a town on a sand spit on the

south-eastern extremety of Muharraq Island.

From left: Saad Rashid Al-Mohannadi, General Manager of Qatar Steel; KhalidAl Qadeeri, Chairman & Managing Director of Sulb; Hiroyuki Inoue, Presidentof Yamato Kogyo; Dr. Joachim Schönbeck, President & CEO of SMS Meer; KiseokPark, Chairman & CEO of Samsung Engineering; Jacques-Frédéric Zuber, President& CEO of SMS Concast.

15Newsletter 2/2010

On the occasion of the signing ceremony, Dr. Joachim Schön-

beck, President & CEO of SMS Meer, stated:

“We feel honored to have been selected by United Steeland its shareholders Foulath and Yamato Kogyo for thisimportant project. Together with our sister company SMSConcast, we will deliver a true benchmark plant, which willset new standards. With Foulath’s existing pelletizingplant, this will be one of the most efficient production sitesin the GCC region.”

Jacques F. Zuber, President & CEO of SMS Concast, added:

“As pioneer and market leader in the field of continuouscasting technology, SMS Concast is pleased to have theopportunity to provide its latest melting and casting tech-nology to this outstanding project. We view the award ofthe contract as recognition of our competence in the keymarkets for our products.”

Conclusion of the contract by Khalid Al Qadeeri, Chairman & Managing Director of Sulb, and Dr. Joachim Schönbeck, President & CEO of SMS Meer,in the presence of Hiroyuki Inuoe, President of Yamato Kogyo.

Khalid Al Qadeeri and Jacques Zuber (President & CEO of Concast AG).

The here realized beam blank casting technology was launched

onto the market by SMS Concast, a pioneer in continuous casting

technology.

The heavy-section rolling mill to be supplied by SMS Meer will

feature the latest state of the art in rolling mill technology. The

mill stands will come with hydraulic roll adjustment systems,

while the roller straightener will be equipped with hydraulic roller

adjustment. Designed for an initial capacity of 600,000 tpy, the

plant will boast high flexibility in terms of product mix and format

changes. For example, a program change will be realizable within

20 minutes.

Planning and civil engineering, erection and ancillary equipment

will be provided and coordinated by Samsung Engineering. For

many years, Samsung Engineering has been active in the region

as a project partner.

Together with Foulath’s existing pellet plant, which will be further

expanded for the new steelworks project, and the DRI plant

awarded to Kobe/Midrex, a remarkable fully integrated steel com-

plex will be established at Al Hidd, covering the complete pro-

duction chain from pelletizing to the finish-rolled product. This

excellent setup allows highly efficient production at low operat-

ing costs.

Furthermore, this investment will create 1,000 new jobs in the

Kingdom of Bahrain. The total order volume for the project

amounts to some EUR 1.2 billion. With the new steel facility, United

Steel plans to cover about 15 % of the current imports of steel

beams and sections into the countries of the Middle East.


Minimills

SMS Meer and SMS Concast

Siam Yamato, Thailand:Minimill for maximum benefits

Highly praised by the customer

Piya Chairat, Plant Manager of Siam Yamato, is full of praise:

“SMS enjoys worldwide a distinguished reputation and we benefit

from this every day especially when our customers visit us. They

see the company signs from SMS on the plant and are positive

right away: German and Swiss technologies sell extremely well

also in Thailand.“

The mill of Siam Yamato, south of Bangkok.

17Newsletter 2/2010

Piya Chairat, Plant Manager of Siam

Yamato and his colleagues, remain con-

vinced of the decision in favor of SMS:

”With the minimill for medium sections

from SMS at the Map Tha Put location

we have bought the right equipment,”

said the manager of the Thai/Japanese

steel enterprise. ”My customers believe

in technology from SMS and we had to

invest significantly less money than for

a conventional plant. In this way, we are

able to produce at lower cost and even

the ecological values are excellent.”

Since several months, this perfectly pro-

ducing mill has been in operation.

40-year-old idea more relevant than ever

”Minimill” – this 40-year-old idea is today

more relevant than ever. Germany’s Willy

Korff had designed the mill in the sixties.

In 1968, he inaugurated his steel plant in

Kehl, Baden, Germany, the first of its kind

with electric arc furnaces and an associ-

ated rolling mill for the production of re-

bars from SMS, at that time worldwide an

absolute novelty.

The idea was revolutionary. From then on,

steel could no longer be only produced

where the coal was located but at any lo-

cation. The Kehl port area with easy access

to waterway, rail and highway was ideal to

deliver scrap as starting material.

Just one year later, nearly 149,000 t of steel

were produced in Kehl. Meanwhile, annual

production is more than 2.2 million t which

corresponds to 23,500 charges per year. In

the early years, the smelting staff required

a few hours for a charge but today the time

required for loading scrap up to liquid

steel takes just 38 minutes.

Good for ecology and “green“ steel

In the age of ecology and “green“ steel,

Korff’s idea which was realized by applying

SMS technology has considerably re-

gained attraction. Steel production and

further processing in an integrated factory

saves energy. At the same time, the cus-

tomers benefit from highly flexible SMS

plants which can be revamped within very

short periods of time and thus the demand

is correspondingly high.

Successful minimill team

SMS has reacted to the market demands

with a comprehensive team. Under the di-

rection of Paolo Cancian from SMS Meer,

Italy, colleagues from all over the world

closely cooperate with each other, whether

they are from the Business Area SMS Meer

or from SMS Concast.

The success justifies the concept: large and

significant reference plants such as those

at Siam Yamato (medium sections), Tung

Ho in Thailand (bar mill) or a combined

plant from SSM in Košice are already run-

ning at full speed just like a mill in the USA.

With a planned works for heavy beams in

Sulb, Bahrain, another milestone will be

added soon and also in Saudi Arabia a mill

is under construction.

The finishing train.

»


Minimills

Cost-efficient solutionfor growth regions

Especially when a project needs to be com-

pleted ”on a greenfield site” the customers

often choose a cost-efficient minimill solu-

tion. This type of plant pays off particularly

for steel producers in the growth regions

of Asia, the Middle East or South America,

but also in the established markets of Eu-

rope and the USA the minimills are becom-

ing more and more important.

Next to the sector of tourism, the heavy in-

dustry in Thailand has developed in recent

years to the most important source of in-

come for the Thai population. Economies

such as the USA, Australia and Japan use the

favorable conditions in the country of or-

chids to invest in new production facilities.

Two steel plants already realized

Such is the case also for the Japanese Siam Yamato Group, a joint

venture between the Thai family-owned Siam Group and the

Japanese Yamato Group. Two large steel plants have been built in

the Map Tha Put Industrial Zone, 100 km south of Bangkok. Plant

No. 2 has been planned and constructed together with SMS as

general contractor. 400,000 t per year of medium sections will be

produced. The minimill technology from SMS ensures favorable

production costs, high productivity and necessary flexibility for

the production of different sizes and products.

Most modern plant of its kind in South East Asia

In close cooperation between Swiss and German experts from SMS

the most modern plant of its kind was built in South East Asia. SMS

Concast realized a steel plant with state-of-the-art technology. The

associated section mill from SMS Meer features different levels and

has a capacity of 400,000 t. Sections with edge lengths between

100 x 50 and 350 mm x 175 mm are predominantly produced.

Advanced SMS technology ensures smooth production. Eric Hetzel (left), Site Manager, assists in the control room.

19Newsletter 2/2010

The minimill for medium sections of Siam Yamato

Steel plant. The steel plant from SMS Concast has been designed

for a capacity of 700,000 tpy and it comprises an 80-t electric arc

furnace, a ladle furnace as well as a combined continuous caster.

Various auxiliary plants such as scrap transport, dedusting system

and material feed are also included in the supply package.

Continuous casting plant. The continuous bloom caster features

five casting strands and allows for a production of a wide format

range from 150 x 150 mm up to 230 x 450 mm. Simultaneous cast-

ing of various formats is possible.

Medium section mill. The semi-continuous medium section mill

from SMS Meer produces beams from 100 x 50 up to 350 x 175 as

well as channels and angles. The annual capacity of finished prod-

ucts is approx. 400,000 t. A future expansion of the mill to rounds

and flats and an increase in production at the same time is possible

in a further expansion stage. The mill comprises a walking beam

furnace with a capacity of 130 t/h, a two-high reversing stand as

well as a continuous finishing train with nine stands, of which six

stands are equipped as universal/two-high stands.

The mill stands. The mill stands are modular compact stands of

the CS type. The stands are interchangeable and can be used al-

ternatively as horizontal/vertical or universal stand. A quick stand

change can be executed without the need for a crane.

The finishing line. It consists of a rake-type cooling bed, a nine-

roller straightening machine with adjustable pitch, a sawing line

with three cold saws, five stacking machines, binding and loading

devices.

Most modern mill in Asia. The mini steel mill is the most modern

plant in Asia for the production of medium sections and it takes

the latest technologies into account.

The breakdown stand.

The cooling bed.

The binding machine.


Long-product Mills

The South Korean steel producer Daehan Steel has commis-

sioned SMS Meer to supply a rebar mill with a VCC® installa-

tion (Vertical Compact Coiler) for compact coils. The mill with

an annual capacity of 450,000 t will be the first rolling mill

worldwide which concentrates exclusively on the production

of compact coils. The plant is scheduled to go on stream in

April 2011.

SMS Meer supplies the key equipment for the rebar mill which in-

cludes six housingless mill stands each in H/V arrangement for the

roughing and intermediate trains, a finishing block with eight

rolling units in V arrangement, facilities for the heat treatment, the

VCC® installation as well as the electrics and the automation. In ad-

dition to this, SMS Meer is responsible for the coordination of erec-

tion and commissioning.

The production line processes square billets with an edge length

of 130 mm. It is planned to expand the mill for the processing of

billets 150 mm x 150 mm in size. The rebar dimensions comply

with D10 to D16 (according to Korean standard) and the produc-

tion of the corresponding round bars is also possible.

