WE TRANSFORM …

THE WORLD OF ALUMINUM

T H E S MS G R O U P MAGA Z I NE
I SS U E 03 / 2016

ISSU E 0 3  / 2 016

THE MODERNIZATION
EXPERTS

THE SMS GROUP MAGAZI NE

Modernization of hot rolling mill at ArcelorMittal
Gent: Mill stands in the test phase.

SAVE THE DATE

Nov. 29 – Dec. 1, 2016

These are the stand-out properties of aluminum: low weight We’d be delighted to see you at our booth. There you can
combined with high strength, good electrical and thermal find out all about our full range of machinery and plants –
conductivity, corrosion resistance, and recyclability. for producing, processing, and refining aluminum as well
as aluminum products. Take this opportunity to talk with us
personally. Be our guest!
Visit us at
ALUMINIUM 2016
Hall 9, Booth No. 9C20 SMS group offers products customized to your require-
Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 ments. You also benefit because all our solutions are
Düsseldorf, Germany designed for top efficiency and resource saving. NEW ORDER  COMMISSIONING e-Service
Eco-friendly steel complex for Largest extrusion press ever built by Platform prototype means: Industry
AFERPI in Italy. SMS group to start production. 4.0 you can experience.
 42  98  128
SMS GROUP GMBH
Eduard-Schloemann-Strasse 4 Phone: +49 211 881-0 communications@sms-group.com
40237 Düsseldorf, Germany Fax: +49 211 881-4902 www.sms-group.com
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Contents
12 The modernization experts.
PROCESS CHAIN
30 IRONMAKING PLANTS
36 METALLURGY AND ENVIRON-
MENTAL TECHNOLOGY
54 FLAT ROLLING MILLS
65 STRIP PROCESSING LINES
AND FURNACE TECHNOLOGY
81 TUBE & PIPE PLANTS
88 LONG PRODUCT PLANTS
98 FORGING TECHnOLOGY
118 ELECTRICAL AND
AUTOMATION SYSTEMS
126 PRODUCTION
128 TECHNICAL SERVICE
2
18 ArcelorMittal Gent upgrades hot strip mill.
FOCUS
18 MODERNIZATION
New mill stands for new
products
Modernization of hot strip mill
at ArcelorMittal Gent passed
the halfway point.
24 MODERNIZATION
Ready for peak performance
Tandem mill at PAO Severstal
revamped in record time.
26 MODERNIZATION
Very quickly brought to
“as new” condition
Overhaul of wire rod mill at
ArcelorMittal in Poland in half
the usual time.
28 MODERNIZATION
Efficient modernization with
concept engineering
The holistic approach improves
the competitiveness of Outkum-
pu’s hot rolling mill in Tornio.
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PROJECTS
30 I RONMAKING PLANTS
NLMK relies on Paul Wurth
Modernization of a blast furnace.
36 METALLURGY
Long-standing cooperation
Two hot-metal desulfurization
units for ILVA S.p.A., Italy.
54 HOT ROLLING MILLS
New large wheel for
roughing stand
SMS group supplied wheel
sets to ArcelorMittal Galati.
56  OLD ROLLING MILLS
C
Latest 20-roll technology for
Europe
Acerinox Europe confirms its
confidence in SMS group.
62 ALUMINUM
Goal accomplished!
Extension of Aluminium Norf’s
hot mill successfully completed.

82 Pipe mill up to date.
66 STRIP PROCESSING LINES
AND FURNACE TECHNOLOGY
Reconstruction of a pusher
furnace
SMS modernized slab reheat-
ing furnace at Vítkovice Steel.
82  UBE & PIPE PLANTS
T cusing on the human operator.
Most modern large-diameter
pipe mill in the world
Corinth produces with JCOE®
pipe forming press.
88  ONG PRODUCT PLANTS
L eService platform with inte-
Small steps – big impact
Effective solutions for modifi-
cations combined with mini-
mum downtimes.
98 FORGING TECHNOLOGY
Extrusion on an XXL scale
The largest extrusion
press built by SMS started
production.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
106 Extrusion presses for Al Taiseer. 118 Future-oriented operation.
118 ELECTRICAL AND 04 PHOTO HIGHLIGHT
AUTOMATION SYSTEMS
06 NEWS
X-Pact® Vision – operation
and visualization 12 OUTLOOK – RETROSPECT
SMS group is setting a semi- 148 EVENTS
nal benchmark in visualizing
155 PUBLICATIONS/IMPRINT
process interactions, while fo-
128 TECHNICAL SERVICE
Experience Industry 4.0
The SMS group’s Service Divi-
sion presents a prototype of an
The SMS group newsletter app is
now available in the App Store and at
grated electronic spare parts
Google Play.
catalog and further smart
functions.
144 DEVELOPMENTS
Media systems from one
source
SMS group offers media sys-
tems for new facilities and
modernizations, irrespective
Cover: Modernization of the hot strip mill at
of the type of plant. ArcelorMittal Gent.
3
Deep insights
The photo shows a Plug & Work test. In the
in-house test centers, SMS group automa-
tion experts set up a great portion of the
original automation system to be later in-
stalled at the customer’s site including con-
trol cabinets, computers, control desks and
software. Then, prior to commissioning, the
automation system is thoroughly tested by
close-to-reality simulations, and the cus-
tomer’s operating staff is trained at this
early stage. Plug & Work is the name of
SMS group’s innovative proceeding which
will significantly shorten the actual com-
missioning on site. To reproduce and visual-
ize production processes, SMS group has
most recently been using a professional,
interactive 3D graphics application within
the scope of Plug & Work. 3D visualizations
permit the users to observe mechanical
components and movements even more
clearly. The Plug & Work method is well
suited for both new equipment as well as
modernization projects.

4
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

5
Rubrik  sms group newsletter 02 / 2016

SMS INNSE office building

in Milano, Italy.

SMS INNSE – FOR 20 YEARS

PART OF SMS GROUP
Italian company is proud of its contribution to the success of SMS group.

It was in 1996 that the Italian company INNSE was priva- plier of equipment for steelworks,
tized and taken over by Mannesmann Demag Group. In
1999, the merger between Schloemann Siemag AG and the
continuous slab casting plants, hot
and cold rolling mills, strip processing
i
Metallurgical Plant Division of Mannesmann Demag led to lines and spare parts. The company
the integration process of INNSE into SMS group. Initially, also plays an important role in the SMS INNSE
the company assumed the name SMS Demag INNSE supply of seamless pipe mills, making
(2000). Later, in 2009, the name was changed to SMS it a strong pillar within the SMS group The roots of the
INNSE. For the company, becoming part of SMS group portfolio. The company`s activities are company date back
meant that it would in the future operate within a group based on preliminary studies, me- to 1930, when it was
recognized for its leadership in plant engineering for the chanical, hydraulic and electric proj- founded in Milan by
steel and NF metals industry. ects as well as automation. Ferdinando Innocenti.
Today, SMS INNSE
Valuable contribution to success has a work force of
Today, SMS INNSE looks back on a 20-year history, during 150 employees.
which it has made key contributions to the success of SMS
group. SMS INNSE is a technological reference recognized SMS INNSE
both nationally and internationally, particularly as a sup- innse@sms-innse.it

6

For 50 years, Drever has been establishing plants for steel product
heat treatment. Jointly with SMS, it is the market leader in annealing,
hot-dip galvanizing and stainless steel processing lines.
On fire for
building furnaces
50 years of Drever in Belgium.
For more than 50 years now, Drever International S.A.,
Belgium, has been supplying equipment for the thermal
processing of steel strips and plates. The anniversary was
celebrated in the former steelworks La Fabrik, which is
not far from the Drever headquarters in Liège, on April 15,
2016. About 200 Drever employees and their companions,
representatives from Drever’s locations in the U.S.A. and
China and from SMS group attended the ceremony themed
“Flame and Steel”.
During the official part of the evening, Harald Rackel,
member of the SMS group Managing Board, the Managing
Director of Drever, Jean-Marc Raick, and Fritz Brühl,
Managing Director Strip Processing Lines and Furnace
Technology, congratulated the employees and expressed
their thanks for the staff’s commitment and passion in the
field of furnace technology.
EXPERTS FOR HEAT TREATMENT
For ten years, Drever International has been part of SMS
group within the Business Unit Strip Processing Lines and
Furnace Technology. The Liège location has a workforce of
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
After 34 years of employment, 20 thereof as Managing Director,
Jean-Marc Raick has retired. On July 1, 2016, his position was
assumed by Jean-Pierre Crutzen (photo).
about 100 furnace specialists. Another 30 persons work at
Drever Metallurgical Technology in Shanghai, China. Drever
Furnace in Pittsburgh, U.S.A., is a further location.
Drever offers the complete range of furnace equipment
for the production of steel strip, and, thanks to a strong
partnership with SMS, is the market leader in the field of
annealing and hot-dip galvanizing as well as stainless steel
processing lines. Quenches for heavy plate and bright an-
nealing lines for stainless steel tubes complete the portfo-
lio. Over the last twenty years, Drever has been awarded
112 orders for new plants, more than its two main com-
petitors together.
Drever’s roots are in the U.S.A. In 1939, Horace Drever
founded Drever Company in Philadelphia. To better serve
the European market, Drever International was established
in Belgium in 1966, at first in Brussels and since 1973 at the
current location Liège.
Drever International
info@drever.be
7

MMK HONORS SMS WITH
“BEST SUPPLIER AWARD 2015”
SMS group has been recognized as “Best Supplier of MMK in technological
and non-standard equipment in 2015”.
The award was presented to SMS
group in a ceremony held at Magnito-
gorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) in
Magnitogorsk, Russia, on June 2, 2016.
Pavel Shilyaev (CEO of Magnitogorsk
Iron and Steel Works) handed over the
award to Fulvio Michelutti and Grigory
Smolin (both from SMS Metallurgical
Service LLC) in recognition of excepti-
8
From left to right: Sergey Ushakov,
Deputy CEO for Commercial Affairs,
OJSC MMK, Fulvio Michelutti, SMS Metal-
lurgical Service LLC, Pavel Shilyaev, CEO
of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works,
Grigory Smolin, SMS Metallurgical
Service LLC.
onal performance as suppliers of plant technology and
technical services. The ceremony concluded with a tour of
the Magnitogorsk worksite.
UNIQUE APPRECIATION
Pino Tesè, Executive Vice President Technical Service of
SMS group: “We are proud to be recognized by our custom-
ers and are indeed very happy about this award. It will be
motivation to us to continue striving to improve our prod-
ucts and services for our customers and responding to
their requirements as efficiently as possible. The award
honors our proficiency and professionalism as well as the
high quality of our products. It will foster the partnership
between SMS group and MMK – one of our most important
customers for 80 years.”
As early as in 1936, SMS group supplied the first revers-
ing rolling mill to MMK. Since then, MMK has been pro-
ducing and processing steel on numerous state-of-the-art
plants and machines from SMS group. SMS group has been
supporting MMK extensively as a service partner. Starting
in 2009, service teams from SMS group have been perform-
ing various activities at facilities of MMK, including service
tasks ranging from individual solutions through to complete
service and maintenance packages. As plant manufactur-
er and systems supplier, SMS group is familiar with every

Magnitogorsk. To this destination, SMS group has
supplied many plants operated by MMK.
detail of the plants and makes this know-how
available to its customers as service partners.
SMS group’s proficient approach to maintenance
guarantees highest plant availability.
EXCELLENT SERVICES
The SMS group services which MMK refers to as
being exceptional and for which they presented
the recent award relate particularly to services
for the No. 6 continuous casting plant. For that
casting plant, which produces slabs up to 300
millimeters thick and has a maximum casting
width of 2,700 millimeters, the SMS group’s ser-
vice team performs the complete routine main-
tenance as well as regular maintenance and re-
pairs to the molds and segments.
MMK rates its suppliers on a scale of points
based on a number of criteria, which include the
service scope, quality of work, timeliness and
compliance with contract agreements. This open
supplier selection system provides MMK and
their business partners an objective assessment
of competitiveness. The “Best Supplier of the
Year Award”, presented for the first time in 2016,
makes quality of performance openly visible.
Reinhard Reddel
reinhard.reddel@sms-group.com
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Startup
founded
SMS digital GmbH to develop its own
digital business models.
SMS group has founded a startup designed to develop
new digital models that complement the company’s core
business. Operating independently in terms of finances
and management, SMS digital GmbH
is a subsidiary affiliated with SMS
Holding GmbH.
“SMS digital will interact directly
with customers to identify the digital
products they need or want. Then it
will develop and market the right
products in close cooperation with the
Business Units of SMS group,” says
Burkhard Dahmen, CEO of SMS
group. The new digital subsidiary will Maximilian Wagner
build on findings from last year’s “In-
dustry 4.0” studies conducted by interdisciplinary project
teams at SMS group. Maximilian Wagner has been ap-
pointed Managing Director of the new company with im-
mediate effect.
Maximilian Wagner
mw@sms-digital.com
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Joint venture
partners: Dr.
Andreas Filzwieser,
Managing Director of
PolyMet Solutions
GmbH, Dr. Rolf
Degel, Dr. Iris
Filzwieser, Dr. Guido
Kleinschmidt,
Member of the
Managing Board of
SMS group, Ralf
Nörthemann,
Johannes Joubert
(from left to right).

Joint Venture PolyMet

Solutions GmbH
New products and services for the NF market.

SMS group and Mettop GmbH, Austria, founded the joint
venture PolyMet Solutions GmbH in May 2016, with each
company possessing 50 percent of the shares. PolyMet So-
lutions GmbH is an independent company with headquar-
ters in Leoben, Austria. The Managing Director is Dr. An-
dreas Filzwieser.
The current bro-
chure of PolyMet INNOVATIVE PROCESSES AND SOLUTIONS
Solutions GmbH can The joint venture will enable SMS group to expand its range
be viewed under: of products and services by the planning and supply of
www.sms-group. plants and equipment for the production of copper, lead,
com/nl2016-poly- zinc, tin and other non-ferrous metals.
met-magazine-2016 PolyMet Solutions will offer innovative processes and
solutions for primary concentrate melters, converters
(such as Peirce Smith converters) and anode furnaces. It
will thus be possible to supply complete process routes,
extending as far as electrolysis and the subsequent pro-
cessing of semi-finished products.
For the past ten years Mettop has
been operating successfully in the
fields of engineering, supply of core
components and refractory design for
the non-ferrous metals industry.
Mettop has attained a special position
on the international market thanks to
its core products ILTEC cooling tech-
nology and METTOP-BRX electrolysis
technology.
Dr. Rolf Degel
rolf.degel@sms-group.com

10

The merger helps SMS group expand its
product portfolio.
PWS GmbH
Merger into SMS group
completed.
PWS GmbH has now merged into
SMS group GmbH. The former PWS
headquartered in Ravensburg, Ger-
many, is the global leader in plants
and machinery for the production of
spiral pipes. PWS employees develop
customized systems, from individual
machines to complete turnkey plants
for piling, water as well as oil and gas
pipes. Individual services round off
the product portfolio in this field. The
digital welding technology PERFECT­
arc® with its properties superior to
the conventional systems is also an
in-house manufacture.
www.sms-group.com
QuinLogic GmbH runs several locations around Joseph Dzierzawski, President and CEO SMS
the globe.
Quality
assurance
SMS acquires majority
holding in QuinLogic.
SMS group has acquired the majority
shareholding in QuinLogic, a startup
based in Aachen, Germany. QuinLog-
ic GmbH develops software solutions
that ensure optimized quality man-
agement in the steel, aluminum, and
paper industries. Included here are
quality assurance systems for flat
steel, stainless steel, special steel,
and non-ferrous metals.
“With this purchase of shares in
the Aachen company, we are gaining
a foothold on the growing market for
digital products and quality-assur-
ance solutions. Alongside founding
SMS digital, this participation repre-
sents a major boost to our opera-
tions in the field of digitization,” says
Burkhard Dahmen, CEO, SMS group.
Today, SMS group already suc-
cessfully uses QuinLogic products in
customer projects.
www.quinlogic.com
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
USA LLC, proudly holds the award trophy.
Prestigious
award
SMS is “Technology
Provider of the Year”.
SMS group bagged the “Technology
provider of the year” title at the 7th
annual Steel Excellence Awards. The
award was presented by the Ameri-
can Metal Market (AMM) in New York
at the Steel Awards Dinner, held in
conjunction with the global Steel
Success Strategies conference in
June 2016.
The award for Steel Excellence
recognizes top performers for achiev-
ing excellence in 14 distinct catego-
ries. “These companies demonstrat-
ed both tenacity and excellence to
distinguish themselves during this
tough global market for steel. To be
so honored particularly during chal-
lenging times is the mark of a world-
class company” said AMM President
Raju Daswani.
communications@sms-group.com
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Diligent planning
is a key element of
fast revamps.

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The modernization
experts
Identifying keys to success with SMS group.

Since the turn of the millennium, world steel capacity has ramp-up and making the plant “Indus-
more than doubled. Due to the fact that the steel demand try 4.0-ready” with intelligent compo-
has not increased in accordance with development, steel nents, today! SMS group opens up new
producers worldwide are facing problem of overcapacity. competitive opportunities for plant
The Organization for Economic Co-operation of Develop- operators by implementing target-
ment (OECD) Steel Committee expects excess capacity of oriented, customized modernization
steel to reach 750 million tons, alone in 2016. Consequent- strategies.
ly, the cost pressure on the plant operators has been grow-
ing. However, there are indeed profitable market niches
and growth markets. For example, high-strength steel
grades for automotive light-weight construction are still
much in demand, as well as large-size components for

53
wind power plants or gear components, or special formats,
like thicker gage sheet or special long products. Most plant
operators have therefore been increasingly concentrating
on modernizing their facilities and asking questions like:
Which is the best modernization strategy for me to remain
competitive? What kind of modifications are needed to max-
imize the efficiency and sustainability of existing plants?
The future of the plant owners is at stake. Therefore,
modernization today is much more than the mere replace-
ment of old parts with new ones. Integrative and foresight- years is the age of the PAO Severstal plant.
With the revamped plant, the customer can
ed concepts are needed in order to be able to reduce to a
now produce premium cold-rolled strips for
minimum the downtimes associated with a revamp, while
the automotive industry.
speeding up the commissioning activities, achieving a fast

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Forward-thinking revamps
i Throughout the world, the SMS group’s
revamping specialists are very close
to their customers. For us, customer
proximity is not only a geographical
SMS Group
term, but an entrepreneurial mission.
With 14,000 employ- The SMS experts actively approach
ees worldwide, the the plant operators, suggesting ways
group can offer their to implement efficient modernization
customers bespoke, measures that will open up new mar-
technologically and ket opportunities for them. As a mat-
economically con- ter of course, customers also directly
vincing solutions for turn to SMS for concrete revamping
any challenges and requests. In both cases, the SMS spe-
tasks. cialists will first conduct a fact-find-
ing process based on which an engi-
neering concept will be elaborated.
From such a concept, a well founded
14
solution will be derived outlining how the production pro-
cess may look like in the future. Such intensive preliminary
work and consulting service pay for our customers, as the
modernization projects developed or modified by SMS
group provide higher cost-efficiency and allow our custom-
ers to reach their targets in a more sustained manner.
Implementing customer requirements
The fact that SMS group operates its own in-house manu-
facturing facilities enables us to manufacture components
perfectly tailored to the specifics of the modernization
project on hand. This, of course, would not be possible
without our highly qualified and, above all, long-time em-
ployees who have the necessary knowledge and expertise
to master the challenges and complex mechanical engi-
neering tasks we encounter in our industry. SMS group
has been active in the modernization business for many
decades. That gives us a clear competitive edge in the
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

New plant compo-

nents improve the
production process.

»Highly skilled employees with many years of experience,

intelligent components and machines, in-house manufacturing
facilities and practical experience from a great many projects
are the keys to success in plant modernization.«

Dieter Rosenthal, Member of the Managing Board of SMS group.

market in terms of practical experience as well as innova-
tive technologies. Especially with a view to growing digiti-
zation and for quality improvements, the latter is a deci-
sive aspect because it will become increasingly critical to
have intelligent components in place which are capable of
communicating more intensively and effectively with high-
er-level systems.
Leveraging expertise
There are basically three options for revamping a produc-
tion plant: revamping the mechanical equipment, revamp-
ing electrics and automation or revamping both the me-
chanical equipment and electrics & automation. As OEM,
SMS group boasts in-depth know-how for all three op-
tions. However, the task is not only to bring an obsolete
plant back to the state-of-the-art, but above all to increase
the product range, the product quality and the flexibility of
production – while decreasing the costs of operation. At
the same time, a modernization will also reduce the envi-
ronmental footprint of a plant, allowing it to meet the
growing environmental standards.
Realizing success
A look at recent modernization projects reveals the advan-
tages of modernization concepts by SMS group. At Arcelor-
Mittal in Gent, Belgium, SMS group is revamping the me-
chanical equipment of the hot strip mill. The objective of
the project is to expand the product portfolio to include
high-strength and multi-phase steels. To this end, SMS
group will install new finishing stands, new gears and new
high-performance spindles. Installation will take place
during two scheduled mill shutdowns. The functions of the
preassembled components will be checked in comprehen-
sive pre-installation tests in the SMS group’s manufactur-
ing workshops in Hilchenbach together with specialists of
ArcelorMittal. One advantage of this procedure is, for

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sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
example, that later on it will be possible to commission
i the stands without any readjustment. The new stands will
be assembled in the works right next to the running rolling
mill. When the old stands will have been disassembled, the
X-Pact® new ones will be ready to be shifted into the production line
in place of the old stands.
Under the name A typical example of a project involving the revamping of
X-Pact®, SMS group both the mechanical equipment and E&A handled by SMS
has combined group on a single-source basis is the modernization of the
their wide-ranging tandem rolling mill at our Russian customer PAO Severstal.
expertise and profi- In that case, SMS group revamped a plant built in 1963,
ciency in automation which today allows our customer to produce high-grade
technology. The me- cold-rolled strip for the automotive industry. In addition to
chanical equipment, new rolling stands and new drive equipment, the customer
electrics, hydraulics, received bespoke X-Pact® electrical and automation sys-
sensor systems and tems for levels 0 through 2, including process models and
the various levels of technological controls that achieve best gage tolerances
automation up to lev- and extremely short off-tolerance lengths.
el 3 form an effective An example of a modernization project focusing on
entity of integrated electrics and automation systems is the CSP® caster at
solutions. the Dolvi plant of Jindal South West Steel in India. The
project involved the implementation of the level-2 process
models for pass schedule calculation and shape, contour
and flatness control as well as cooling section control,
and the replacement of complete basic automation sys-
tems. All systems were tested and optimized with the SMS
group’s Plug & Work procedures in real-time simulations.
Also operator training took place before the on-site instal-
16
Thanks to its many
years of experience,
SMS group has the
expertise to revamp
any component of a
plant.
lation using the original control pul-
pits. All those measures resulted in a
very short commissioning phase and
a steep ramp-up curve.
more intelligent components
The intelligent components designed
by SMS group show how closely E&A
and mechanical equipment must in-
termesh in order to meet the future
requirements of Industry 4.0. In future,
we will offer such intelligent compo-
nents for any plant modification. For
example, drive spindles may be de-
signed in such a way that, in addition
to transmitting a torque twice as high
as before without increasing the spin-
dle diameter and the required installa-
tion space, they may also be equipped
with a special computer and an energy
source for transmitting information
about the condition of the spindle to
higher-level systems. As a result, pre-
ventive maintenance can be signifi-
cantly improved because it will be pos-
sible to predict the point of time when
a spindle needs to be replaced most
precisely as the system takes into ac-
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

»The use of data alone does not enable Industry 4.0.

What’s needed is a holistic approach to the development of integrated
solutions based on harmonized systems. SMS group develops
such solutions – also for modernization projects.«

Harald Rackel, Member of the Managing Board of SMS group.

count the actual mode of operation. Similar technologies
are available for gears, hydraulic systems, oscillation sys-
tems in continuous casting plants and for coiler mandrels.
Increasing quality
The Product Quality Analyzer (PQA) developed by SMS
group assures and documents the quality of production
processes and products. All relevant production data are
permanently captured and evaluated. Based on defined
rules, the system issues instructions which allow the op-
erators to react to any irregularities in the production pro-
cess in a timely manner so as to maximize yield while as-
suring highest quality. The system also provides a grading
of the products regarding their suitability for specific ap-
plications. All these features support the customer’s deci-
sion making. PQA is a system designed to assure product
quality, increase process stability and continuously improve
the plants. As such, it is a key element of production in an
Industry 4.0 setting along with intelligently designed com-
ponents, machines and plants.
ing plant engineering specialists, SMS group understands
which concrete benefits a plant operator may derive from
the measured values. For practical operation, this means:
Intelligent components are essential for intelligent ma-
chines and intelligent machines form the basis for intelli-
gent plants meeting the requirements of Industry 4.0. SMS
group consistently pursues this future-oriented path not
only in the new plant business, but above all in plant mod-
ernizations.
Benefiting from professional service
After a new or a revamped plant has been successfully
commissioned, SMS group is there for its customers with a
world-spanning service network. Depending on their spe-
cific requirements and their personnel situation, the plant
operators can choose from a wide range of service prod-
ucts offered by SMS group. The portfolio includes every-
thing from comprehensive master service agreements to
specific service packages that may focus on issues such as
quality assurance or stability of plant operation.

Enabling Industry 4.0

Those talking about Industry 4.0 should never forget that it
is indispensible to have reliable plant data and that those
www.sms-group.com
data must be properly evaluated in a Big Data context. Be-

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NEW MILL STANDS

FOR NEW PRODUCTS
The modernization of the hot strip mill at ArcelorMittal Gent, Belgium, passed
the halfway point; after completion of the first conversion phase in December
2015, pre-assembly work including subsequent testing of the new mill stands has
been underway in the SMS group workshops since spring this year.