For hot coiling, the VCC® installation is presently regarded as state-

of-the-art procedure. The VCC® technology is also ideally suited for

older mills with wire rod blocks and loop laying heads since it is

possible to produce compact and stable coils.

The Vertical Compact Coiler (VCC®) from SMS Meer is able to coil

the bars directly in vertical position. Owing to this technology, the

customers can do without turning manipulators in the future. The

throughput time is considerably reduced by the VCC® system since

the coils are already formed in their natural final position.

Annual capacity of 450,000 t

Daehan Steel, South Korea:

Rebar mill withVCC® ordered

300,000 tpy of round bars

ICSR in Hassia, Syria:

Bar mill put into operationThe International Company for Steel Rolling (ICSR) in Hassia,

Syria, has successfully taken the bar mill supplied by SMS

Meer into operation. On this plant, surface heat-treated rein-

forcing bars are produced with speeds of up to 36 m/s in the

exit section. The mill is designed for reinforcing steel with low

and medium carbon content. The annual capacity is 300,000 t

of round bars with diameters from 8 to 40 mm.

Structure of rolling line. The pusher-type furnace for the heating

of square billets supplies a one-strand continuous rolling line com-

prising roughing, intermediate and finishing trains. The roughing

train consists of six stands and the intermediate train operates with

multiple-pass mill stands in HL design and H/V arrangement. The

finishing block in V arrangement is equipped with eight rolling

units and two more units can be retrofitted. In this way, the cus-

tomer has the option to reconstruct the plant into a combined bar

and wire rod mill at a later date.

Cooling bed with HSD® system. On the entry side of the cooling

bed a high-speed delivery system HSD® (High-Speed Delivery) has

been installed. The system is equipped with a double rotating

launder transporting the straight bars to the cooling bed with

speeds of up to 36 m/s.

The scope of supply. SMS Meer supplied the complete rolling mill

including electrics and automation. The supply package included

also the supervision of erection and commissioning. In addition

to this, the scope of supply comprised a fully automated bundling

plant and a tying station.

Co

mm

issi

on

ing

New

ord

er

21Newsletter 2/2010

Service

SMS Meer (UK) Ltd.:

Service & advice for wire-rod producersOEM know-how, short reaction times

and communication in the local lan-

guage – all this is part of the services of-

fered by our service company SMS Meer

(UK) Ltd. which was founded in England

at the beginning of 2009. These services

are not only gladly accepted by the

users of wire rod mills in Great Britain

but also by the plant operators in Cen-

tral Europe. Company headquarters are

in Chesterfield near Sheffield. With 10

employees in the meantime, this loca-

tion has grown steadily and it offers ex-

tensive technical services and advice for

all plant users in Europe.

Core competencies of the service specialists are targeted and in-

novative modernization measures to increase the plant availabil-

ity. Owing to the process know-how and with due regard to tech-

nical innovations, the existing equipment is updated by the serv-

ice experts in an investment-friendly manner. A sustainable safe-

guarding of customer’s competitiveness is thus always in the

focus. Stephen Lidgate, Managing Director of SMS Meer (UK) Ltd.,

assures: “The wishes and the satisfaction of our customers are par-

ticularly important to us. For this reason, we always offer market-

driven and individually tailored solutions.” In addition to the exe-

cution and further development of service features, the latest

standard and high-speed guides are also developed and planned

at the Chesterfield location. Thanks to an extensive know-how and

many years of experience, SMS Meer (UK) Ltd. has established it-

self as a principal contact for all services in the wire rod mill sector.

Plant users worldwide benefit from this knowledge and seek ad-

vice and support from the Chesterfield location.

SMS Meer has further developed its

standard and high-speed roller guides

for the wire rod and bar mills area. Com-

plete systems are now available to our

customers for the first time which are

characterized by robustness and relia-

bility. In this way, the roller guides have

a longer useful life resulting in reduced

costs for the plant users.

By the use of identical parts with various

dimensions significantly fewer spare parts

are required by the customers. Moreover,

the roller guides consist of only a few sin-

gle components so that the assembly or Standard two-roller guide.

Mono-Block roller guide.

the replacement of wearing parts is con-

siderably easier.

Owing to a central adjustment, all guides

can be aligned in a quick and simple way.

With high-speed guides, sections up to a

diameter of 40 mm can be safely guided.

The novel systems have been particularly

developed for the high-speed finishing

blocks from SMS Meer. However, they can

also be used in older plants and are com-

patible with the wire rod blocks of other

manufacturers, provided that correspond -

ing guide holders are available.

Robust and reliable at lower costs

New roller guides

Managing Director Stephen Lidgate,SMS Meer (UK) Ltd.

E-mail: [email protected]


Service

High-speed guides and innovative guide holders

South Steel, Saudi Arabia:New guide series orderedN

ew o

rder

The South Steel Company, an enterprise

based in Jizan Economic City, Saudi Ara-

bia, has commissioned SMS Meer to

equip the bar mill of its new minimill

with our newly developed guide series.

The order comprises the design, con-

struction and supply of standard and

high-speed guides.

Scope of supply

In detail, we supply three complete sets of

guides as well as the equipment for the as-

sembly and the adjustment of the guides.

The roughing and the intermediate trains are

provided with our newly developed entry

and exit guides as well as with Mono-Block

and two-roller guides. The finishing block is

equipped with the latest series of high-speed

guides and with our innovative guide holders.

Steelworks of SMS ConcastBar mill of SMS Meer

The order is part of a minimill project which is

currently handled by SMS Meer and SMS Con-

cast. The new minimill is yet another example

for a successful cooperation between the indi-

vidual companies within the SMS group. SMS

Concast supplies the steel plant and the con-

tinuous caster, SMS Meer is building the 22-

stand bar mill with an annual capacity of nearly

500,000 t. The mill processes square billets with

an edge length of 150 mm to round bars with

diameters between 8 and 32 mm. The rolling

mill is scheduled to be put into operation soon.

High-speed guide.

23Newsletter 2/2010

Bar mill modernized in record time

Nucor Steel Darlington, USA:New finishing mill with benefits

SMS Meer has modernized a finishing

mill for Nucor Steel Darlington, South

Carolina, USA, in just five weeks. The

new continuous finishing mill allows

much shorter stand changing times and

also much reduced setup and adjust-

ment times. This consequent modern-

ization has yielded a real competitive

edge.

The new intermediate/finishing mill con-

sists of four horizontal, one vertical and

three convertible type HL stands. The con-

vertible stands are of dual-drive arrange-

ment, with motors and gears keeping their

position regardless of the stand configura-

tion (either H or V), with benefits for main-

tenance and plant usability, easier access

to these facilities while minimizing depth

and amount of required foundation work.

A flying shear, inter-stand equipment,

quick change devices and tools, hydraulic

and lubrication units as well as twelve ad-

ditionally provided exchangeable cas-

settes are also part of the new setup.

This modernization in such a short time

was only possible by close cooperation be-

tween SMS Meer and Nucor Steel. The

modular pre-assembly of equipment and

extensive pretests by SMS Meer’s produc-

tion team reduced the number of opera-

Co

mm

issi

on

ing

The finishing line.

Bildunterschrift.

tions on site, thereby allowing this record

revamping time to be accomplished.

Nucor Steel Darlington, a company of the

Nucor Bar Mill Group, is a well-known pro-

ducer of steel bars in the USA.


Minimills

Kolkata, India: April 28 thru 29, 2010

”Minimill“ – The highlight at theWire-Rod Symposium in Kolkata

Mills for the production of wire rod hold

huge growth potential for SMS Meer, es-

pecially in countries with constantly

growing economies. To take advantage

of this potential, we launched our own

series of symposiums on this issue ear-

lier this year. After the successful launch

in Mönchengladbach, the next event

took place in Kolkata, India, from April

28 to 29.

Huge interest. 250 representatives from

68 Indian firms attended the lectures pre-

sented at the Hyatt Conference Center in

Kolkata during the two-day symposium.

The presentations focused on new prod-

ucts and technical innovations contribut-

ing to higher productivity in wire-rod

rolling.

Minimill for small production volumes.

In his introductory talk, Bimal Sarkar, Man-

aging Director and CEO of SMS Meer India,

presented a detailed overview of the In-

dian steel market. The technical papers

that followed focused on the rolling of

wire rod, bars and sections. A topic lively

discussed was the ”Minimill“ concept for

small production volumes which com-

bines an EAF steelworks from SMS Concast

with a rolling mill from SMS Meer. ”Owing

to the relatively low investment costs,

plant owners in countries such as India are

seeing great future potential for this con-

cept,” is how Bimal Sarkar explains the im-

portance of this concept.

The symposium was well frequented.

Detailed information package for the participants.

Further topics. Further papers dealt with

the development of a high-speed looper,

coil compactors for wire rod, and the new

wire-roll mill in Duisburg-Hamborn built

and supplied by SMS Meer.

In addition, SMS Meer’s subsidiary SMS

Schumag presented its machines for the

processing of cold-finished steel and cop-

per. The state of the art in inductive heating

was presented by SMS Elotherm. And the

services and products of SMS Meer’s “Ser-

vice Division” also aroused lively interest.

The SMS Meer staff used the breaks be-

tween the papers for in-depth discussions

with our visitors. According to Sarkar “it is

obvious that our symposium comes at the

right time and tackles the right issues“.

Another wire-rod symposium took place

in São Paulo, Brazil, where SMS Meer re-

cently founded a new subsidiary.

Ulrich Svejkovsky, Vice-President Long-Product Area, held the opening speech.

In-depth discussions in the breaks.

25Newsletter 1/2010

Long-product Mills

About 1 million t of rebars per year

Hamriyah Steel, UAE:Bar mill taken into serviceC

om

mis

sio

nin

g

In January 2010, the new bar mill of Hamriyah Steel, United

Arab Emirates, has been successfully started up. The mill in

the Emirate of Sharjah is a joint venture between the Russian

Metalloinvest Group and Sheik Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Zayed

Al Nahyan.