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With this modernization ArcelorMittal is preparing its hot
strip mill in Ghent, Belgium, to be able to meet future re-
quirements. The most important objective is the enlarge-
ment of the product portfolio in the field of high-strength
grades and multi-phase steels. At its Ghent location, Arce-
lorMittal is enhancing the production of strips of the newly
developed Fortiform® series which covers new steel grades
for the automotive industry and comes with a considerable
reduction in weight, at the same time providing an increased
level of safety. In addition, ArcelorMittal is striving for more
flexibility in production and wants to be able to increase its
hot strip capacity at the Ghent site, if and when necessary.
The upgrade focuses on the finishing mill of the plant,
which was commissioned in 1967, and comprises the instal-
lation of new finishing stands F1 and F2 as well as modi-
fications to boost the rolling forces of mill stands F3 and
F4 plus the integration of hydraulic loopers throughout the
complete finishing mill. In the recent past, SMS group al-
ready strengthened the drive trains of mill stands F1 to F3 by
installing new main and mill pinion gear units and powerful
20
Sieflex® HT spindles (high torque spindles) and supplied
a new profile, contour and flatness control system (PCFC®)
for the finishing mill.
HIGHER ROLLING FORCES IN F3 AND F4
An essential reason for awarding the contract for this com-
prehensive and complex modernization project to SMS
group was the convincing conversion concept. To keep the
need for restricting the production process as little as pos-
sible and to ensure a reliable production start after comple-
tion of the conversion work, a modernization concept pro-
viding for two shutdowns was prepared.
The first shutdown was in December 2015 and lasted
14 days, as scheduled. Measures primarily focused on mill
stands F3 and F4 which received new hydraulic adjust-
ment cylinders able to produce an effective rolling force
of 45 MN. The mechanical adjusting equipment was re-
inforced. The internal faces of the mill housings were re-
milled, and the housing clearance was adapted by install-
ing new wear plates. To absorb the higher rolling forces

now attainable, SMS group retro-fitted oil film bearings of
the SMS brand X-Roll® Oil Bearing. In the course of that
shutdown, too, the electromechanical looper downstream
F6 was replaced by a hydraulic one. The new hydraulic
loopers for mill stands F3 to F5 will be installed in autumn
2016 during short downtimes.
REPLACEMENT OF MILL STANDS F1 AND F2
The main conversion work in the hot strip mill will be per-
formed at the end of 2016 and comprises the removal of
the existing mill stands F1 and F2 and their replacement
by new and stronger ones which come with powerful ac-
tuators such as hydraulic adjustment and CVC® plus, in-
cluding work roll shifting and bending systems. These ac-
tuators will be integrated in the existing PCFC® model and
thus permit the strip geometry to be influenced right from
the first finishing stand. Thanks to a rolling force of 50 MN
per mill stand, it will be possible to attain high reductions
in the first mill stands even when high-strength steel
grades are rolled.
Conversion measures
at a glance: The new
mill stands respec-
tive components are
marked in red.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
ARCELORMITTAL PERFORMING TESTS IN
SMS group WORKSHOP
Since March, big preparations have
been underway for the next conversion
shutdown. To ensure minimum down-
time, almost no remachining work at
mill stands and a fast ramp-up, both
new mill stands were pre-assem-
bled in the SMS group’s Hilchenbach
workshop and the mechanical and i
hydraulic equipment tested for proper
functioning. Manufacture
In June and July, ArcelorMittal Gent
had the opportunity to test the mill At its Hilchenbach
stand functions such as adjustment location, SMS group
and balancing systems or the entry is able to assemble
and exit guides by itself. This was ac- complete machines
complished by involving the automa- up to a weight of 400
tion system installed at the hot strip tons per unit. The
mill and thus permitted the mechanical immediate vicinity of
equipment and the automation system design and manufac-
to be harmonized already in advance. ture ensures a close
Once the tests will have been com- interaction of both
pleted, the mill stands will be trans- fields and hence the
ported to Ghent and, in September, consistent advance-
be assembled adjacent to the mill. ment of rolling mill
The customer will test the equipment technology.
again before the second shutdown in
mid-November. The first step will be to
remove the old mill stands F1 and F2
and then to shift the pre-assembled
new ones to these positions in the fin-
ishing mill. The new mill stands will be
installed with a minimum number of
changes to the environment and re-us-
ing existing plant components such as
the media pump station. The hot strip
mill is scheduled to roll its first coil at
the beginning of December 2016.
Find here a video on the mill
stand tests.
www.sms-group.com/nl2016-
video-arcelor-mittal-en
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Interview

Together we find the

best solution

Interview with Kurt Haverbeke, Maintenance Manager Hot

Strip Mill, ArcelorMittal Gent.

Mr. Haverbeke, would you please tell us about the project What kind of tests are you going to perform?
from your point of view and also why it is so important to We are trying to perform as many tests as possible. All the
ArcelorMittal Gent? equipment will be installed in the mill stands, this means
We are implementing this modernization project with SMS all actuators, sensors, loopers, guides and much more.
particularly with an eye on the automotive industry. Arce- Then, we will bring in the roll set together with SMS and
lorMittal takes a leading position in the market of high- test the interaction of the different components with the
strength steels for the automotive industry, which we of- aim to save time during the conversion shutdown. In addi-
fer under the brand name Fortiform®. Thanks to its high tion, we will test our automation system. This way, we hope
strength and excellent deformability, Fortiform® allows to learn more about the new mill stands – the way they op-
the bodywork of cars to be up to 20 percent lighter. Con- erate and what we have to observe in our new plant. To us
sequently, cars consume less fuel and emit less CO2 . This these tests will be very beneficial.
series supports our customers in the development of new
products and new concepts to meet future environmental How do you assess the cooperation of your team and the
standards, for example. team of SMS?
We appreciate to have a partner who is concerned and de-
Why did you choose SMS group to be your partner for this velops concepts jointly with us, who closely cooperates with
project? us, one who shares our ideas and with whom we can share
In the first place, we considered it important to have a part- our ideas. Together we will then try to find the best possible
ner capable of implementing such a project and experi- solution. The cooperation with SMS is very fruitful to us.
enced in the design and manufacture of strong mill stands.
Secondly, we were looking for a partner who, after the in- Standing in front of the mill stands, can you imagine that,
stallation of the mill stands, would optimize the hot strip in a few months, they will operate in your plant?
mill jointly with us to make rolling of our new products pos- Yes, of course it is great to have the mill stands here. It is
sible. This means that our cooperation will not terminate really impressing to enter the hall and see the completely
after the modernization activities, but SMS will support us, assembled mill stands. To me, it is an honor to participate
for instance, in introducing new products, improving prod- in this project, and I am looking forward to installing the
uct quality or reducing emissions. mill stands together with the teams of ArcelorMittal Gent
and SMS and later to benefit from the modernization.
Why is pre-assembly of such a high significance to Arce-
lorMittal Gent?
Pre-assembly in the workshop was an explicit demand. The
main objective behind is, of course, to shorten the shut-
down period needed for conversion. SMS was the only com-
pany able to pre-assemble the mill stands in its workshop
and also to install the work and backup rolls.

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After the revamp by SMS group, PAO Severstal now has a state-of-the-art
rolling mill “2100” which produces very efficiently.

READY FOR PEAK

PERFORMANCE
The tandem mill at PAO Severstal was modernized in record time.
SMS group renewed the mechanical equipment as well as the electrical
and automation systems.

24

On May 11, 2016, SMS group commissioned rolling mill
“2100” of the Russian steel producer PAO Severstal after a
comprehensive modernization. PAO Severstal awarded SMS
group an order to revamp the four-stand tandem cold mill
“1700” at the Cherepovets works in Northwest Russia. The
objective of the project was to increase the capacity of the
mill, expand the product range and improve product quality.
The tandem mill was also to be prepared for being coupled
with a new pickling line at a later stage.
SMS group completely renewed the entry section and the
four stands of the tandem mill. This involved equipping the
mill stands with the latest of CVC® plus 4-high technology
(Continuously Variable Crown). Effective work roll bending
systems, CVC® work roll shifting also under rolling load,
highly dynamic adjustment systems, multi-zone cooling in
the last mill stand, an exit-side dry strip system of the latest
generation as well as other proven plant components en-
sure that the strip will meet the customer’s exacting quality
requirements. High reductions per pass are made possible
by effective roll and interstand cooling. Automatic work roll
changing and the new, optimized coil preparation station
reduce non-productive times.
PERFECT INTERACTION
In order to be able to roll a wider range of products, the first
rolling stand received a completely new drive train. The per-
formance of the other stands was enhanced by integrating
new control systems into the existing drive units.
SMS group also supplied the X-Pact® automation sys-
tem, complete with level 1and level 2 as well as the mea-
suring equipment which includes the X-Shape flatness
measuring and control system. Robust and precisely oper-
ating X-Shape flatness measurement rolls have been in-
stalled behind the first and the last mill stand. An assis-
tance system, specifically developed for tandem mills, opti-
mizes threading and tailing out of the rolling stock at each
mill stand. This reduces off-size lengths at the strip head
and tail ends and increases the yield. All those components
are harmonized and perfectly coordinated to make sure the
highly exacting demands on the strip quality in terms of
thickness, flatness and surface quality are met and the
plant operates in an economically efficient way.
The auxiliary facilities, which have also been brought to
the latest state-of-the-art, and the powerful filter systems
reduce the consumption of emulsion, boosting the economic
efficiency and environmental compatibility of the plant, last
but not least by the fume extraction system with advanced
exhaust air discharge between the rolling stands.
Thanks to the proven Plug & Work concept of SMS group
in addition to diligent project planning and the extremely
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
efficient cooperation of all those in-
volved in the project, the main con-
struction activities, which included the
dismantling of existing equipment, in-
stallation of the new equipment and
the commissioning phase until suc-
cessful rolling of the first strip, were
performed during a mill downtime of
only 88 days. The first strip was rolled
just ten days after the first mechanical
equipment had been commissioned.
Hence, PAO Severstal’s comprehen-
sively modernized rolling mill “2100” is
all set for new tasks. It is well prepared
to meet the customers’ growing re-
quirements regarding the properties
of quality carbon steels as well as
high-strength and micro-alloyed sili-
con steels. Including the capacity of
200,000 tons added by this moderniza-
tion project, PAO Severstal now has a
total capacity of 1.3 million tons.
i
OBJECTIVES
The revamp focused on the
objectives below:
Minimize plant downtime
Boost the product range
Improve strip quality in terms of
thickness and flatness
Increase output
Reduce non-productive times
Enhance economic efficiency
Reinhard Reddel
reinhard.reddel@sms-group.com
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ArcelorMittal delivers wire rod to the automotive industry worldwide e.g. for safety components.

Very quickly brought to

“as new” condition
SMS group has generally overhauled the core components
of a wire rod mill of ArcelorMittal in Poland. Normally, it takes about
four weeks to restore ten mill stands including transfer case to
mint condition. SMS group made it in half the time.

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 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Manufacturing site at the SMS Mönchenglad- Every step fits: Fitter during final touch of Intermediate step, opened case with a view
bach location where the wire rod blocks were repaired units. to the gearbox.
overhauled.

At ArcelorMittal in Sosnowiec, Poland, SMS group has and production capacities ensuring its
brought a finishing block of a more than eight year-old two- customers quick and uncomplicated
strand wire rod mill to “as new” condition in a very short services everywhere.
time. It took the metalworkers of SMS two weeks in the In the case of ArcelorMittal the plant
Mönchengladbach workshop to replace the anti-friction technicians dismantled the plant on
bearings and remachine the bores of the stands such that site and sent the parts to Mönchenglad-
wire rod blocks as good as new were available in the end. bach. The bearings were then renewed,
The plant originally supplied by SMS group in 2007 is a ten- bores repaired, and stands reassem-
stand finishing block arranged in K-shape on which Arce- bled and appropriately adjusted. After
lorMittal is producing wire rod of special quality. Main cus- return shipment and reassembly at Ar-
tomer of these grades is the automotive industry, producing celorMittal, cold commissioning was
safety components from it, such as helical springs, high- carried out. While the stands were in
strength connection or steering parts. Mönchengladbach for rework, the plant
Parts arranged on the car chassis are exposed to par- technician team stayed on site over-
ticular stress. Therefore, only quality steel is used. The hauling the transfer case and chang-
feedstock for automobile customers is produced by Arce- ing all drive couplings.
lorMittal on the wire rod mill in Sosnowiec at speeds up to In Sosnowiec, production now runs
100 meters per second. This enables the company to sell again as with a new plant. “The toler-
about 1,000,000 tons of material produced on the wire rod ances which we promise for these
mill to the international car industry. ArcelorMittal thus op- grades are between +/- 0.15 and 0.2
erates the plant in 20 shifts per week. millimeters,” says Frank Isken from
SMS group Service. “After our modern-
RELIABLE PARTNER SMS ization the unit can again be operated
Production on site is running at full capacity. ArcelorMittal reliably and with high availability.”
needs a reliable partner in order to be able to deliver the
large quantity in a steady and consistent quality. Thus,
they assigned SMS group with the modernization task.
The convincing time schedule had an significant impact on
this decision.
SMS had planned the revamp during the regular shut-
down period of the plant. Accordingly, the machine capac-
ities in Mönchengladbach were planned half a year in
advance. The offer for overhauling plant parts in Mön-
chengladbach is interesting not only for customers within
Europe but also in North and South America. Who, on the
other hand, is located in Asia, may choose an SMS work-
shop from a worldwide manufacturing network. In recent Technical Service
years, SMS has expanded international workshop, service service@sms-group.com

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EFFICIENT MODERNIZATION
WITH CONCEPT ENGINEERING
Concept engineering is an efficient tool to develop the best
possible solution for the modernization of a plant. Through this holistic approach
Outokumpu improves the competitiveness of its hot rolling mill in Tornio.
To cope with the increasing market demands in terms of
quality, productivity, operating costs and product portfolio,
every plant must be upgraded at regular intervals in the
course of its lifetime. Accordingly, the requirements to be
satisfied by the equipment manufacturer are often grow-
ing along with the plant life and the specialization in the
product range.
HOLISTIC ANALYSIS
To meet the customers‘ demand for complex moderniza-
tions and a continuous improvement in performance, SMS
group developed concept engineering. It means a system-
atic analysis of a plant on the basis of which SMS develops,
jointly with the customer, the optimum technical and eco-
Outokumpu’s Steckel mill stand and the finishing
stands installed in the exit section in 2005.
28
nomically efficient solution. The examination further in-
cludes items like plant technology, production process and
maintenance. Process technology, mechanical and hydrau-
lic equipment, electrical and automation systems are con-
sidered in the overall context also taking into account such
aspects as consumption figures, safety and environmental
standards. The tools SMS uses to prepare such all-round
analysis comprise the entire range of state-of-the-art meth-
ods like FEM or CFD analyses or simulation programs. It is
absolutely vital here that customer and equipment supplier
cooperate very closely and respect their partner’s know-
how and operating results.
Concept engineering provides coordinated measures
for maintenance, plant engineering and production tech-
nology. Hence, the customer is given a comprehensive and
detailed basis for his future planning at a comparatively
low investment.
OUTOKUMPU IN TORNIO
One example of a successful application of this approach is
the concept engineering for the hot rolling mill of Outokum-
pu, a market and technology leader in stainless steels. The
company’s rolling mill in Tornio, Finland, comprising one
reversing rougher, a Steckel mill stand and a coiler, was
commissioned in 1987. To increase production, SMS group
extended the facility by three finishing stands and one coiler
within a spectacular modernization project in 2005.

After the revamp had been completed, the close coopera-
tion of the two companies was continued within the frame
of a cooperation agreement. This liaison has led to concept
engineering on the basis of which Outokumpu pursued the
following objectives:
Improve product quality
Enhance plant availability
Expand the product portfolio
Simplify maintenance and spare parts management
ENHANCEMENT OF PLANT AVAILABILITY
The measures to be taken for the enhancement of plant
availability were developed on the basis of a detailed inves-
tigation of the unexpected plant downtimes over a period of
more than two and a half years. In the course of these stud-
ies, particularly vulnerable areas were identified and the
measures in the fields of maintenance and plant engineer-
ing defined accordingly.
PASS SCHEDULES FOR NEW PRODUCTS
Over the last few years, Outokumpu has been continuously
expanding its product portfolio to even better meet the
demands of its customers for new steel grades and dimen-
sions. SMS group supported Outokumpu in the develop-
ment of these new products and of the design criteria of
its facility.
sms group newsletter 03/ 2016
To ensure high surface quality Outokumpu will
receive a new descaler.
Simultaneously, the production process was analyzed in de-
tail. By adapting the profile and flatness control, modifying
the CVC® contour of the work rolls and changing the strip
tensions it was possible to significantly improve the rolling
stability and to reduce output losses by up to 80 percent.
ROLLING MILL MODERNIZATION
Along with concept engineering, targeted modernization
measures were developed for upgrading the mill equipment
to produce strips with higher maximum strength and to im-
prove the surface quality.
Still this year, SMS group will install a new descaler and
new pumps to improve the surface quality. Like the old one,
the new descaler operates at a pressure of 180 bars, but,
thanks to its improved design, will have a better surface
cleaning effect.
The Steckel mill stand will be equipped with new Sieflex®
HT gear-type self-aligning spindles to transmit the higher
rolling torques needed for the production of high-strength
steel grades. New wheel sets for the mill pinion gear unit had
already been supplied by SMS group. In addition, new bend-
ing blocks will be installed in the Steckel mill stand, which
are less susceptible to failure and easier to change.
Karl-Friedrich Müller
karl-friedrich.mueller@sms-group.com
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NLMK relies on
Paul Wurth
The modernization of blast furnace No. 6 and auxiliary plants in Lipetsk,
Russia, will be carried out in cooperation with Lipetsk Gipromez.
View over Ironmaking Shop No. 2 with Blast Furnaces No. 6 and No.7.
In preparation of a complete reline of No. 6 Blast Furnace
(BF) at Lipetsk/Russia, NLMK recently signed a contract
awarding to Paul Wurth engineering, supply of equipment
and technology as well as site supervision related to the
rebuild of the BF’s central unit, i.e. the blast furnace proper
and directly attached systems and equipment.
Paul Wurth will adapt the Basic Engineering (delivered
at an earlier stage) to the final technical solutions chosen
with the customer, and will be further in charge of the over-
all engineering which will be executed in close collabora-
tion with local design institute Lipetsk Gipromez.
Extensive Scope
Paul Wurth’s scope of supply comprises the BF shell,
hearth lining with super-microporous carbon and ceramic
cup, all cooling elements (copper and cast iron staves, cop-
30
per cooling boxes, tuyeres and tuyere coolers), low energy
tuyere stocks and a completely new bustle pipe. The origi-
nal Bell Less Top®, Paul Wurth’s first ever reference in the
former Soviet Union and in operation since 1978, will be
replaced completely by a new, parallel hopper type charg-
ing system (60 m3 hopper volume) including the pressure
equalizing and bleeder valves. Furthermore, Paul Wurth
will supply the cooling water pump house, the complete in-
strumentation, general electrical and control equipment.
On the process side, Blast Furnace control will be sup-
ported by TMT’s stockline recorders, the SOMA acoustic
temperature measurement system and the 3DTopScan
profilemeter.
For the casthouse, four sets of TMT’s fully hydraulic clay
guns and taphole drills as well as radar level probes for
torpedo ladles became part of the order.
NLMK’s new BF6, with a hearth diameter of 12.0 meters,
an inner volume of 3,818 m3, 32 tuyeres and 4 tapholes, will
be designed for nominal production of 3.38 million tons of
hot metal per year. Some important auxiliary plants related
to this furnace are already subject of orders to Paul Wurth:
improvement of the top gas cleaning system, energy recov-
ery turbine (TRT) and the Pulverised Coal Injection (PCI)
plant for BFs No. 6 & 7 are currently under execution.
Contact
paulwurth@paulwurth.com
 Series of Modernization Services Accom-
plished at Blast Furnace Plant in Brazil
Within the past months, Paul Wurth has successfully planned and executed a
number of repair jobs helping our customer Vallourec Tubos do Brasil (VBR).
Within the past months, Paul Wurth has successfully
planned and executed a number of repair jobs helping our
customer Vallourec Tubos do Brasil (VBR) to fulfil a lifetime
extension programme for No. 1 Blast Furnace (BF) at their
Belo Horizonte works in Minas Gerais. The interventions
were related to the refractory systems of the blast furnace
itself and of the hot blast stoves.
Cost-optimized solution
Currently, VBR’s BF1 is running in a campaign which
started as early as in 2001. Last year, a decision was taken
to extend this campaign until the next total reline up to the
year 2018. For the furnace, which underwent taphole re-
pairs in 2009 and 2014, an intermediate repair of the
hearth and the tuyere area, with insertion of new carbon
blocks, became inevitable. In accordance with the cus-
tomer’s desire for a cost-optimized solution, Paul Wurth
designed the new hearth and engineered the related re-
pair activities. These took place in November/December
2015. Paul Wurth and its subcontractors executed sala-
mander tapping, solid burden excavation and the removal
of a “bore”. This was followed by removing refractory re-
mains and subsequent installation of the new carbon
blocks and high-alumina bricks. In this phase, Paul
Wurth’s organisation and the performance of the execut-
ing teams helped to fully catch up with some delays which
occurred during the idling activities.
On the hot blast stoves side, stoves No. 13 and No. 12
have been repaired in 2012 and 2013 already. Finalizing this
reline programme, the partial repair of stove No. 11 started
with the furnace’s temporary shutdown in November. Also
for this project, Paul Wurth has designed the new stove and
engineered the repair technology and sequences. The com-
plex task consisting of cooling down, demolition of the ex-
isting refractories, erection of the new material and heating
up was completed on 20th of February 2016 when the new
stove could start cycling automatically. One week ahead of
schedule, it was handed over back to VBR, who started op-
erating it together with the hot blast stoves No. 12 and 13 as
a complete plant again.
Both modernization projects combined specific, tailor-
made design, repair-related engineering, worldwide pro-
curement and expediting as well as on-site management
and supervision services, which have been accomplished in
time and to customer’s satisfaction.
www.paulwurth.com
31
JSW Toranagallu, blast
furnace 1: The completely
new furnace vessel and
revamped auxiliary plants
ensure higher production.

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Blast Furnace of
Jindal South West Steel
restarted
After a complete rebuild with modernisation, size increase and capacity
expansion by Paul Wurth, No. 1 Blast Furnace at JSW Steel, Vijayanagar Works,
Toranagallu, Karnataka, India has been blown-in in February.

This was achieved after a very short phase of cold and hot gas cleaning, slag granulation, water
commissioning which started 12 days in advance with a first
furnace leak test followed by pressure test, furnace drying,
heating and first filling. A smooth and safe blow-in and
treatment and PCI plants. A new hot
stoves plant with waste gas heat re-
covery system has been installed.
i
ramp-up allowed achieving 83 percent of nominal produc- The furnace has now an inner vol-
New No. 1
tion level within the first week of operation. The target pro- ume of volume of 2,307 m3 (instead of Blast Furnace
duction has been surpassed for the first time on the 9th of 1,250 m3), an increased hearth diame-
March 2016. ter (enlarged from 8 to 10.4 m) and in- JSW´s new No. 1
Paul Wurth’s contractual obligations covered design, en- creased number of hot blast tuyeres BF replaces its pre-
gineering, procurement and supply of equipment for the (from 18 to 28). The daily hot metal rate decessor which has
entirely new Blast Furnace and all its main auxiliary plants, is 5,250 tons for a total yearly iron pro- been in operation
basic engineering for the erection and its planning as well duction of about 1.7 million tons, some for one campaign
as supervision of erection and commissioning for the major 89 percent more than before the mod- from 2004 till August
plant units. ernisation. These figures represent 2015. It is sup-
one of the largest capacity expansions ported on the old but
capacity increase by 89 percent ever seen from one single blast fur- reinforced founda-
The new furnace features a modern profile, all-staves thin- nace rebuild. tions and fits into
wall cooling system, extensive instrumentation and pro- the existing square
cess recording devices, a parallel-hopper Bell Less Top® tower.
with a MIDI type gearbox, a completely modernised cast-
house with new and displaced equipment, adjusted runner
design, access ramps and platforms as well as de-dusting
facilities. The existing auxiliary plants have been upgraded
for the new production parameters: improvements and ca-
www.paulwurth.com
pacity increasing measures have been applied to the top

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sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
A view into a coke oven chamber.
Order from
Shandong
Paul Wurth designs coke
batteries for China.
The contract with Shandong Prov-
ince Metallurgical Engineering Co.,
Ltd (SDM) – an engineering company
associated to the Chinese Shandong
Iron & Steel Group – came into force
in January 2016. It includes Paul
Wurth’s design, engineering and site
supervision services for the con-
struction of four jumbo oven batter-
ies of top charging type, with 58 ov-
ens per battery and an oven height of
7.3 meters. These will form the cen-
tral part of the coke making plant at
Shandong’s Rizhao Iron & Steel new
integrated works on the eastern
coast of China.
This engineering contract ensues
from the cooperation agreement
signed in 2013 between Paul Wurth
and SDM.
www.paulwurth.com
34
ROGESA was founded in 1981 and currently produces up to 4.6 million
tons of hot metal each year.
For modernising the BF4
Hot Stoves Plant
ROGESA places more orders.
Further to earlier received turnkey or- which have now been transformed into
ders for relining the hot blast stoves this order. In 2015, testing of the weld-
plant, including two additional pre- ing seams at the checker chambers of
heating stoves and the new main to stoves 4.1 and 4.2 showed that the in-
No. 4 blast furnace of ROGESA Ro- stallation of a double shell becomes
heisengesellschaft Saar at Dillingen/ necessary. Paul Wurth’s double shell
Germany, Paul Wurth Refractory & (also: double skinning) technology is
Engineering has now secured addi- known as a reliable and most proven
tional orders. method on a global scale.
These do cover a double shell repair
of the hot blast stoves 4.1 and 4.2 as
well as nozzle repairs for all three
main stoves. The projects comprise
design and engineering, supply of all
related materials as well as supervi-
sion services for installation and com-
missioning.
The order for the nozzle repairs is a
result of a durability analysis of the hot
blast stoves, which had been per-
formed by Paul Wurth in 2013/2014.
Based on the results, specific repair
concepts were developed jointly with
ROGESA and TÜV (a German technical
supervision and certification body);
www.paulwurth.com