The order for the supply of a turnkey plant was placed with SMS

Meer in June 2007. Construction work began in March 2008 and in

November 2009 about 95 % of the construction measures were

completed. In summer 2009, long-term contracts for water, power

and gas supply of the mill were concluded. This was a crucial pre-

requisite for the success of the project since large projects often fail

in the Gulf region when such guarantees have not been provided.

Gradual increase in production

Prior to commissioning and during initial tests, the bar mill had al-

ready produced 4,000 t of salable bars. Sale takes place through

Ural Steel. The mill of Hamriyah Steel has a capacity of 1 million t of

bars per year. For 2010 a production rate of 660,000 t is planned

and production shall be increased gradually: from 10,000 t in Jan-

uary to 80,000 t in December. According to estimates by Hamriyah

Steel, the annual demand for rebars in the United Arab Emirates is

approx. 4 to 5 million t. Therefore, Hamriyah could cover 20 % of

the market. In addition to this, there are plans for exporting bar

products into the neighboring Gulf States, to Iran and Egypt.

Advanced cooling and thermo-strengthening technology

Bars manufactured at a diameter range from 10 to 40 mm meet the

national and international standards BS4449, ASTM A615 and DIN

488. Owing to an advanced cooling and thermo-strengthening

technology, bars can be produced with low carbon and hardened

surfaces. The bars feature yield strengths up to 550 MPa and

achieve good values in terms of elongation and weldability.

Finishing area.

Intermediate train.

Furnace area.


Minimills for Long Products

Combi-caster casts several formats at the same time

Siam Yamato, Thailand: Minimill formedium steel sections in operation

Steelworks for 700,000 tpy. The steel-

works and rolling mill have been designed

in such a way that the billets and blooms

produced in the steelworks can be directly

hot-charged into the rolling mill. The new

steelworks has a production capacity of

700,000 tpy. It features an 80-t electric arc

furnace, a ladle furnace and a combina-

tion caster.

Low energy consuming EAF. The electric

arc furnace is equipped with the latest

generation of Conso oxygen technology.

This technology reduces electrical energy

consumption while enhancing the pro-

ductivity of the furnace. The dedusting

system for the meltshop conforms with

the high applicable clean-air standards.

In October/November 2009, Siam Yamato Steel Company (SYS) started production

of medium steel sections at its new minimill in Rayong, Thailand. First, the medium-

section rolling mill supplied by SMS Meer was commissioned, followed by the melt-

shop and the five-strand combi-caster supplied by SMS Concast. The first heat was

cast on all five strands with a common casting size of 200 mm x 230 mm. After that

also blooms of 230 mm x 450 mm casting size were successfully produced on the

new combi-caster.

Seven billet/bloom formats plus beam

blanks. The combi-caster is a new develop-

ment by SMS Concast. This is the first cast-

ing machine enabling different billet and

bloom formats to be cast at the same time.

A total of seven different billet/bloom for-

mats can be cast, ranging from 130 mm x

130 mm to 230 mm x 450 mm. If required,

the plant can even be converted to beam

blank production.

Medium section mill for 400,000 tpy. The

semi-continuous medium section mill sup-

plied by SMS Meer, for an annual production

of 400,000 t of final products, is intended to

produce steel sections from 100 mm x 50

mm to 350 mm x 175 mm as well as chan-

nels and angles. Adding rounds and flats to

the product range at a later stage is possible

within the framework of a future expansion

project. The mill features a 130-t/h walking-

beam furnace, a two-high reversing rough-

ing stand as well as a continuous finishing

train made up of nine roll stands, six of

which being universal/two-high stands. The

roll stands are modular compact stands in

CS design. They are interchangeable and

can be used alternatively as horizontal/ver-

tical or universal stands.

Overall planning. The overall planning of

the works was realized jointly by SMS Con-

cast and SMS Meer. The successful commis-

sioning of the meltshop and the rolling mill

is a demonstration of the SMS group’s com-

petence and innovative power in the long-

products sector.

Co

mm

issi

on

ing

Commissioning of five-strand combi-caster for seven different billet/bloom formats and beam blanks.

27Newsletter 1/2010

Last year SMS Concast and SMS Meer

were contracted by South Steel Com-

pany of Saudi Arabia, which is part of

Pan Kingdom Invest, for the construc-

tion of a minimill for rebars. The volume

of this steelworks order amounts to

over EUR 90 million. The new minimill

will be designed for an annual produc-

tion of 1 million t and is intended to

supply the downstream rebar rolling

mill with billets. The rolling mill will

have an annual production capacity of

500,000 t. Commissioning is scheduled

for the middle of 2011.

Electric steelworks for up to 100 % HBI

charging (hot briquetted iron). The melt-

shop will feature a 140-t AC electric arc fur-

nace as meltdown unit. The melting rate

will be around 24 heats/day. The EAF will

be of the full-platform eccentric-bottom-

tapping design. A highlight of this project

is that it will be SMS Concast’s first minimill

with an EAF and LF which can be operated

with up to 100 % HBI (hot briquetted iron)

charging, if required. Special focus will be

laid on the fine-tuning of the relationship

between the melting process and the HBI

rate with the objective in mind to achieve

a homogeneous process running at maxi-

mum productivity.

Power will be supplied by a 150-MVA trans-

former used in conjunction with the Con-

sotech equipment for chemical power

input. The melting unit will be equipped

with the latest generation of electrode con-

About 1 million t of steel and 500,000 t of rebars

South Steel, Saudi Arabia: Minimill order for rebar production

trol and process automation. This makes for

maximum flexibility in furnace operation,

providing the basis for the desired variable

composition of the charge while ensuring a

constant and reproducible melting process.

In the design, special emphasis is placed on

aspects critical to the continuous charging

of the furnace and the meltdown behavior,

namely material-flow management, EAF

technology and melting profiles.

Secondary metallurgy. Secondary-metal-

lurgy treatment will take place in a 140-t

ladle furnace supplied by an own 26-MVA

transformer.

The billet caster. The continuous casting

plant will feature five strands and a casting

radius of 9 m. It will produce billets in the

size range from 130 mm x 130 mm to 150

mm x 150 mm. The casting machine will be

equipped with Convex® mold technology,

mold stirrers and a hydraulic mold oscilla-

tion system.

The rebar rolling mill. The rebar rolling

mill supplied by SMS Meer will include a

walking-beam furnace with several control

zones. The fuel/air ratios can be monitored

separately for each zone. This minimizes

fuel consumption and provides high flexi-

New

ord

er

bility in furnace operation for all produc-

tion quantities. The fully automated rolling

mill will comprise 16 housingless stands in

horizontal and vertical arrangement, fol-

lowed by a six-stand Mono-Block finishing

stand for high-speed rolling of bars, as well

as a bar-quenching system. Downstream

of these units, a cooling bed and the fin-

ishing and bundling facilities will be

arranged. The compact design of the “HL”

mill housings will ensure finished products

with close tolerances.

The High-Speed Delivery System will en-

hance plant productivity, enabling the mill

to achieve a maximum finish-rolling speed

to the cooling bed of 41 m/s for 8- to 10-

mm-diameter rebars. The overall plant

concept meets all requirements on effi-

ciency, flexibility and reduced mainte-

nance. At the same time it will provide

high operational reliability and high pro-

ductivity. SMS Meer’s scope of supply also

includes the level-2 automation system

and the complete electrical equipment.


Long-product Mills

Upgrading the mill train at Hoesch Schwerter Profile GmbH,

Germany, was a special challenge for both the operator and

the machine builder SMS Meer. What made this job so special

was the three-stage modernization concept, enabling shut-

down periods to be minimized to the greatest possible extent

and ongoing production of the mill between short shutdown

periods.

Ambitious goals. In August 2007, Hoesch Schwerter Profile

GmbH, a member of Calvi Holding, Italy, had commissioned SMS

Meer to upgrade the mill train for special sections. The goal was

to increase the availability, the yield and the flexibility as well as

to improve the quality of the finished products.

New CS® mill stands. The modernization concept perfectly tai-

lored to customer’s demands comprised an exchange of the exist-

ing universal and two-high mill stands with the CS® mill stands

(Compact Stands) developed by SMS Meer. These stands offer au-

tomatic quick changing for an increase in flexibility and a reduc-

tion of setup times as well as a compact design, very high stand

rigidity and high adjusting accuracy. Key assembly groups such as

the adjusting equipment could be standardized for all stand types.

Customized mill stand solution. The CS® concept enables a high

flexibility and is optimally suited for the requirements when rolling

special sections. For this customized mill stand solution it was con-

sidered that the existing rolls and guides could be re-used. As a re-

sult, the special section mill became notably efficient. In total, four

universal and four two-high stands as well as one edger were sup-

plied and an existing edger was upgraded. The four universal

stands were pre-assembled in our workshop and the complete

stand piping was mounted.

”Just like an open-heart surgery”

Hoesch Schwerter Profile: Modernization in three stepsC

om

mis

sio

nin

g

Extensive ancillary facilities. Likewise modernized were descal-

ing and centering devices as well as grip-type tilters ensuring op-

timal conditions of the rolled material when special sections are

rolled. Our scope of supply included also the mill stand changing

devices and the assembly area in a new pre-assembly workshop

for stands and the required supply systems as well as the electrical

equipment and the automation for the new facilities. The IBA-

Logic system in version 4 was applied first for the whole control.

The implementation was realized by Fest, our electrical equipment

partner, on our behalf.

Universal stand pre-assembled in the Mönchengladbach workshop.

29Newsletter 1/2010

The three upgrading stages. The three-

stage modernization concept consisted of

the following stages:

Stage 1: It mainly comprised the prepara-

tion of the foundations, the installation of

new stand bedplates, the media facilities

and the assembly of the media platform

for the accommodation of the valve

stands, the local control pulpits, the elec-

tric cabinets and the cables and piping and

eventually the resumption of production

with the existing mill stands.