The static coal distributor is part of both static and dynamic distribution systems.
Record coal injection rates at Successful
Tata Steel in Jamshedpur tests
Successful upgrade to higher capacity for blast
furnace “H”.
After the PCI (pulverised coal injec-
tion) plant capacity expansion which
Paul Wurth designed and executed for
the customer, Tata Steel, operators
brought the coal injection up to 200
kg/t of hot metal.
The PCI plant´s capacity expansion
increased flexibility and availability for
BF “H” while the high injection rates
improve the overall performance of
ironmaking.
In particular, injection rates of more
than 200 kg/t have been achieved on a
stable, sustained basis between July
and October 2015, even at a relatively
high slag rate due to the high ash con-
tent of the injected coal. Paul Wurth´s
Bell Less Top (BLT®) and TMT´s pro-
filemeter and in-burden probe are
helping to optimize the burden layer
formation. This results in a high gas
utilization rate (  CO ›50%); at the
same time, good coal combustion
helps reaching a high coal/coke re-
placement ratio.
BF No. 3 of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. with
an annual capacity of 2.5 million tons.
Along with the economic savings
gained by a high injection rate, the
plant upgrade provides for a reduction
of CO2 emissions over the entire iron-
making chain, as well as for the relat-
ed specific energy savings.
www.paulwurth.com
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Robust blast furnace for
RINL in India.
In the spring of 2016 all necessary
Performance Guarantee tests for the
blast furnace No. 3 of Rashtriya Ispat
Nigam Ltd. (RINL), Visakhapatnam,
Andhra Pradesh, India, were suc-
cessfully performed.
These tests were related to hot
metal production (average produc-
tion and peak production rates), fuel
rate, gas cleaning efficiency and pol-
lution; cast house and stock house
stack emissions, ambient dust con-
centration and noise level parame-
ters. Thus the robustness and quality
of the blast furnace designed by Paul
Wurth were demonstrated.
Vizag Steel’s No. 3 blast furnace
can produce 2.5 million tons of hot
metal per year. Its operating data
­indicates a reduced operating cost,
thus allowing RINL to increase its
overall production at Visakhapatnam
to 6.5 million tons per year of final
products at competitive performance.
www.paulwurth.com
35
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Long-standing
cooperation with
customer ILVA
SMS group will install two hot-metal desulfurization
units at ILVA S.p.A., Italy.
In order to reduce the emissions arising from its opera-
tions, Italian steel producer ILVA S.p.A. has awarded SMS
group the order to install two hot-metal desulfurization
units (HMD 1 and HMD 2) at its steelworks No. 1 and No. 2
in Taranto. The project will be handled on a semi-turnkey
basis by two SMS group companies, SMS INNSE and SMS
Mevac. Commissioning of both units is planned to take
place in early 2017.
Hot-metal treatment stations are usually located be-
tween the blast furnace and the BOF meltshop. The hot
metal is transported by torpedo cars from the blast furnace
to the steel plant and poured into hot-metal ladles at a sep-
arate pouring station.
Today, it is common practice in integrated steel plants to
desulfurize the hot metal in a ladle in order to reduce the
high sulfur content originating mainly from the blast fur-
nace coke. It is more economical to reduce the sulfur con-
tent in the hot metal rather than doing it later on in the
steel. Desulfurization agents in powdered form, for exam-
ple lime, calcium carbide or magnesium, are deep-injected
through a refractory-lined immersion lance. It is possible to
either inject just one reagent, or two reagents simultane-
ously. These processes are called mono-injection and co-
injection respectively.
The desulfurization process implemented at ILVA will be
based on the co-injection of lime and magnesium. The de-
sign of the plant has been adapted to the plant configuration
and the local site conditions without compromising quality.
DESULFURIZATION BY CO-INJECTION
Each plant will consist of a single treatment station, with
dedicated powder storage and injection equipment. The
36
units will be equipped with de-slag-
ging and fume extraction facilities.
Two possible injection options will be
provided: lime only (mono-injection)
or lime together with magnesium (co-
injection).
At HMD 1, prior to the treatment,
the overhead ladle handling crane
will place the weighed hot-metal
transfer ladle on a tiltable self-pro-
pelled transfer car. The car will drive
into the treatment enclosure, which is
clad with refractory coated panels on
all sides. A sliding door will seal the
enclosure while the car is in the treat-
ment position in order to prevent
fumes from escaping.
At HMD 2, the hot-metal ladle will
be placed into a ladle lifting stand by
the shop crane. To prevent fume es-
cape, a movable doghouse will be
transferred to the treatment position
as enclosure.
Before the treatment starts, a sam-
ple taken beforehand from the transfer
ladle will be analyzed. The result will
be used to calculate the amount of
lime and magnesium required to
achieve the necessary amount of de-
sulfurization based on the initial and
the required final sulfur levels. The in-
jection lance – a thick-walled steel
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

HMD unit of
typical design.

»We are very proud to work with ILVA again,

installing two hot-metal desulfurization units at Taranto.«

Mr. Alberto Bregante, CEO, SMS INNSE.

tube inside a refractory coating – will be located directly
above the ladle treatment enclosure and lowered through a
port in the enclosure roof.
CO-INJECTION WITH A HIGH DEGREE OF AUTOMATION
Before the tip of the lance enters the hot metal surface, the
powder transport gas will be switched on. Firstly, just the
lime powder flow will be started. Once the powder flow has
become established, the lance will be lowered into the hot
metal to a predetermined position above the refractory bot-
tom of the ladle. During injection, the actual injection rate
will be measured by the load cells un-
der the powder injection dispensers
and calculated by the control system.
Any difference between the measured
and the required rate will be compen-
sated by the automatic flow control
valves below the dispensers.
When the lance has reached its full
immersion depth, magnesium will be
added to the powder stream. Then, the
lime injection rate will be automat-

37
 HMD unit
comparable with that to be supplied to ILVA.

500 t Charging crane

CaC2 day silo

slewing injection lance/

sampling unit CaC2 dis-
penser

injection lance CaC2 main

Magnesium silo
dispenser
moving fume
hood

Fume
extraction
Ducting

CaC2
Transport
dispenser

Hydraulic ladle Ladle support/ slag deflector Slag de-slagging

tilting unit Tilting stand plate pot machine

i Scope of supply
The scope of supply basically includes:

Reagent storage
 eagent handling and pneumatic transportation
R
system
Injection system with automatic lance handling
Hot metal handling
Slag pot handling
De-slagging station
Robot for temperature measuring and sampling
Electrical instrumentation and automation
Process control

38
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

»The current hot-metal desulfurization project is the latest example of our

continuing relationship with ILVA since the supply of two RH-OB units including a
TOP-lance upgrade. Being an innovative company, SMS Mevac is constantly
striving to optimize the design of its plants, its processes and technology. This
ensures that our customers always receive premium-quality products from us.«

Mr. Markus Hüllen, CEO, SMS Mevac.

ically reduced to keep the total rate of material injection ILVA chose SMS group not only for the
constant. When all required magnesium has been inject- efficiency of the process provided but
ed, this process will be executed in reverse until almost all also for its excellent technical solu-
the required lime has been injected. Then the lance will be tions using Best Available Technique
retracted. (BAT) and ensuring best environmen-
When all the powder has been discharged from the tal protection and compliance with the
lance, the transport gas will continue to flow for a short most stringent regulations.
period of time to ensure the powder line is clear. Then the
line will be shut off. The lance will be retracted to its top
position. For maximum flexibility, the unit will be equipped
with independent injection dispensers, one for lime and one
for magnesium. Between the treatments, these dispensers
will be refilled from day silos mounted directly above them.
The day silos will be refilled as required by the powder stor-
age facility situated outside the plant.
Once the injection process has been completed, a sam-
ple will be taken and the hot metal temperature measured
by an automatic sampler through a separate port in the
fume enclosure. Loading and unloading of the sample
probes can be handled by a robot.
Finally, the carry-over slag plus the slag formed on top
of the ladle during injection will be removed by a de-slag-
ging machine. This is done by tilting the ladle in the tilting
frame mounted on the car (HMD 1) or in the fixed ladle tilt-
ing stand (HMD 2). The removed slag will be collected in a
slag pot placed on a transfer car and parked in the rear of
the enclosure. When the slag pot is full, the car will transfer
it from the building to the slag bay where the slag pots will
be handled by mobile carriers for appropriate disposal. Riccardo Sigoni
Once the de-slagging process has been completed, the la- riccardo.sigoni@sms-innse.it
dle will be moved back into its vertical position and taken to Markus Hüllen
the BOF shop by the shop crane. markus.huellen@sms-mevac.com

39
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

MiDrex® plant at
Lion DRI in Malaysia.

Midrex and Paul Wurth

Awarded Project for HDRI/
CDRI Combination Facility
Algerian Qatari Steel to build 2.5 million tons per year MIDREX® plant.

40
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

i i
Algerian Qatari Steel (AQS) has award- its production to produce hot direct re-
ed Midrex Technologies, Inc., and its duced iron (HDRI) and/or cold direct
consortium partner Paul Wurth, a con- reduced iron (CDRI) simultaneously
tract to supply Equipment, Engineering without stoppage of production.
Paul Wurth Midrex
and Technical Services for one of the HDRI will be fed via an Aumund hot
world’s largest direct reduced iron- transport conveyor to a new EAF melt- Headquartered in Midrex Tech-
making (DRI) plants. The new natural shop located adjacent to the MIDREX® Luxembourg since nologies, Inc. is
gas-based MIDREX NG™ DRI plant will DRI Plant allowing for greater EAF its creation in 1870, an international
be located in Bellara Algeria, 375 km productivity and energy savings; CDRI Paul Wurth, now a process engineer-
east of Algiers. AQS is a joint venture can also be produced for additional member of the SMS ing and technology
between Sider Co. and National Invest- onsite use. group, has trans- company providing
ment Fund (51 %) and Qatar Steel In- formed itself over steelmakers with
ternational (49 %). The MIDREX® Plant Benefits of HDRI the last decades commercially proven
will be part of the overall steel complex With the new direct reduction plant into an interna- solutions for greater
that will produce 2.0 million tons of re- AQS is more flexible in the production tional engineering profitability and has
bar and wire rod finished products. of high quality steels with high de- company. As a result been the leading
AQS’s new MIDREX NG™ DRI Plant gree of purity. In addition, the need of its consider- innovator and tech-
will be designed to produce 2.5 million for imported scrap is also reduced. able know-how and nology supplier for
tons of DRI with the capability to vary Plants installed with the MIDREX® di- its effective policy the direct reduction
rect reduction technology, distinguish of innovation, the of iron ore for more
themselves by fact that they annually Paul Wurth Group than 40 years.
not only transport large quantities of

i
is today one of the
hot DRI as any other technology avail- world leaders in the
able on the market, but that the trans- design and supply
Advantages portation takes place at higher tem- of the full-range of
Additional benefits of charging peratures. technological solu-
hot DRI (HDRI) to the EAF are There are two main benefits of tions for the primary
charging HDRI to the EAF: lower spe- stage of integrated
 ess energy required to heat the
L
cific electricity consumption and in- steelmaking.
DRI to melting temperature
creased productivity. The energy sav-
Shorter overall melting cycle
ings occur because less energy is
Reduced electrode consumption
required in the EAF to heat the DRI to
 educed tap-to-tap time up to
R
melting temperature, resulting in a
20% compared to charging DRI
at ambient temperature shorter overall melting cycle.
 educed electricity consumption
R
about 20 kWh/t liquid steel for each
100 °C increase in DRI charging
temperature
 ower overall emissions due to
L
lower electricity demand and
reduced need for charge carbon

www.paulwurth.com

www.midrex.com

41
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Fausto Azzi, CEO AFERPI, presented the

large-scale project on the SMS group booth
at Tube & wire 2016.

Energy-efficient and
eco-friendly plant
SMS group receives contract from AFERPI for the supply of
a new steel complex in Piombino, Italy.

Acciaierie e Ferriere di Piombino S.p.A. (AFERPI) has award-
ed SMS group the order to supply steelworks equipment for
their facilities in Piombino, Italy. The new plant will comprise
an electric steelworks, secondary metallurgy facilities and
two long-product continuous casting plants of more than
one million tons annual capacity. SMS group has also been
contracted to supply a rail and section mill of 700,000 tons
capacity per year.
The new facilities will feature future-oriented technology
designed to produce premium steels at high productivity
and with environment-friendly solutions that ensure low
energy consumption and low emissions.
The Piombino works will receive a 140-ton SHARC (Shaft
Arc) direct-current electric arc furnace. This furnace type is
characterized by highly economic and eco-friendly opera-
tion due to efficient pre-heating of the charge material. The
SHARC furnace will be charged with a high rate of direct
reduced iron (Hot Briquetted Iron) in addition to scrap in
order to consistently meet the required cleanness of the
steels produced.
Highest level of technology
The steel plant will also have a twin-ladle furnace and a
twin vacuum degasser. Those facilities will make it possible
to adjust the liquid steel precisely to the required target
analysis before the steel will be cast either on the new
bloom caster or on the new billet caster for SBQ (Special
Bar Quality) products. Both casting machines will be

42

The highly flexible
SHARC furnace pro-
vides high productiv-
ity while reducing
energy consumption.
equipped with CONVEX® mold technology and Mechanical
Soft Reduction systems. The blooms will be processed in
the newly built rail mill, the billets in the existing bar and
wire rod mills.
The new rail and section mill will produce 120-meter-
long rails as well as various beams, sections and sheet
piles. Designed for quick program changing, the mill will
comprise a tandem reversing mill with Compact Cartridge
Stands (CCS®) and a Compact Roller Straightener (CRS®)
as are already successfully in operation in numerous rail
and section mills. The CCS® mill stands will be equipped
with hydraulic adjustment systems to allow rolling at very
close tolerances. The scope of supply will also include a
RailCool® rail head hardening line.
The rail finishing line will process long and short rails
and feature testing facilities, cutting and drilling machines
as well as gap presses. A separate finishing line will be
supplied for the sections.
This project will enable AFERPI to produce steel and rails
in Piombino with latest state-of-the-art equipment.
www.sms-group.com
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
i Information
The SHARC (Shaft Arc furnace)
The SHARC is a DC electric arc furnace featuring two pre-
heating shafts for scrap drying and pre-heating. One of the
shafts is located at the front, the other one at the rear side of
the furnace. The electrode arm swivels between the two
shafts. This design is superior to conventional furnace de-
signs as it provides for uniform and symmetric distribution of
the scrap. In combination with the even distribution of the flue
gas between the shafts, this makes for reproducible results
and smooth and highly efficient furnace operation during the
meltdown and liquid phases.
Thanks to the use of the proven DC high-voltage technology
and the air-cooled pin-type bottom electrode developed by SMS
group, it was possible to give the pre-heating shafts their highly
compact design and arrange them in a very effective way.
The scrap is charged into the shafts from above by scrap
baskets. The flue gas is extracted from the SHARC furnace
just below the lockable charging port. This arrangement
allows for the hot flue gases to be continuously drafted
through the entire cross-section and the complete height of
the scrap column. This makes pre-heating extremely efficient.
Jan Bader
jan.bader@sms-group.com
43
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
New steelwork
with high strategic value
SMS group successfully commissions energy-efficient electric
steelworks and continuous caster for quality slabs.
At PT. Gunung in Indonesia, SMS group
i has successfully commissioned a new
electric steelworks featuring efficient
environmental technology and a new
PT. Gunung single-strand slab caster at the Bekasi
works in the province of West Java.
At its Bekasi works, The meltshop, consisting of an
PT. Gunung operates ARCCESS® electric arc furnace and a
a long-product line ladle furnace, has been designed for
for sections and wire an annual production of 1.2 million
rod as well as a flat- tons of steel to be cast into slabs on
product line for the the new continuous caster.
production of heavy SMS group supplied the complete
plates and pipes. All basic and detail engineering for all
of the major produc- components, the mechanical and elec-
tion lines are sup- trical core components as well as su-
plies by companies pervision of installation and commis-
of the SMS group. sioning. Also the complete X-Pact®
electrical and automation systems, in-
44
cluding level 2, were part of SMS groups supply package.
The electrics and the automation equipment were tested
with the proven Plug & Work procedure prior to commis-
sioning. SMS group supplied a 120-ton ARCCESS® DC fur-
nace and a 120-ton ladle furnace for the new steelworks
complex. The range of charge materials for the EAF includes
scrap, HBI and hot metal.
Electric arc furnaces of the ARCCESS® series are opti-
mized for highly efficient use of electrical and chemical en-
ergy. The EAF has been equipped with the latest generation
of the patented SIS oxygen injection system (SMS Injection
System), which combines both innovative injection and
burner technology. This concept ensures high productivity at
low production costs.
The electric arc furnace features a gas cleaning plant,
which efficiently captures the dust-laden gases arising from
the steelmaking process at the EAF and from its auxiliary
facilities and lowers the residual dust content in the gases to
below 10 mg/Nm³. The gas cleaning plant is operated by
Those responsible
for the project, after
the successful
completion of
commissioning. In
the middle: Dr. Guido
Kleinschmidt,
Member of the
Managing Board of
SMS group.
 The electric arc fur-
nace can be charged
with scrap, HBI and
hot metal.

»The new works is of key strategic value to us. In the past, we had to
purchase part of the slabs from external sources. We now not only generate
higher value added by producing all slabs in-house. With the plants from
SMS group, we also achieve a very high product quality.«
B.K. Dutta, General Director PT. Gunung.

speed-controlled fans, which consume a minimum of elec-
trical energy as the suction efficiency is optimized depend-
ing on the specific process.
Optimized casting process
The continuous caster has been designed for slabs of 220
and 250 millimeter thickness and widths between 800 and
2,100 millimeters. The range of grades comprises struc-
tural steels as well as pipe and heavy-plate grades.
The segments have been equipped with STEC-Roll® tech-
nology. Rolls of this technology optimize the casting process
and set new standards for efficient maintenance due to their
long service lives and the possibility of being re-used.
Modules from the Intelligent Slab Casting (ISC®) pack-
age ensure a maximum of caster productivity and optimal
slab quality. Modules installed include the hydraulically
powered resonance oscillation system, the mold with re-
mote-adjustable narrow faces for changing the slab width
during casting as well as the Mold Monitoring System.
In the horizontal part of the strand containment zone,
position-controlled CyberLink segments are in use. Dy-
namic Soft Reduction in combination with Dynamic Solidifi-
cation Control (DSC®), a metallurgical process model for
controlling secondary cooling , makes for the production of
slabs with impeccable internal quality. On the new plant,
PT. Gunung produces quality slabs used as input material
in their Steckel and heavy-plate mills.
Dr. Thomas Germershausen
thomas.germershausen@sms-group.com

45
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Tailor-made revamp of
the slab caster
Increase of the production of high-quality automotive sheet,
tinplate and heavy plate grades at ArcelorMittal Avilés.
ArcelorMittal Asturias (Avilés), Spain has placed an order
i with SMS group for the comprehensive revamp of the two-
strand slab caster No.1 from a bow-type to a vertical bend-
ing caster. In a second phase, caster No. 2 must also be
modernized.
HD LASR
The overall package by SMS group was able to convince
The high quality of the customer. In addition to the conversion concept and the
the measurements, technology offered, ArcelorMittal Asturias was also im-
the precise and reli- pressed by the set-up of the overall operating costs (TCO –
able logging function Total Cost of Ownership) and the maintenance costs (TPM
and the thorough – Total Productive Maintenance) for the plant.
assessment of the The modernization concept and the technologies devel-
measured objects oped by SMS group represent the most cost-efficient solu-
make HD LASr tion for the customer. To keep the revamp time as short as
superior to previous possible, the existing foundation and anchor bolts of the
systems. continuous casting plant will be retained.
Improving slab quality
The two-strand slab casters were originally supplied by
SMS group in 1987 and each is able to produce approx. 1.9
million tons of slabs per year. Main reason for this revamp-
ing is the increase in quality required to cope with the grow-
ing demands of the market. Besides, after the conversion,
the production capacity of both plants will additionally be
increased in order to deal with future challenges.
The new continuous caster No. 1 will produce slabs with
a thickness of 235 millimeters and widths of between 800
and 1,600 millimeters. From mold to the run-out area, the
caster will be rebuilt completely as a vertical bending cast-
er. The new continuous caster will have a radius of 8 me-
ters, the vertical length amounts to 2.4 meters, the metal-
46
lurgical length will increase from 34 to
38 meters and the maximum casting
speed will increase to 1.9 meter per
minute.
The slab caster will be equipped
with the SMS group remote adjustable
mold (Delta Speed Adjustment). In this
way, width adjustment and automatic
adaptation of the mold taper during
production can be performed without
having to reduce the casting speed. In
this context, the steel grade and the
current casting speed will be taken
into account. The mechanical oscilla-
tor will be replaced by a hydraulic os-
cillator by means of which the stroke
length and frequency can be changed
during casting.
Furthermore, SMS group will im-
plement a new secondary cooling con-
cept with a width-dependent spray
cooling system (water cooling) in the
machine head. The cooling circuits for
the mold, the machine and the sec-
ondary cooling system will be com-
pletely renewed; the hydraulic equip-
ment will be adapted and enhanced.
ArcelorMittal Asturias will receive
new workshops, which will be equip­
ped with the HD LASr plant assistant
developed by SMS group. With this
 Above: Optimized and efficient width adjustment due to Delta
Speed Adjustment.

system, the mold and segments will no longer be measured Below: With the HD LASr plant assistant from SMS group, continuous
using templates, but by means of the laser tracker and the caster segments and molds are reliably measured.
measurement software developed by SMS. Thanks to the
high quality of the measurement, the exact and reliable re-
cording and the meaningful evaluation of the measured ob-
jects, HD LASr is far superior to the systems used up to now.
The slab caster will be prepared for the integration of
Dynamic soft reduction. Furthermore, SMS group will im-
plement various level 2 process models of the X-Pact® elec-
trical and automation package. A HD moldTC system will
monitor the temperature distribution. In this way, possible
strand shell stickers can be detected and breakouts pre-
vented at an early point in time. The DSC® (Dynamic Solidi-
fication Control) metallurgical process model calculates
the solidification process of the strand and controls the
various secondary cooling zones. The two-strand continu-
ous caster No. 2 will be equipped with the same scope of
supply and features. The integrated steel plant ArcelorMit-
tal Asturias produces high-quality steel grades for the au-
tomotive sheet and tinplate industries as well as for heavy
plate production.

Lothar Fischer
lothar.fischer@sms-group.com

47
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

New plant integrated

into existing works
Hebei Puyang Steel issues FAC to SMS group for
single-strand slab caster.

Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. (Puyang Steel), Chi- With the new continuous caster sup- The video of this
na, has issued to SMS group the Final Acceptance Certifi- plied by SMS group, Puyang Steel has project can be
cate (FAC) for the single-strand slab caster commissioned expanded its range of slabs produced, watched at:
in 2015. above all by high-quality grades, such www.sms-group.
SMS group met the customer’s high expectations by co- as peritectic microalloyed and high- com/nl2016-video-
operating successfully with Puyang Steel and achieving fast strength steels, high-carbon and bo- hebei-puyang-en
commissioning and a steep run-up curve of the plant. ron-alloy grades, premium steels and
Jointly with Puyang Steel and building on its profound expe- pipeline grades.
rience and proficiency, SMS group developed a tailor-made
and fully integrated concept that fits perfectly into the exist-
ing structural situation of the works. The new caster was
integrated into the existing bay, using the available crane Lothar Fischer
systems. lothar.fischer@sms-group.com

48
Control station of
CSC’s Continuous
Slab Caster No. 7.

More process safety,

high quality
China Steel places an order with SMS group to modernize
Continuous Slab Caster No. 4.

China Steel Corporation (CSC), Taiwan, has requested SMS quence in the mold is provided by
group to revamp its Continuous Slab Caster No. 4 at the
Kaohsiung location.
SMS group will be supplying a new hydraulic oscillator
temperature measurement via ther-
mocouples on the mold copper plates.
SMS group’s range of services also
i
drive, including the pump station and the pertaining includes the project management, on-
China Steel
X-Pact® process control system, to replace the existing site training of the operating person-
Corporation (CSC)
electro-mechanical drive. For the mold, SMS group is sup- nel and the commissioning supervi-
plying new thermocouples and the technological process sion. Start-up is scheduled for the end CSC operates
models. The Level 2 models of the X-Pact® electrical and of 2016. Taiwan’s largest in-
automation system contain Temperature Monitoring (Mold China Steel has placed this mod- tegrated steel plant
Monitoring System) and the Breakout Prediction System. ernization order as a follow-up to the and produces around
successful implementation of the Mold ten million tons of
Early detection of breakouts Monitoring System from SMS group in steel per year there.
The new hydraulic oscillator drive allows setting of the vari- Continuous Caster No. 7 in the same
able oscillation frequency, stroke length and curve shape. works.
The breakout prediction system enables any possible stick-
ers to be recognized already at an early stage and preven- Lothar Fischer
tive measures to be taken. Monitoring of the process se- lothar.fischer@sms-group.com

49
 Continuous cas-
ting of SBQ billets
at Swiss Steel.

SUCCESSFUL RENEWAL
Completion of the EMS control replacement at the billet CCM of Swiss Steel.