Stage 2: Installation of new stand changing

devices and assembly area. Assembly and

resumption of production with new and ex-

isting stands on place P2 and the edger.

Stage 3: Installation of the new centering

and descaling devices and the grip-type

tilters as well as the completion of place

P3. Resumption of production with the

new stands P2, edger, P3 in tandem rolling

operation.

After the completion of stage 3 the mill train has been put back

into operation in fall. The tandem rolling operation was realized

shortly afterwards. On October 12, 2009, a 16-week trial operation

with optimization phase finally started.

Such complex modernization steps executed in an extremely confined

space require a high degree of professionalism and cooperation of

the project teams from Hoesch Schwerter Profile GmbH and SMS

Meer. With this upgrading measure the company in Schwerte, Ger-

many, has further expanded its leading position in the production

field of special sections.

The new pre-assembly bay.

Foundation and media platform construction.

Rolls with new mill stands.

Component installation. Pre-assembled universal stand in the workshop.

Long-product Mills

At Peiner Träger GmbH, Germany, SMS Meer has modernizedthe medium-section mill which was re-opened on September1, 2009. After the restart, the mill could be ramped up veryrapidly whereby a large number of sections were rolled atvarious dimensions in ”running-in mode” from the very be-ginning. In the first 18 days already 25,000 t of salable sec-tions were produced. An extended product range now com-prises beams with a web height of up to 450 mm and a flangewidth of 260 mm as well as channels up to 400 mm, equaland unequal angles up to 250 mm and a large number of spe-cial steel sections.

Co

mm

issi

on

ing Production increased very quickly

Peiner Träger:Medium-section mill upgraded

Owing to a very detailed planning and partial pre-assembly of the

mill stands during production, the modernization and cold com-

missioning could be completed during a standstill period of only

six weeks. In such a short time, the mill equipment weighing a total

of approx. 3,000 t had to be handled for the purpose of disassem-

bly or re-assembly and tests. In addition, a large number of supply

systems were mounted still during rolling operation and almost

60 km piping was installed. Parallel to dismantling, cleaning work

had already been carried out, new foundations were laid, anchor

holes drilled as well as new bedplates installed.

Following an operating time of 35 years and about 16.8

million t of beams and other steel sections, the continu-

ous finishing train of the universal medium-section mill

(UMIT) has been upgraded in Peine at the end of 2009

within a period of just six weeks. Thanks to the installed

universal tandem-reversing rolling technology instead of

continuous finish-rolling, smaller lots can now be pro-

duced more quickly and efficiently, and specific customer

demands can be even better satisfied. Since the modern-

ization, already 258,000 t of finished products have been

rolled on the mill until the end of February 2010. About

50 staff members of Peiner Träger and SMS Meer jointly

celebrated this good result in January 2010.

��

��

��

��

��

��

�

�

��

��

��

��

�

��

A good performance: 25,000 t in 18 days.


Congratulations

40th anniversary of SMS Meer S.p.A.

To minimize storage requirements on the

site and to save costs we have delivered

the materials and mill components re-

quired for erection ”just-in-time”. In the

peak phase almost 100 specialists worked

around the clock.

Together with the CRS® roller straightener

supplied by us which already went on

stream in 2008, the mill train is now able to

fulfill increased market demands with re-

gard to flexibility, profitability and quality.

Due to the modernizations by SMS Meer,

the modernization project ”UMIT 2010”

has been completed and the technological

leadership of Peiner Träger GmbH has

been strengthened.

The CRS® roller straightener.

On September 25, 2009, SMS Meer

S.p.A. in Tarcento, Italy, has celebrated

its 40th anniversary. A gala evening at

Castello Susanna in the mountains

above the city and a family celebration

on the works premises gave the event a

worthy setting.

Founded in September 1969 as a limited li-

ability company under the name of ”Indus-

trie Meccanche Attrezzature Carpentiere”,

the company changed its name in 1973 to

S.I.M.A.C. S.p.A. In 1991, SMS Schloemann-

Siemag took over 50 % of the capital funds

and in 1995 the other half. In April 2005, the

company changed its name to now SMS

Meer S.p.A., responsible for the Light Section

Mills Product Division. The company stands

for a whole series of significant technical in-

novations which have contributed to an ex-

cellent reputation of SMS Meer worldwide.

Our guidelines are: focusing on value-creat-

ing technologies, a high level of innovation

and further development of products and

services.

A four-crank shear weighing almost 50 t was placedonto the bedplate by means of two shop cranes andone lifting-beam attachment.

31Newsletter 1/2010

Minimills

for long products

32 Newsletter No.3/2009

Slovakia Steel Mills a.s. placed an

order with SMS Concast AG and SMS Meer

GmbH for the supply of a complete mini steel

mill consisting of an electric steel plant, a con-

tinuous caster and a rolling mill for the pro-

duction of bar steel and wire rod at an annual

production rate of 500,000 t. The new plant in

Strážske with a total area of almost 37 ha is

the first mini mill to be built in Slovakia and

production is scheduled to start in Q4 2010.

Electric steel plant with 60-t AC electric arc furnace. The key el-ement of the steelworks is a 60-t AC electric arc furnace from SMSConcast designed for 100% scrap charging. The electric arc furnacehas an eccentric bottom taphole and a full platform design. A 60-MVA transformer together with chemical energy input provided bythe equipment from Consotech® guarantees an optimized powerinput. The latest-generation electrode control system and theprocess automation regulate all the functions of the electric arcfurnace and guarantee the repeatability of the performance para-meters even with differing charge scrap compositions. An effi-cient automation system monitors the overall performance andguarantees constant operating and melting costs.

60-t ladle furnace provides secondary metallurgical treat-

ment. The facility from SMS Concast ensures that non-metallicinclusions are avoided and guarantees outstanding castability and

All production facilities from SMS Concast and SMS Meer

SSM, Slovakia: Minimill for bar steeland wire rod ordered

optimized product properties. The transformer employed has arated power of 16 MVA + 20% overload reserve. The processcontrol systems offer the operator a possibility of communication,including laboratory and steelworks planning. The process statusis documented. Calculations for assessment of temperature andadditives for alloying and slag formation simplify the achievementof the target parameters.

Three-strand billet caster. In the development of the continuouscaster the production demands with respect to steel grade and an-nual production were taken into consideration by the engineersfrom SMS Concast. Attention was additionally given to the de-mands for the quality steels to be produced in future SBQ applica-tions for the automotive and machine engineering industries.Against this background, a continuous caster with three strandshaving a radius of eight meters and equipped with Convex® tech-nology was selected. Its extremely high level of automation meets

all process requirements and quality demands.

Hot charging. The direct link between continuouscaster and rolling mill using roller tables and a billethoist permits hot charging for the majority of the pro-duction. Square billets of 130 mm x 130 mm and a

maximum length of 12 m are used for allrolled products.

New order

Layout of minimill.

Newsletter No.3/2009 33

Rolling mill with three finishing lines. The rolling mill has threefinishing lines consisting of wire rod outlet, bar outlet with high-speed delivery (HSD®) system and the patented vertical compactcoiler (VCC) for particularly compact rebar coils.

Scope of supply from SMS Meer. SMS Meer supplies a walk-ing-hearth furnace for a capacity of 60 t /h with cold charging and80 t /h for hot charging, the mechanical and electrical equipmentfor the rolling mill, the supply systems for hydraulics and lubri-cating oil, and is also responsible for the supervision of erectionand commissioning.

Production of steel bars. The six-stand roughing mill, followed bya cropping and chopping shear, and the eight-stand bar finishingtrain both have housingless stands arranged alternately horizontallyand vertically. The finishing mill is equipped with a quick-changeplatform for quick program changing.

Production of wire rod. In the wire delivery section, the sheargroup and a wire rod block with ten rolling units are arrangeddownstream of a water box on which sizes from 5.5 to 16 mmcan be rolled with a maximum speed of 105 m/s. Two furtherwater boxes, a pinch roll unit, a loop laying head, an 82 m long

loop cooling conveyor (LCC®), a coil forming chamber, a verticalcoil transport facility and the vertical coil compactor complete thewire rod outlet section.

Production of rebars. For the production of rebars, the wire rodblock supplies the dimensions from 8 to 16 mm via a cooling sec-tion at speeds of up to 36 m/s to the proven high-speed delivery(HSD®) system. The larger dimensions up to 36 mm are producedon the bar finishing mill and are also delivered to the HSD® systemvia a water cooling section. Downstream of the 66 m long coolingbed is a cold shear, an automatic bar counter, a bundler, two wiretying machines and the coil loading station.

VCC coiler. A further special feature is the patented VCC coilerfrom SMS Meer. This proven technology produces extremely com-pact coils in the size range from 8 to 16 mm at speeds of up to 35m/s. In the first planned development stage, only one coiler will beinstalled. For this, the switch behind the cooling section diverts theproducts alternately either to the VCC coiler or to the HSD® system.The later installation of a second coiler is planned.

The new metallurgical complex will be equipped with BAT eco-technologies to meet European directives.

The new steelworks and the

rolling mill of Slovakia Steel

Mills will be installed on an

area of 36.7 ha in the industrial

zone of Strážske, East Slovakia.

Investments amount to EUR

178 million. For the production

of high-grade structural steel

state-of-the-art technologies

are applied. Thanks to the in-

vestment, 350 jobs are directly

created for this region and

about 250 indirect jobs will be

available plus approx. 700 work

places during erection.

Long-product mills


The new medium-section mill at Steel Dynam-

ics Inc. (SDI) in Columbia City, Indiana, USA, is

becoming the standard for continuous mills

producing structural steel in the 6 to 15 inch

range. The main new features of the mill sup-

plied by SMS Meer, which came on stream in

mid-2008, are the 15 stands based on the new

compact mill stand (CS design), characterized

by high rigidity and low deflection under load

coupled with simplicity of design and reduced

weight.

Broad product spectrum

SDI, Columbia City, USA: The new medium-section mill

The flexibility of the design, with three con-vertible stands, allows for a wide produc-tion range. The quick-change platform lim-its change time to 20 minutes. Attentionhas been given to product quality, with in-line laser profile gages and hydraulic gagecontrol in the last two stands.