Swiss Steel AG, Switzerland, and SMS group successfully The installation and commissioning took place during a
completed the replacement of the Electro-Magnetic Stir- previously planned 2-weeks maintenance shut-down and
ring (EMS) control system for the 4-strand billet CCM oper- thanks to the effort of the Swiss Steel and SMS joint team
ated in Emmenbrücke (Luzern), Switzerland. on-site, the plant resumed production as per schedule with
The modernization project implied the supply and com- the new state-of-the-art EMS control solution fully opera-
missioning of a new power center, new frequency convert- tional.
ers and new PLCs to control both the mould and final EMS
coils in full integration with the existing Level 1 and Level 2
automation systems. SMS also provided the installation of
the new equipment into the existing electrical room.
With a mere 6 weeks of delivery time from order to the
commissioning, the time-line of the project posed a very
tough technical and organizational challenge, but the high-
ly efficient team of SMS specialists succeeded in complet- Francesco Fabris
ing the design, construction, transportation and installation francesco.fabris@sms-group.com

of the new electrical and automation switchboards in a true Beat Kündig

record time. beat.kuendig@sms-group.com

50
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
New continuous casting machine to produce
high alloyed steel grades and spring steel
grades of highest quality.
FAC
received
SMS Concast supplies
plant to Štore Steel.
Štore Steel in Štore, Slovenia, one of
the leading producers of flat spring
steel in Europe specialized for the
market niches in the automotive in-
dustry, has granted SMS Concast
the final acceptance certificate for
the new continuous casting ma-
chine. The 2-strand caster is de-
signed to produce 300,000 tons per
year of SBQ (Special Bar Quality)
billets of 180 millimeters square.
The order was placed in June 2013
with the aim to increase production
capacity from 150,000 tons per year
to 300,000 tons per year and to im-
prove reliability of production and
the quality of products.
www.sms-concast.com
Global Steel Wire optimized the
production process with the new
automation software.
Latest functionalities of
automation software
Supply of software for level-2 automation
of continuous billet caster to Global Steel Wire.
Global Steel Wire, a well-known and The new process control software will
respected producer of steel for the au- also include the latest feature devel-
tomotive industry, has placed an order oped by SMS group for product quality
with the SMS group for a level-2 auto- prediction and a series of advanced
mation software system dedicated to data analysis tools for simulating, re-
the process control of the continuous playing and performing what-if studies
billet caster at their facility in Santand- of the casting process.
er, Spain.
The new state-of-the-art level-2
system will include a real-time solidi-
fication model and be able to dynami-
cally adapt secondary cooling to the
specific current casting conditions in
order to obtain and maintain an opti-
mal temperature profile along the
strands.
Francesco Fabris
francesco.fabris@sms-group.com
51
Successful commissioning
of the greenfield metal-
lurgical works

Environment-friendly steel plant and powerful continuous slab caster from SMS
group for the production of quality slabs at Tata Steel, Kalinganagar.

52

In the first phase of Tata Steel’s ambitious investment pro-
gram at the Kalinganagar location in the district of Odisha
in India, the converter shop, secondary metallurgy facilities
and a continuous slab caster were put successfully into op-
eration in March 2016. The integrated steel plant of Tata
Steel is designed for the overall production of more than six
million tons of steel slabs.
The SMS group supply scope comprised a twin station
hot-metal desulphurization plant, a converter shop featur-
ing an Ecoplants gas cleaning and recovery plant, a CAS-
OB Unit, RH degasser and a two-strand slab caster. SMS
group also supplied the complete X-Pact® electrical and
automation package.
The process routes in the steel plant are extremely flex-
ible: the steel can be treated in the secondary metallurgical
plant CAS-OB and/or RH facility. This ensures the manu-
facture of a large variety of steel grades.
SMS Mevac UK supplied a desulphurization plant for
conditioning the hot metal prior to the converter process.
The first of three converters, each with a capacity of 310
tons, has gone into operation in the new converter shop.
SMS group supplied the converter vessel, the trunnion ring,
the vessel-to-ring lock system with the patented lamella
suspension system of the latest generation, the tilt drive,
material charging facilities and further auxiliary plants. The
converter is equipped with a bottom stirring system, which
is necessary for the manufacture of several highly demand-
ing steel grades.
Gas cleaning and gas recovery
The Ecoplants gas cleaning plant is equipped with the
Baumco CO system. This enables a large proportion of the
chemical energy contained in the molten metal in the form
of carbon to be recovered as carbon monoxide (CO) gas dur-
ing the converter process. The primary gases are cleaned
by a venturi scrubber in two stages. The gas recovery plant
feeds the gas back into the works network. The plant thus
pays for itself in a short time.
In the CAS-OB facility, inert gas is used to create a slag
free area at the melt surface into which a refractory bell is
inserted. Alloys can now be added into the steel under an
inert atmosphere and without recovery loss to the slag or
atmosphere. The addition of aluminum and the blowing of
oxygen onto the surface of the steel inside the bell creates
an exothermic chemical reaction which increases the tem-
perature of the steel. The addition of alloys under an inert
atmosphere, and the ability to stir the melt after chemical
heating, helps to improve the cleanness and homogeniza-
tion of the steel.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
In the RH Degasser the steel is sub-
jected to vacuum treatment to perform
metallurgical tasks such as hydrogen
removal or decarburization. The TOP
lance facility of the degasser also al-
lows chemical heating of the steel by
exothermic reaction between oxygen
and aluminum. Furthermore, the TOP
lance incorporates the ability to blow
powder for limited desulphurization at
the RH unit.
Slabs with high internal quality
The two-strand vertical-bend continu-
ous caster supplied by SMS group is
designed for the production of quality
slabs in a thickness of 230 millimeters
and widths between 1,000 and 2,000
millimeters. The maximum casting
speed of the highly productive caster is
1.9 meters per minute.
The caster equipment includes sev-
eral Intelligent Slab Casting (ISC®)
modules which determine quality and
production. Among these are the hy-
draulically powered resonance oscilla-
tion system, remote-controlled mold
narrow faces for width change during
casting and the position-controlled
CYBERLINK® segments for perform-
ing Dynamic Soft Reduction.
The production of slabs of high in-
ternal quality is thus guaranteed
through the above in combination with
the width-dependent air-mist second-
ary cooling and the technological Dy-
namic Solidification Control (DSC®)
process model. The second converter
and the RH facility will be commis-
sioned this year.
Dr. Thomas Germershausen
thomas.germershausen@sms-group.com
53
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Coiler No. 2 will be modernized to meet increased demands.
Modernization
continued
SDI Columbus, USA, to upgrade coiler
in CSP® plant.
The objective of the modernization is to extend the product
range in the field of high-strength steels as used for oil
and gas pipelines, for example. Based on the envisaged
new dimensions and strengths, a calculation of the re-
quired coiler torques and forces was made. The results
thereof served to precisely define the measures needed to
implement the extension of the product mix with an eye on
keeping the investment volume as little as possible.
For coiler No. 2, SMS group will supply a stronger pinch
roll set including hold-down roll and a hydraulically con-
trolled chute roll. In addition, new manual transmissions
for the pinch roll drives and a new gear wheel set for the
mandrel drive will be installed to attain higher torques. With
regard to automation, control systems will be adapted ac-
cordingly. The coiler will be equipped with a new sample
shear. The coil transport system will be revamped and a
stronger coil circumference strapper installed to make sure
the high-strength strips are transported safely.
In 2014, in the course of the extension of the product
range, SMS group had already strengthened the drive train
of F1 and installed further cooling groups within the lami-
nar cooling system to produce more than twice the specific
water volume.
www.sms-group.com/plants/all-plants/csp-technology
54
Gear cutting in the SMS group workshop.
New large wheel for
roughing stand
SMS group supplied new wheel sets to
ArcelorMittal Galati.
In April 2016, SMS group manufactured the third new
wheel set for the hot strip mill of ArcelorMittal Galati in
Romania. It replaced the wheel set of the main gear unit of
roughing stand D2. In the course of 2013 and 2014, SMS
group had already supplied new wheel sets for two further
mill stands in the six-stand roughing mill.
Featuring a diameter of 4,216 millimeters and a weight
of about 40 tons, the double helical large-size wheel for
roughing stand D2 is the biggest one of all wheels or-
dered by ArcelorMittal Galati and was completely manu-
factured – from welding, turning, milling, gear cutting to
grinding operations – in the Hilchenbach workshop. To
facilitate installation at the customer’s site, SMS group
had assembled the wheel set ready for mounting and
checked the contact pattern.
www.sms-group.com/expertise/drive-technology
Top: Combined reversing and skin pass mill supplied earlier. Right, top: Four-high skin pass mill.
Right, bottom: Skin pass mill entry side.

SUCCESSFUL EXPANSION
OF COLD STRIP PRODUCTION
AT STARCORE
Skin-passing capacity of more than a quarter million tons.

i In February 2016, the second cold rolling mill, a four-high

skin pass mill, was successfully commissioned at Starcore
i ADVANTAGE
Co. in Rayong, Thailand. The equipment initially supplied
Starcore Co. More efficient skin-passing
by SMS group comprised a combined reversing and skin-
The Thai cold strip pass mill with CVC® plus technology. In July 2014, Starcore through:
producer Starcore Co. contracted Esmech Equipment Pvt. Ltd., an Indian
 n automatic coil feeder to the
A
Co. is a subsidiary subsidiary of SMS group, for supplying another skin pass payoff reel
of Saeng Thai Metal mill to expand the CRCA (Cold Rolled Coil Annealed) line.  n automatic coil remover from
A
Drum Company The skin-pass mill is designed for wet operation and to the tension reel
Limited (STD), the process strips up to 1,250 millimeters wide at a maximum  ntry- and exit-side tension rolls
E
leading producer of rolling speed of 400 meters per minute. The annual skin- (bridle rolls) at both reels

passing capacity is 260,000 tons.  n entry-side tilting chair for coils

A
steel drums in South
from the batch annealing furnace
East Asia.

Torsten Seeger
torsten.seeger@sms-group.com

55
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
LATEST 20-ROLL
TECHNOLOGY FOR EUROPE
Acerinox Europe once again confirms its confidence in
plant technology from SMS group.
Early in 2016, Acerinox Europe, Spain, placed an order with
SMS group for the installation of a 20-high cold rolling mill
for high-quality stainless steel grades. With this third order
within just a few years, Acerinox will be continuing its suc-
cessful cooperation with SMS group.
From the very beginning, Acerinox has placed high value
on the upgrading and the technological advancement of its
production facilities. Also in 2016, Acerinox remains true to
this principle and is investing in the main production facil-
ity in Los Barrios in Cadiz, Spain. There, SMS group is go-
ing to install a new 20-high cold rolling mill in MonoBlock
56
design of size MB22B-52“, complete with X-Pact® electri-
cal and automation systems. Beside the MonoBlock mill-
stand, the mechanical scope of supply comprises a sepa-
rate pay-off unit, two reversing reels with paper feed and
utility systems, including hydraulics, Supafine® rolling oil
plant, CO2 fire extinguishing system, fume exhaust system
and filter.
The compact and robust cold rolling mill is character-
ized by high stand stiffness and is designed to roll a com-
plex variety of material, including ferrite, austenitic and
duplex steels, with high pass reductions to a minimum final
 i
Acerinox

With this third order,

Acerinox is continu-
ing to rely on cold
rolling mills from
SMS group. Since
2012, the company
has been operat-
ing a 20-high cold
rolling mill at the
production facility of
Bahru Stainless in
Johor, Malaysia. At
the works of North
American Stainless
in Kentucky, USA,
SMS group is cur-
gauge of 0.15 millimeter. The maximum strip width to be rently installing a 20-
rolled here is 1,320 millimeters. Rolling can be performed Technical data high cold rolling mill
at a maximum speed of up to 800 meters per minute. Steel grades duplex steel, AISI 200, for the production
The fully developed rolling technology from SMS group 300, 400 of bright-annealed
meets the high demands of Acerinox concerning the mill’s Strip width 800 – 1,320 mm stainless steel strip
productivity and the quality of the products rolled. The mill- Strip thickness 1.20 – 8.00 mm (entry) for Acerinox.
stand is equipped with hydraulic gap control and roll crown 0.15 – 6.00 mm (exit)
adjustment for backup shafts B/C and F/G, as well as inner Commisioning November 2017
intermediate roll shifting.
To ensure the optimal utilization of the rolling mill, it is
equipped with X-Pact® electrical and automation systems.
The scope of supply ranges from power supply systems,
drive technology and technological control systems to mod-
el-based setup systems. The latter features high-precision
imaging and pre-calculation of the rolling process, result-
ing in accurate presetting of the millstand.
The 20-high cold rolling mill is expected to start opera-
tion at Acerinox at the end of 2017.