Starting material and finished products. The mill will be fedby three billet sizes: two square ones at an edge length of 6” and7”, one rectangular shape of 10” x 8”, and one beam blank sizeof 430 mm x 260 mm. The maximum length is 15 m (50’). Themill is designed to roll a variety of structural shapes: W beams,from 4” to 14”; S beams up to 15”; channels up to 15”; equaland unequal angles up to 8”; M beams up to 12”. Productlengths are from 20’ to 120’.

The mill is predisposed for future equipment additions to be able toadd smaller products and flats up to 12”. In addition, the equipmentis designed also to allow increasing the product range up to 18”.

Bird’s-eye view of the SDI works in Columbia City, with the new medium-section

mill in the background.

Layout of medium-section mill.


Reheat furnace. The stock re-heating torolling temperature is performed by a 200t/h walking-beam reheating furnace. Withdimensions of 52’ wide by 76’ long, thefurnace is equipped with a total of 64 ultra-low NOx burners providing a maximum to-tal 330 mmBTU/h (BTU = British ThermalUnit), corresponding to 83 Gcal/h. In orderto simplify the control system and to in-crease the efficiency at the same time, thefurnace is divided into seven independent-ly controlled heating zones plus one un-fired zone. The combustion air is suppliedto the furnace by two centrifugal fans viaan air recuperator where it is heated up toa maximum temperature of 550 °C. A dilu-tion air blower provides safety cold air incase of overheating. Furnace charging isthrough a frontal door while discharge islaterally.

SMS Meer supplied the furnace inclusiveof the level 1 and level 2 controls. The lat-ter includes several heating curves (relatedto the different product mix of size andlengths), the control of the digital operationof the burners and the furnace operation.

Reheat furnace.

Furnace and rolling mill

At the exit of the furnace, a high-pressure descaler (210 bar)

prepares the stock for rolling. The roller table feeding the mill

is provided with insulating covers to minimize temperature

losses. Shaping takes place in a continuous mill made of 15

stands, in horizontal, convertible and universal positions. All

stands are of the same size and are based on the innovative

SMS Meer CS stand design.

Structure of rolling mill

n Roughing mill: made up of five stands, with stands 1, 3 and 5being convertible and 2 and 4 in two-high (horizontal) design. Aflying crop shear follows the roughing mill.

n Finishing mill: composed by the final ten stands, in two-highor universal stands. A crop shear is installed downstream ofstand No.11, a final dividing shear is installed at the end of themill. A laser profile gage immediately precedes the dividingshear.

The mill is equipped with quick-changing cars that allow a com-plete size change in 20 minutes. The mill is characterized by a highdegree of flexibility thanks to: convertible stand design on theroughing mill (Pos. 1, 3 and 5), possibility of using universal rolls ineight of the ten finishing mill positions, availability of several initialmaterial sizes.

Roughing mill with stand changing car.

»

Long-product mills


Cooling bed and straighteners. The cool-ing bed is a combination rake-type andchain conveyor and has a quick deliverysystem for lighter products. The rake-typeinitial area ensures proper material straight-ening. The chain conveyor area is equippedwith water spray cooling, operating in thelow temperature range, to improve the ca-pacity of the cooling bed. The cooling bedlength is (82 m) 270’ and it is (22 m) 72’wide.

The single-line horizontal straightener isof cantilever design of the newest gener-ation. The machine is equipped with eight

Convertible stand. The core technology of the continuous mill isthe innovative SMS Meer CS stand design. Made of fabricated andnon-cast components, this design merges high rigidity with lowweight and reduced manufacturing and operational cost.

Benefits of the CS design

n Closed-type housing and small window design made fromrolled slab steel, 50 % higher yield point, free of inclusions and shrink holes for the housing material (compared with conventional cast steel), i.e. higher wear resistance

n Compact, simple and rigid stand design due to FEM-optimized design and prestressed tie rod system

n Limited deflection under rolling loads due to improved mill spring values

n Improved stand stiffness compared with housingless (HL) stands, especially for the vertical rolls

n High screw-down accuracy due to zero-gap calibration (zeroing)

n Modular design, suitable for universal, horizontal and vertical mode

n Different stand types completely interchangeablen Each stand is shiftable for use of multi-grooved rolls

(max. 1,500 mm)n Increased diameter ranges for roll redressing,

i.e. longer roll lifen Use of different roll barrel lengths possible by easy exchange

of the tying elements of the housing partsn Short changing time through pre-adjustment of rolls and

guides in the preparation arean Possibility of easy exchange of single housing parts in case

of wear after long operating time, due to identical and interchangeable parts

n No additional coupling during stand change through automatic media couplings

n Individual or synchronized adjustments for top and bottom rollsn Hydraulic balancing of top rolln Backlash-free axial adjustment of top rolln Integration of roll-pass control or mechanical adjustment

system possible without major modifications

CS mill stands

Compact stand.

Finishing area


straightening rolls and has a pitch of1,400/1,250/1,100 mm, ideal for straight-ening the wide product range. All rolls areindividually powered. The material is guid-ed in the straightener by two verticalguide rollers at the entry and exit sides.

All straightener rolls can accommodatetwo or three straightening discs. The dis-tance between the straightening discs isadjustable. Thus, for beams and channelseries with the same inner radius, straight-ening roll changes can be waived withgreat improvement in flexibility and plantavailability. A quick-changing system withchanging crane is provided.

Finishing area. At the exit of the straight-ener, the beams are side transferred by achain conveyor. At the entry side, a turn-updevice allows inspection of the straight-ened bars. The layer collecting bed is 75 mlong and 14 m wide. The layer is thentransferred by roller table to the cuttingarea. Provisions were made for a future in-stallation of a multi-strand straightener andcold shear in order to guarantee higher pro-duction rates also for smaller and lighterproducts.

The cut to length is performed by twofixed saws, each equipped with stop-gage.Provisions were made for a future thirdmovable saw. After cutting, the material ispiled by magnetic stackers and transferredto the shipping bays after strapping. Thecooling bed and finishing area have spaceallowance for future capacity increases.

Stand change in the continuous mill. Straightener.

Saw in operation.

Magnetic stacker.

Long-product mills


After a standstill period of only six

weeks at Peiner Träger GmbH, Ger-

many, the universal medium-section

mill upgraded by SMS Meer has been

re-opened on September 1, 2009.

Commissioning

Universal medium-section mill – faster and more flexible

Large-scale modernization at Peiner Träger completed

New CCS® mill stand in the medium-section mill. (Source: Salzgitter AG).Production of tandem reversing mill in full swing.


For this modernization the

continuous finishing train of

the universal medium-section

mill (UMIT) has been adapted

to modern market require-

ments following an operating

time of 35 years and approx.

16.8 million t of rolled beams

and structural-steel sections.

Advantageous state-of-the-art rolling

technology using CCS® mill stands. Thenovel universal tandem-reversing rollingtechnology is now applied also on thisrolling plant instead of continuous finish-rolling which ensures that also smallerrolling lots can be quickly and efficientlyproduced and that specific customer de-mands are fulfilled. A replacement of therolls is easier so that beams of different di-mensions and grades can be produced insuccession without much loss of time.The beams will be more accurate to sizeand feature a very smooth surface. In thefuture it is possible to also roll high-gradespecial steel sections on the UMIT mill andto therefore gain new potential customers.

All this could be achieved by applying thetandem reversing rolling technology devel-oped by SMS Meer with universal two-high rolling stands in CCS® design and au-tomatic hydraulic roll-gap control inclusiveof an automatic quick program change.

Flying shear and elevated roller tables.

The existing flying shear for cutting therolling stock in cooling-bed lengths has ad-ditionally been replaced by a more power-ful four-crank shear. Owing to the use ofelevated roller tables up- and downstreamof the tandem reversing mill group, bars ata length of more than 200 m can be rolledout in spite of a limited bay length.

Supply including planning and supervision. The scope of sup-ply of SMS Meer included in addition to the supply and startup ofall mechanical equipment also the supply of piping, auxiliaries andsafety equipment as well as the disassembly and assembly of thefacilities and the foundations. Included in our scope of supply areplanning and supervision services as well as customer’s training.

Altogether 3,000 t of equipment dismantled. Thanks to an ex-tensive detail planning and partial pre-building of the roll stands onsite during production, the modernization and the cold commis-sioning could be realized during a shutdown period of six weeks.During this time about 3,000 t of equipment was dismantled andthe new facilities were mounted and tested.

25,000 t of salable products rolled after only 18 days. After themill had been taken into operation on September 1, 2009, it couldbe ramped up very rapidly while a number of beams and dimen-sions were “entered” from the very beginning. During an initial 18days already 15,000 t of salable products were rolled.

Now, large beams with a web height of up to 450 mm. An ex-tended product range comprises beams with a web height of up to450 mm and a flange width of 260 mm. Channels up to 400 mm,equal and unequal angles up to 250 mm and a number of specialsteel sections can additionally be rolled.

Modernization project of the last two years completed. In con-nection with the startup of the CRS® roller straightener in 2008 theupgraded mill train is able to fulfill today’s and future market de-mands with regard to flexibility, profitability and quality. Due to theupgrade and the modernization of key facilities of the mill train bySMS Meer over the last two years, the modernization project“UMIT 2010“ has been completed and the technological leader-ship of Peiner Träger GmbH has been guaranteed.

CRS® roller straightener during commissioning.

Long-product mills


Unique rolling mill for 700,000 tpy of rebars

Stefana, Italy:World record for rolling of straight bars

Two-strand HSD® system for supreme performances. The fa-cilities for a high performance of this future-oriented mill aremainly two slitting lines in combination with a two-strand HSD®

system as well as the control system with software developedby SMS Meer.

The basic principle of a two-strand HSD® system is to finish-rollbars in two six-stand and V-shaped finishing blocks and to cutthem with two state-of-the-art high-speed disc type dividingshears. Then, the bars are processed over their entire length infour braking pinch-roll units (two for each strand) and two dual-ro-tating channels installed on top of the entry table of the coolingbed. Only one bar per tooth is deposited on the cooling-bedrakes to make sure that a clean layer is available for the bundlingand tying systems.

Largest furnace of its class. Other mill components worth men-tioning are a walking-hearth furnace for the heating of 16-m-longsquare billets at a cross-section of 160 mm x 160 mm, which isone of the largest of its class, as well as two of our patented VCC(Vertical Compact Coiler) facilities.

The bar mill of Stefana S.p.A., Italy, built by

SMS Meer came on stream in mid-2008 and

is unique in view of productivity and product

quality. The mill reaches full capacity at all

dimensions of the product mix. Now, the

production line at Ospitaletto in northern

Italy has set a new world record on July 2009

for the rolling of straight bars on the cooling

bed: the new mill produced salable coils

made of rebars at a diameter of 8 mm and an

average real speed of 40 m/s over several

hours during shift operation.

This performance is equivalent to a production of single bars atdouble speed, i.e. as if 80 m/s would have been achieved. A tar-get limit value which had formerly only been planned has nowactually been reached and further improvements can soon be ex-pected.

At a production of 8-mm rebars with slitting and the two-strandHSD® system and at a rolling speed of 40 m/s billets are requiredto such an extent that the maximum furnace capacity of 106 t /his almost reached.

VCC station. Coil bundling and tying system.

World record


Yield improved by 30 %. A benefit of the unusual furnacelength is a yield improved by 30 % compared to furnaces for12-m billets. Compact coils can additionally be produced withweights up to 3.2 t. This coil size is advantageous for down-stream transport, storage, further handling and other tasks.

Production mode selectable: only straight bars or only

compact coils or both mixed. Alternatively to a restriction ofstraight bars produced without exception via the HSD® systemor to compact coils produced only via the VCC station, a mixedproduction mode can also be selected. In this case, the strandis delivered from a finishing block onto the cooling bed whilethe VCC system is charged at the same time by the secondfinishing block.

Improved yield and higher productivity. Needless to say,that the new production concept at Stefana reduces the num-ber of short bars and the accumulated scrap which on the oth-er hand results in a reduction of the production costs. There-fore, the new bar rolling mill at Stefana S.p.A. achieves an im-proved production yield and higher productivity. The resultsalso show that excellent economic results can be attained bycompetent and detailed advice.

VCC facilities from SMS Meer – shown on

the photo below – with outstanding tech-

nology are used for the production of steel

bars. The system was developed by SMS

Meer.

In August 2009, the Court of Appeals in

Trieste, Italy, rejected all contestations of

our competitors pending further notice

(N295/09 Sent).

VCC coiler –Vertical Compact Coilerfrom SMS Meer

Finish-tied coil.

Long-product mills


Thermomechanical rolling of all wire-rod dimensions

New cost-efficient wire-rod mill concept

A wire-rod finishing block consisting of a six-

stand plus a four-stand rolling unit enables

thermomechanical rolling of wire rod in all

standard dimensions at low costs and high

productivity. This innovative concept has

been successfully implemented by SMS Meer

in two wire rod mills for Weifang Iron & Steel,

China, which have meanwhile been put on

stream.

Six-stand and four-stand rolling units. Thermomechanicalrolling of wire rod at small dimensions and high productivity cannotbe attained with a conventional ten-stand finishing block. Due tothe required number of passes, the heating up is too much to re-alize the desired metallurgical properties. By separating the con-ventional wire-rod finishing block into a six-stand and a four-standunit, a wire rod of any dimension can be finish-rolled on the secondunit at a maximum number of four passes.

Loop technology reaches temperature reduction down to

750 °C. By means of sufficient cooling and perfect temperatureequalization over the cross-section, thermomechanical rolling canalso be achieved with a high production volume, and the looptechnology from SMS Meer which we have successfully appliedalready in several wire rod mills also offers a good precondition.Consequently, the temperature can be reduced to 750 °C whenthe wire rod enters the first finishing block i.e. at temperature de-viations of less than 50 °C.

This is a significant precondition to reachagain 750 °C prior to the last four shapingpasses in the case of dimensions whichstill have to be produced in a total of tenpasses. This enables a normalizing or ther-momechanical rolling even for smallercross-sections.

Loop on a wire rod mill.

View on both wire rod mills at Weifang Iron & Steel.


Temperature progression for wire rod at a diameter of 5.5 mm;

rolling speed V=105 m/s; steel grade: cold-upsetting grade.

Temperature progression for wire rod at a diameter of 16 mm;

rolling speed V=26.5 m/s; steel grade: cold-upsetting grade.

Four-stand block during mill operation.

Six-stand finishing block, opened.

The two temperature charts are examples of the excellent func-tioning of the new concept. Our updated wire rod mill concept en-ables the customers to enter a new quality sphere for wire rod atsmall cross-sections and with a comparatively low capital expendi-ture.

The successful startup of the two wire rod mills based on this

concept implemented at Weifang Iron & Steel which have at-

tained excellent tolerance values and high productivity fur-

nishes proof of this efficient concept.

Long-product mills


In September 2008, the Timken Company in

Canton, Ohio, USA, has commissioned new

facilities jointly with SMS Meer to extend its

existing Harrison Steel bar mill. “The facility

will reach full capacity in August 2009,“ says

Tom Moline, Steel Manufacturing Vice-Presi-

dent of Timken.

The expansion increases the mill capacity, extends the productsize range and improves product quality for the production of SBQround bars in the range from 25 to 127 mm. Shortly after commis-sioning, tolerances of ½ ASTM were already being achieved re-flecting the high performance ability of the mill and documentingthe precision of the hydraulic roll adjustment systems.

SBQ round bars produced in the range from 25 to 127 mm

Timken, USA: PSM® and bar finishingsection put into operation

One-Family rolling

and free-size rolling

The scope of supply from SMS Meer in-cludes a 3-roll precision sizing mill (PSM®)as well as a bar finishing section with cool-ing bed, cut-off and loading facilities. ThePSM® is arranged downstream of the ex-isting rolling mill and allows both a stan-dardized groove to be employed in theroughing and intermediate trains (one-fam-ily rolling) and the infinitely variable produc-tion of finished sizes by means of roll ad-justment (free-size rolling).

Control desk ahead of the PSM® block

with E+A supplied by SMS Meer.

Commissioning

Operation in full swing on the PSM® block.


Cooling bed for 78-m-long bars. The first rolled bars on the cooling bed.

Automatic gage control

and monitor control

The precision sizing mill consists of five rollcassettes, each with three rolls which caneven be hydraulically adjusted under load.This also permits automatic gage control(AGC) as well as monitor control in con-nection with a laser measuring unit forproduct size measurement installed down-line of the PSM®. A CARTA® process modelserves for setting of the process parame-ters. SMS Meer also supplied the com-plete electrical equipment and realized theautomation in cooperation with Timken.

Long-product mills


Combined wire rod and bar mill at Siderúrgica Norte Brasil

Successful commissioning of wire rod and bar mill

In January 2009, the first wire rod was produced by means of

a finishing block with the new MEERdrive technology in the

combined wire rod and bar mill of Siderúrgica Norte Brasil

S.A., Brazil.

Commissioning

The new combined plant which was sup-plied by SMS Meer including the electricalequipment and the automation systemwas designed for low- and medium-carbonsteels with an annual capacity of 250,000t. The whole mill train comprises a 50-t/hreheating furnace for square billets at across section of 130 mm x 130 mm and alength up to 12 m, followed by a 14-standroughing and intermediate mill.

The bar outlet essentially consists of ahigh-speed delivery system (HSD®) withcooling bed for the finished sizes (rebars)diameter 6.35 to 25.0 mm and a bar finish-ing line.

The commissioning team. Operator side of finishing block with MEERdrive technology.

The intermediate mill.


To boost our business transactions for new

plants and equipment as well as to expand our

after-sales service for wire rod and bar mills

we have intensified our local presence in sev-

eral countries. This new orientation aims at an

expansion of our product range and an im-

proved marketing success due to our local

presence.

Shanghai, China

In Shanghai, we have established SMS Meer Engineering Ltd.,

producing predominantly equipment for wire rod and bar

mills for the local and international markets. Thanks to setting

up a service crew, we are able to offer local service as well as

to supply the market with spare parts.

Worchester, USA

In Massachusetts, USA, we have launched a design office

which provides as center of competence coil handling sys-

tems and wire coil compactors.

Chesterfield, Great Britain

To intensify our services in Europe as well as to upgrade wire

mills we have recently opened a British office.

Kolkata, India

In Kolkata, we have strengthened our local presence by set-

ting up our own office. In addition to supporting our sales

projects within SMS Meer’s complete market program the

office serves also for order implementation.

China, USA, Great Britain and India

For wire rod and bar mills: Increased presence

The wire outlet starts with a croppingand chopping shear, followed by a fin-ishing block and 10 mill stands (MEER-drive) with standard module sizes of 200and 160, producing wire rod at a diame-ter range 5.5 to 16 mm and rollingspeeds up to 90 m/s. Two water coolingsystems, one pinch roll set, a layinghead and a 65-m-long Loop Cooling Con-veyor (LCC®) ensure optimum controlledcooling, laying pattern and coil shape.

The compact and efficient plant with in-novative plant technology for producingrebars and wire rod provides huge bene-fits with regard to flexibility and qualityand offers low conversion costs.

A primary key element is the rod finish-ing block with MEERdrive technology.Extensive investigation by means ofsimulation processes combined with ourexperiences for years in the constructionof rolling plants has been made to en-sure a stabilized rolling operation and areliable control of the mill stands of thefinishing block.

Our experiences made during the suc-cessful and rapid commissioning havegiven a proven basis for the next step,the application of the MEERdrive tech-nology at high-speed wire rod mills up to130 m/s.

Thanks to the latest technologies es-

pecially regarding the applied drive

train design, innovative concepts can

now be realized.

Long-product mills


Responding to an order from Stahlwerk

Thüringen GmbH, a company of the Spanish

Grupo Alfonso Gallardo, SMS Meer will supply

a new roughing stand for the long-product

mill in Unterwellenborn. This powerful rougher

will replace the existing breakdown stand

which no longer meets today’s requirements

owing to the heavier and larger sections

which the customer has added to the mill’s

product spectrum. Commissioning is sched-

uled for December 2010.

For heavier and larger steel sections

Stahlwerk Thüringen ordersnew roughing stand

The old roughing stand.

The new mill stand will be designed for arolling force of 10,000 kN and will have adrive power of 4,400 kW. Further specialfeatures include automatic roll-gap openingin case of overload, partly automated axialshifting of the top roll for groove or passadjustment and facilitated roll changing.

In addition to the new roughing stand, themodernization scope includes the renewalof the whole drive train, the work roller ta-bles, the sideguard manipulators and thecomplete electrical and automation equip-ment.

On this rolling mill which SMS Meer sup-plied in 1985 Stahlwerk Thüringen GmbHproduces more than 200 different steelsections. The long-product mill has an an-nual capacity of over 900,000 t.

The finishing mill modernized in 2003 with our

patented CCS® mill stands in tandem arrangement.

New order


Annual capacity: 690,000 t of wire rod

Wire rod mill with FRS® equipmentfor ArcelorMittal Hochfeld

ArcelorMittal Hochfeld GmbH,

with head office in Duisburg,

Germany, has placed an or-

der with SMS Meer for the

supply of a high-capacity

wire rod mill with FRS® equip-

ment for high-grade steels.

The annual capacity will be

690,000 t of which the major

portion will be wire rod prod-

ucts of cold-heading steel

grades. The mill boasts great

compactness and high effi-

ciency and will go into pro-

duction in August 2010.

Scope of supply. The SMS Meer orderscope comprises a walking-beam furnace,the mechanical and electrical equipment ofthe rolling mill, all of the utility systems, thefinishing facilities for the wire rod coils, theentire rolling and cooling equipment, anderection.

New order

Furnace, roughing and intermediate trains. The walking-beamfurnace for 155-mm square billets has a capacity of 120 t/h. It is fol-lowed by a four-stand roughing train comprising HL (housingless)stands with free runout and an intermediate train consisting of 14CL (cantilever) stands, each in horizontal and vertical arrangement.

Wire rod outlet and FRS® block. The wire rod outlet comprisesa cooling and equalizing section in loop arrangement, a wire rodblock with six rolling units and an FRS® block (Flexible Reductionand Sizing) with four rolling units, both in UHD design (ultra-heavy duty).

Forced and retarded cooling. The wire rod block and the FRS®

block are each followed by a water cooling line. The heart of themill is the FRS® block together with the proven cooling and equal-izing section. In addition, our scope includes the 104-m-longLCC® (Loop Cooling Conveyor) for forced and retarded cooling, atotal of three water cooling lines and the CCT® system (Con-trolled Cooling Technology) developed by SMS Meer.

Ultra-fine microstructures through thermomechanical

rolling. These facilities will allow ArcelorMittal Hochfeld to pro-duce wire rod of the entire dimensional range of 5.5 to 25.0 mmby means of temperature-controlled rolling. Ultra-fine micro struc-tures can be achieved especially for cold-heading grades by ther-momechanical rolling. The maximum rolling speed for 5.5-mm-diameter wire rod is 120 m/s.

Cooling and equalizing section in loop arrangement.LCC® Loop Cooling Conveyor.

Long-product mills


Responding to an order recently received from Nucor Steel

Darlington (Nucor Bar Mill Group), SMS Meer will supply a new

intermediate and a new finishing train for the bar mill No.1 in

Darlington, South Carolina/USA. Delivery is scheduled for the

end of 2009/beginning of 2010.

Modernization of bar mill No.1

Nucor Steel, USA: New intermediate

and finishing trains for DarlingtonNew order

cal engineering, metal construction, railtraffic, shipbuilding, heavy-load trucks andtrailers. Four of the section mills were builtby Nucor itself between 1969 and 1981.The remaining seven mills have beenpurchased since 2000, including the ac-quisitions of Marion Steel Company in2005 and of Connecticut Steel Corpora-tion in 2006. Altogether, the eleven sec-tion mills have a total capacity of approx.8,060,000 tpy.

HL stand.

HL stands.

Latest orders

n Arcelor-Mittal Hochfeld GmbH,

Germany. High-production wire rod mill with FRS® block (Flexible Reduc -tion and Sizing) for quality steel grades,especially cold heading grades.

n Arcelor-Mittal Monlevades S.A.,

Brazil. High-production wire rod millwith the possibility of adding a secondstrand and an FRS® block.

Greater availability. The goals of this ex-pansion are to increase the availability ofthe rolling mill by reducing the changing,set-up and tuning times, and to optimizespare-parts stocking. All these procedureswill be simplified thanks to the introductionof uniform stands in one size in the inter-mediate and the finishing train. Uniform stands. Comprising four horizon-tal, one vertical and three convertible hous-ingless stands (HL), the new continuous in-termediate and finishing trains will replacethe existing rolling mill. SMS Meer’s scopealso includes the supply of all gearboxes,spindles, holders and protective equip-ment. A flying shear, various interstand fa-cilities, quick-change devices and tools, hy-draulic and lubrication systems as well asan additional12 change cassettes completeour scope. All equipment will be pretestedin SMS Meer’s shops before delivery.Automation. The automation package in-cludes a PLC (Control Logix /Flex Logix)and the corresponding software for the

new stand controls. The new system willbe linked to the existing system via an in-terface. SMS Meer will also be responsi-ble for the supervision of erection andcommissioning.Comprehensive revamping. This presentinvestment is part of an extensive mod-ernization program launched by Nucor tobring all its facilities up to the state of theart to strengthen its competitive edge. Eleven section mills at Nucor Bar Mill

Group. Nucor Steel operates as many aseleven section mills at its US locations inSouth Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Utah,New York, Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi,Washington, Ohio and Connecticut. Thesemills produce concrete reinforcing bars,hot-rolled bars, rod, light shapes, structur-al angles and channels, wire mesh andguard rails of C-steels and alloyed grades.The products cover a whole range of ap-plications in market segments such asagriculture, automotive construction, civilconstruction, energy, furniture, mechani-


Hamriyah Steel, a joint ven-

ture recently set up by Russ-

ian Metalloinvest Group and

Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin

Zayed Al Nahyan from the

United Arab Emirates, chose

SMS Meer to erect a bar mill

in the Emirate of Sharjah

(UAE). The mill will be de-

signed for an annual produc-

tion of 1 million t of bars. The

main customer will be the

UAE’s booming building in-

dustry. Hamriyah Steel in-

tends to put the new mill into

operation at the end of 2009.

Capacity: 1million t of bars annually

Emirate of Sharjah

receives bar millNew order

Equipment, services plus electrics and

automation. SMS Meer will supply thecomplete rolling mill including electricaland automation systems. In addition, wewill be responsible for erection supervi-sion, commissioning and training. The au-tomation system made by SMS Meer willmonitor and control the whole productionprocess.

180 t of billets per hour. A 180-t /h walk-ing-beam furnace feeds the rolling millwith square billets of 125 x 125 mm to170 x 170 mm with lengths of up to 12 mwhich are rolled into bars with diametersbetween 10 and 40 mm.

Housingless stands. The rolling mill willbe equipped with horizontal and verticalhousingless stands, some of which canbe used as both horizontal and verticalunits. The stands come with quick-chang-ing devices. The smallest sizes will berolled by means of the four-slit rollingmethod. A water box for quenching andtempering the bars ensures the specificmechanical properties for the building in-dustry. The fully automated cooling bed,the separating devices as well as thebundling and tying station will likewise besupplied by SMS Meer.

Long-product mills


In the spring of 2008, Stefana

S.p.A., located in Ospitaletto, province of

Brescia, northern Italy, successfully commis-

sioned a completely new bar mill from SMS

Meer. Featuring a whole range of high-tech

equipment, the new mill can produce some

120 t/h of rebars or plain rounds, in case of

hot charging 140 t/h, conforming to a total

annual output of 700,000 t of sections. It

hence ranks among the most productive

rolling mills in southern Europe.

Stefana and SMS Meer had signed the contract for this projectnamed “Dream Steel” in 2005 to boost the production ofstraight bars and spools. The original layout of the mill reservedspace for later installation of a billet welding machine to enableendless rolling, as well as for mill extension to enable the pro-duction of wire rod.

Walking-hearth furnace. SMS Meer’s package included a walk-ing-hearth furnace for 160 mm x 160 mm square billets up to 16m long. A connection to the existing casting machine permits thebillets to be cold- or hot-charged. The furnace is equipped with allrequired charging and discharging facilities.

Rolling mill with 16 roll stands and two finishing blocks. Therolling mill comprises 16 housingless roll stands – six roughingstands in horizontal and vertical arrangement plus ten intermedi-ate/finishing stands in horizontal, vertical and convertible design.In addition, two finishing blocks, each with six rolling units, threecooling sections for rebar quenching and tempering from rollingheat, two cooling-bed shears and the patented HSD® High-SpeedDelivery system belong to the mill’s equipment.

HSD® system for maximum production rates. The HSD® sys-tem with four rotating channels permits high-speed two-slit rollingto attain maximal production rates for the smallest bar sizes.

700,000 t of rebars and plain rounds per year

Stefana, Italy: Bar mill

successfully started upCommissioning


Technical data

n Annual capacity 700,000 t n Product mix: rebars and plain rounds n Diameters: 8 to 16 mm,

2-slit rollingn Diameters: 18 to 40 mm,

normal rollingn Discharge by means of the HSD®

system with rolling speeds of up to 40 m/s onto the cooling bed

n Two VCC® Vertical Compact Coilers for rebar spools with a diameter of 700 mm, a height of 700 mm and a weight of up to 3.2 t

n Rebars have diameters between 8 and 16 mm and are coiled on the two VCC® facilities at speeds of up to 35 m/s

Finishing area with 90-m cooling bed.

The finishing area comprises a 90-m-longcooling bed, various transport systems, acold shear, bundling equipment, four au-tomatic tying machines with automatic la-beling system, bundle conveyors, and allrequired auxiliary facilities. The two VCC®

Vertical Compact Coilers consist of cool-ing boxes, shears, spooling equipment, aspool manipulator, two strapping ma-chines, transport facilities and a weighingstation.

SMS Meer as full-line supplier. In addi-tion to all mechanical equipment, SMSMeer supplied the complete electric andelectronic equipment, controls as well asthe software for the automation of therolling mill. Erection, supervision of rolling-mill commissioning and training of cus-tomer’s personnel were also included inour scope.

Long-product mills


In July 2007, Athens-based

Hellenic Halyvourgia S.A.

started up a new High-Speed

Delivery system (HSD®) from

SMS Meer. Since then, the

Greek steelmaker’s produc-

tivity has risen distinctly.

Productivity of long-product mill boosted by up to 50 %

Hellenic Halyvourgia: HSD® High-Speed

Delivery system successfulCommissioning

Today, almost one year later,

a long-term evaluation con-

firms the excellent produc-

tion figures: with the new

equipment, Hellenic Haly -

vourgia’s productivity for 8-

mm-diameter rebars is 50 %

higher than with the former

mill configuration.

Cooling bed.

HSD® High-Speed

Delivery system

for the cooling bed.


Revamp with just

minor production losses

To modernize the long-product mill, thepatented HSD® High-Speed Delivery sys-tem was installed during the scheduledannual maintenance shutdown so that re-vamping did not cause any major produc-tion losses. Parallel to the installation ofthe HSD® system, the rolling mill wasmodernized and all measures for disman-tling the old machines and ancillary facili-ties were carried out.

FAC issued after

just 10 months

In spite of the tense delivery situationworldwide for plant components, SMSMeer succeeded to supply, erect and com-mission the complete facility on schedule,just six months after contract signing inJanuary 2007. In November 2007, around10 months after the signing of the con-tract, Hellenic Halyvourgia officially accept-ed the mill and issued the FAC.

HSD® system.

Long-product mills


CS reversing stand during erection.

Jiexiu Xintai Iron & Steel Co.,

based in the Chinese pro v -

ince of Shanxi, has contract-

ed SMS Meer to supply a sec-

tion mill for the rolling of

beams with web heights be-

tween 200 and 1,000 mm.

Designed for an annual capacity of 1.2 mil-lion t, the mill will further increase China’sproduction capacity for parallel-flangedbeams to meet the high domestic de-mand. Hot commissioning of the mill isscheduled for the fall of 2009.

Hoesch Schwerter Profile

GmbH, a company of the Ital-

ian Calvi Holding S.r.l., select-

ed SMS Meer to modernize

its rolling mill for special sec-

tions. The goals of this proj -

ect are to increase the mill’s

availability, yield and flexibili-

ty and to improve the quality

of the finished products.

Tailor-made modernization concept.

The existing roll stands will be replacedwith modern compact stands. Grip-typetilters and centering devices will ensurethe optimal material entry conditionswhich are indispensable for the rolling ofspecial sections. Special investments inareas of the continuous finishing line andthe further processing facilities are alsoessential parts of the entire moderniza-tion concept.

Innovative CS roll stands. The specialsections produced by Hoesch SchwerterProfile GmbH are tailored to the needs andrequirements of the end users and have tomeet highest standards in terms of preci-sion and surface quality. Therefore, thecustomer decided to employ SMS Meer’sinnovative CS stands (Compact Stands)with automatic high-speed stand changing.

High stand rigidity. The new changestands feature maximum rigidity and re-quire little maintenance. Offering greatflexibility, the CS change-stand concept isideally suited for the rolling of special sec-tions. The made-to-measure stand solutionprovides for the re-use of existing rolls andguides, making the revamp of the special-section mill highly cost-efficient.

SMS Meer supplies eighth section mill to China

Beam mill for Jiexiu Xintai

Innovative CS roll stands

Hoesch Schwerter Profile:

revamp of rolling mill for special sections

Scope of supply. SMS Meer will supplythe mechanical and electrical equipmentas well as the automation for the new CSstands, descaling devices and grip-typetilters, stand-changing and assembly areaequipment as well as the required utilitysystems. Training of customer’s person-nel and supervision of erection and com-missioning are likewise included in ourpackage.

This revamp measure will help HoeschSchwerter Profile GmbH expand its lead-ing position as a producer of special sec-tions and strengthen its market position.

New order

New order

SMS Meer’s supply package includes theplanning and engineering, the key equip-ment, the training of customer’s personnelas well as the supervision of erection andcommissioning.

The rolling mill will be equipped with ouruniversal stands in CCS® design (CompactCartridge Stand). The hydraulic adjust-ment control system and the high rigidityof the mill stands permit to roll finishedproducts with close tolerances. The 9-roller CRS® compact roller straightenerfeatures straightening rollers that aremounted in bearings on both sides, hy-draulic adjustment and automatic straight-


Gerdau Açominas of Brazil has placed an order with

SMS Meer to expand the finishing equipment of its

Ouro Branco heavy section mill. For extension of the

existing mechanical equipment, SMS Meer will sup-

ply a tandem cold saw, two automatic12-m piling fa-

cilities as well as wire-tying machines. In addition,

SMS Meer will be at the head of the consortium for

the electrical and automation equipment. Brazilian

company Converteam will also be on board for this.

Higher yield and closer length tolerances

Gerdau Açominas, Brazil:

expansion of section finishing area

The consortium’s scope of supply alsoincludes the supervision of erection andcommissioning as well as the startup ofthe electrical equipment. The expansionconcept provides for installation of the newequipment while rolling continues. Follow-ing expansion of the section finishing area,the rolling mill’s capacity will go up fromsome 400,000 to 700,000 tpy. Commis-sioning is scheduled for 2009.

The coming expansion will increase thecapacity of the finishing equipment whichwas completely exhausted in the past andhence represented a bottleneck. This willbe achieved through installation of a sec-ond cooling bed and by changing over fromdividing the sections in hot state to finish-dividing by means of cold saws.

Moreover, additional piling, tying andloading capacities will be created. After theexpansion, the only function of the hotsaws is to pre-divide the material, whilethe new cold saws will be used for finish-cutting the material into saw layers. Thiswill increase the yield and also improve thelength tolerances of the finished material.

New order

ening-roller changing, and ensures greatflexibility along with top straightening re-sults at minimum residual stresses. Pro-gram changing on the mill takes no morethan 20 minutes. For dividing the rolledstock into finished lengths, SMS Meerwill provide its proven cold saw techniquewhich stands out for its low cutting costs.

This is yet another heavy beam mill em-ploying SMS Meer’s patented XH® univer-sal beam rolling method. Since its intro-duction in the early 90s, SMS Meer hasimplemented this economical rollingmethod in as many as 16 new facilities.

Cold saw in operation.

Long-product mills


Just 22 months after order

award, the new rail and sec-

tion mill of Wuhan Iron &

Steel (Group) Corporation

(Wisco), Wuhan, China, has

successfully entered its hot

commissioning phase. The

mill which features proven

key equipment was supplied

and installed jointly with the

customer under the technical

leadership of SMS Meer.

Wisco, China: rail and section mill

Commissioning underway

Commissioning Commissioning began at the end of December 2007 with therolling of rails with a weight of 60 kg/m. In the weeks and monthsthereafter, all the products included in the product mix were, andstill are, rolled.

The rolling mill consists of two 2-high reversing stands and oneuniversal tandem rolling group with hot saws and one 105-m-longand 42-m-wide cooling bed. The mill also incorporates the provenCCS® stands (Compact Cartridge Stands) for automatic high-speedchanging. The cooling bed is equipped for pre-bending of the rails.The horizontal/vertical straightening machine located downstreamof the cooling bed completes our supplies.

For rail rolling, the rail and section mill employs the universal rollingmethod. It is able to produce rails up to a length of 100 m withclose tolerances for use in high-speed railway systems. Wisco isnow the fourth rail producer in China using technologies and equip-ment made by SMS Meer.

Rolling of the first section. Rolling of beams to the XH® rolling method.


The mill is able to attain a production

of 1.05 million tpy, with the product mix

comprising:

n 550,000 tpy, various rail types of 38 to 89 kg/mn 400,000 tpy, parallel-flanged beams of 175 x 175 to

600 x 300 (mm x mm)n IPN beams of 250 to 500 mmn Channels of 250 x 80 to 400 x 104 (mm x mm)n Angles of 33 to 71kg/mn Piling sectionsn Mining sectionsn Bulb flats

Universal rolling in the compact stand group.

Horizontal straightener

in the shop.

Horizontal /vertical straightening

machine in a production plant.

Pre-bending of rails on the cooling bed.

MEETING your EXPECTATIONS

500

/03/

11 .

Ky

. Prin

ted

in G

erm

any

“The information provided in this brochure contains a general description of the performance characteristics of the products concerned. The actual products may not always havethese characteristics as described and, in particular, these may change as a result of further developments of the products. The provision of this information is not intended to haveand will not have legal effect. An obligation to deliver products having particular characteristics shall only exist if expressly agreed in the terms of the contract.”

SMS MEER GMBH

Long Products

Ohlerkirchweg 6641069 Mönchengladbach, Germany

P.O. Box 10064541006 Mönchengladbach, Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 2161 350-0Fax: +49 (0) 2161 350-1754

[email protected]

SMS MEER S.P.A.

Long Products

Via Udine, 10333017 Tarcento (Udine), Italy

Phone: +39 (0) 432 799 111Fax: +49 (0) 432 784 556

[email protected]

Documents

Long Products Bulletin 2011