Uwe Kaden Representatives of Acerinox Europe and SMS group express their
uwe.kaden@sms-group.com happiness at the successful signing of the contract.

57
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Wide aluminum sheets

ALCOA Tennessee operates a new ultra-modern tandem

cold mill supplied by SMS group.

As key supplier, SMS group delivered mation systems were thoroughly test-
and commissioned an ultra-modern ed, validating their reliable compliance
twin-stand aluminum tandem cold with the stringent quality demands.
mill newly installed at ALCOA Inc. near The automotive expansion at Tennes-
Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.A. The new see will continue its ramp-up through-
cold rolling mill is part of Alcoa’s out 2016.
­automotive growth project. The expan-
sion focuses on the production of
wide and durable aluminum sheets for
light-weight car body construction. The
­twin-stand rolling mill was supplied,
installed and commissioned by SMS Stefan Tammert
stefan.tammert@sms-group.com
group. The new equipment and auto-

The new cold tandem

mill is part of ALCOA’s
automotive growth
project.

58
Specialized in top
quality thin strip down
to 0.05 millimeter is
the 20-roll mill.

China’s most advanced

copper cold mills
In early December 2015, Ningbo Xingye Copper completed the hot com-
missioning on two cold rolling mills supplied by SMS group.

Ningbo Xingye Copper belongs to the Xingye Copper Inter-
national Group Limited, a leading producer of high quality
copper strip and plate products in China. SMS group sup-
plied two reversing cold mills including X-Pact® electrical
and automation systems to Ningbo Xingye Copper.
WIDE MATERIAL RANGE
On December 1st, 2015 hot commissioning has been com-
pleted and certified for the 4-high and the 20-high cold
rolling mill at Ningbo Xingye Copper facilities in Cixi. Both
the mills roll a large copper and copper alloy material
range. The 4-high reversing mill specializes in very thick
strips up to 16 millimeters entry thickness, whereas the
20-high mill focuses on very thin strips down to 0.05 mil-
limeter final thickness. Special technologies of installed
X-Pact® automation reduce off-gauge losses and allow
Ningbo Xingye Copper the maximum utilization of the
valuable material.
In addition, the 20-high cold rolling mill of SB23-26“size
was equipped with a Multi-Plate® filter system for sustain-
able rolling oil usage. Not only regarding innovative rolling
technologies but also regarding environmental sustainabil-
ity both new cold rolling mills of Ningbo Xingye Copper offer
a new quality to the Chinese copper market.
Markus Gümpel
markus.guempel@sms-group.com
Mehmet Caglayan
mehmet.caglayan@sms-group.com

59
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

new on aluminum flat

market: shandong weiqiao
On March 5th, 2016, Shandong Weiqiao Aluminium &
Electricity Co., Ltd. granted SMS group the Final Acceptance
Certificate (FAC) for an aluminum hot strip mill.

Pursuing a strategy of downstream ex- tricity is entering the aluminum flat

pansion, Shandong Weiqiao Aluminium
& Electricity is setting up a new alumi-
num rolling mill complex at its site in
Zouping in the Shandong Province,
China. In addition to the hot rolling
mill, SMS group supplied two single-
stand cold rolling mills, one three-
stand cold tandem mill and a fully
automatic high-bay warehouse for alu-
minum coils for the new works.
MEETING CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS
Zhang Yuedong, Deputy General Di-
rector of “New Material Branch, Shan-
dong Weiqiao Aluminium & Electrici-
ty”, which is the business unit in
charge, states: “Based on the achieved
operating results, we are convinced
that the hot rolling mill supplied by
SMS group will allow us to fulfill all
and any requirements placed on our
products by customers in China and
worldwide. Thanks to this investment,
Shandong Weiqiao Aluminium & Elec-
product market as a new player.”
The hot rolling mill consists of an
edger, a roughing stand, a heavy and
a light crop shear, a four-stand finish-
ing train and a run-out section in-
cluding a side trimming unit and a
coiler. Shandong Weiqiao can now
produce up to 2,200-millimeters-wide
aluminum strips in a great variety of
material grades. The main products
are high-performance can end and
body materials, CTP/PS sheets and
foil stock.
Rüdiger Roger Wiechmann
ruediger-roger.wiechmann@sms-group.com

60
Shandong Weiqiao Aluminium & Electricity is very content with the operating results of its new hot rolling mill.

i
Shandong Weiqiao
Aluminium & Elec-
tricity Co., Ltd.
Shandong Weiqiao
Aluminium & Electricity
is a privately-owned
company belonging to
the Weiqiao Pioneering
Group, which is one of
the Top 500 companies
in China. Among the
plants operated by the
company are several
coal-fired power plants
and electrolytic plants
for the production of
aluminum metal.

A coil being inspected in the offline inspection unit.

61
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

COMPLETED EXTENSION OF
FINISHING MILL TERMINATES
MODERNIZATION PROJECT
The third modernization stage of the Hot Mill 1 at Aluminium Norf has been
successfully completed. The result: a more flexible production planning as well
as better utilization of the existing production facilities.

62
 Stronger, faster,
more. The produc-
tion results of the
restarted finishing
mill are impressive.

After SMS group had hit the bull’s eye with the moderniza-
tion of the roughing stand of Hot Mill 1 of Aluminium Norf
GmbH (ALUNORF) at its Neuss location in Germany, the
new finishing stand, too, was pre-assembled, tested and
transported to the jobsite according to schedule in autumn
2015. Integration into the existing finishing mill was accom-
plished at the end of 2015. In early January 2016, the first
strip was produced on the extended finishing mill, which
completed the ambitious extension project of the biggest
aluminum processor worldwide.
In the third and last modernization stage, ALUNORF has
been adapting the finishing mill to the enhanced roughing
mill capacity which had been achieved through the mea-
sures implemented in the first and second project stages,
comprising the upgrading of the roughing stand and the
renewal of the edger. The SMS group had considered the
option of extending the three-stand finishing mill already in
the planning and designing phase of
the hot rolling line 50 years ago.
For the extension of the finishing
mill, SMS group supplied the mechan-
i
ical equipment for the new, four-high
Extension
mill stand, including hydraulic adjust-
ment, positive and negative work roll The extension of
bending system, pertaining drive tech- the hot rolling line
nology as well as the gear components in three separate
needed to upgrade the existing mill stages may serve
stands for running at higher rolling as a good-practice
speeds. example for the ef-
The new mill stand takes the first ficient modernization
position in the finishing line and per- of old plants.
forms the major part of the shaping
work as it rolls the incoming material.
New are the drive train with main

63
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

The completed
finishing mill with
entry-side new mill
stand.

gear unit, mill pinion gear unit
and Sieflex® HT gear-type spindles
A video on this proj- transmitting the high rolling torque in
ect can be viewed the first finishing stand to the work
under: rolls. In addition, the second and third
www.sms-group. mill stands were each equipped with
com/nl2016-video- new gear wheel sets. The extension of
aluminium-norf-en the available media systems and of
the filter equipment was also part of
the supply package.
After several preparatory measures
which were implemented within the
routine weekly downtimes, the major part of the installation
work was performed during a regular plant shutdown that
started on December 18, 2015. The first strip rolled on the
finishing mill was seen on January 6, 2016. The regular pro-
duction process could be reassumed on January 8, 2016.
The result of the modernization of Hot Rolling Mill 1,
which was carried out in three stages, is an increase in ca-
pacity and ensures ALUNORF’s global leadership among
the producers of rolled aluminum products. Comprising
two hot rolling lines, the aluminum rolling and remelt plant
of ALUNORF in Neuss ranks among the biggest ones
worldwide. The now completed extension offers a better
utilization of the existing infrastructure and more flexibility
in production planning.

Guido Fick
guido.fick@sms-group.com

Schematic represen-
tation of the new hot
mill concept includ-
ing drive train.

64
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Refined cold strip for the

automotive industry
Baotou commissions first of two annealing
lines supplied by SMS group.

The first of the two annealing lines,

which SMS group supplied to Baotou
(BISG Baotou Iron & Steel Group – Rare
Earth Steel Plate Co. Ltd.), in Decem-
ber 2015 has been commissioned ac-
cording to scheduled and has annealed
the first coil as planned. Baotou had
awarded SMS group the order for the

i supply of the two continuous annealing

lines including six-high inline skin pass
mills in October 2013. The second line
will be started up as scheduled in mid-
Strip control
2016. Both lines will be of almost iden-
EMG Automation tical design. Once on stream, the two
supplied the com- annealing lines will be able to produce
plete strip control more than 1.5 million tons of refined
system and, in additi- cold strip per year. The majority of the
on, integrated quality material, including grades for exposed
assurance systems. car body parts as well as high-strength
grades such as DP and TRIP with ten-
sile strengths of up to 980 MPa, will be
used in the automotive industry. The
two lines will form an integral part of
the new cold rolling mill No. 2, which
Baotou is building in Inner Mongolia.
The recent commissioning of the first
annealing line is an important mile-
stone of the overall project.
630,000 TONS ANNUAL CAPACITY
The new line can handle strip widths
between 830 and 1,580 millimeters
and strip thicknesses from 0.25 to 2.5
millimeters. The maximum process
speed amounts to 400 m/min, the an-
nual capacity will be 630,000 tons. In
The commissioning team of SMS group in front of the first annealed coil.
addition to the design of the mechani-
cal equipment and the manufacture
of various core components, the SMS
group’s supply package also included
the supervision of part of the local
manufacturing scope and of equip-
ment installation and commissioning.
The inline six-high skin pass mill
featuring CVC® plus technology en-
sures compliance with the contractual
strip flatness requirements. The Ex-
tended Bending System (EBS) provides
for the targeted skin-passing of soft IF
steels even at low rolling forces.
In order to respond flexibly to the
product range of the customers, the
skin pass mill can additionally be
equipped with work rolls of different
diameters.

65
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

66
 Reconstruction of a
pusher furnace for
slabs at VÍTKOVICE STEEL
SMS group received final acceptance certificate
for the reheat furnace revamp.

Reconstructed pusher furnace with

a throughput of 90 tons per hour
feeding the plate mill at VÍTKOVICE
STEEL, a. s., Ostrava, Czech Republic.

67
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

»We are proud of having completed another brownfield project of such

significant magnitude. This demonstrates once more SMS’ commitment to
renewing outdated plants in Europe and the great benefits this provides
for us, the end users and the environment.«

Simone Zussino, Head of Department, Reheating Furnaces and Heat Treatment Lines at SMS Meer S.p.A.

In February 2016, SMS group received the final acceptance
certificate from Vítkovice Steel, a.s., Ostrava, Czech Repub-
lic, for the complete reconstruction of an old pusher-type
reheating furnace. The furnace feeds a plate mill at a max-
imum hourly rate of 90 tons of slabs at reference condi-
tions, reheated from ambient temperature to 1,250 °C. The
results of the comprehensive modernization are minimized
skid marks, increased quality, an efficient control system
and reduced fuel consumption.
FAST PROJECT HANDLING
A key technological aspect of the project had been to mini-
mize skid marks on the slab bottom surface, which can
cause noticeable rolling troubles. To ensure the fulfillment
of the strict target given by Vítkovice Steel, a.s., SMS ran
some test campaigns in a laboratory furnace before choos-
ing the final skid-riders shape and material.
With the revamped furnace Vítkovice
Steel, a.s. can take full advantage of a
modern control system which mini-
mizes human supervisory work during
production, last but not least due to
the installation of the combustion opti-
mization system SMS PrometheusTM.
The reconstructed furnace consumes
significantly less fuel compared to
the old unit. The furnace meets the
high safety requirements of the Euro-
pean standard 746-2. Also environ-
mental aspects played major role in
this project. An important target of
the reconstruction project was to
achieve a significant reduction of NOx
emissions.

68
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

The project was accomplished on a turnkey basis by SMS

Meer S.p.A. in collaboration with the local firm BKB Metal,
a.s. The latter was responsible for the civil works and the
i Vítkovice
construction activities. Particularly noteworthy is the engi-
neering solution provided by SMS as the team of engineers Modernization of a slab
have succeeded in building a furnace of the most advanced reheating furnace
design on the existing foundations, thus reducing the civil
Minimization of skid marks
works. The smooth interaction between the existing and the
Quality increase
newly supplied equipment is one of the keys to the success
Optimized combustion processes
of this project, which was completed in one and a half years
Reduction of NOx emissions
according to the customer’s requirement.
Lower energy consumption
Modern control technology

Pietro Della Putta

pietro.dellaputta@sms-group.com

69
The first coil at Kobelco
Angang in Anshan, China,
treated with the annealing
line from SMS group.

Kobelco Angang starts

production of
automotive steel strips
Specific setting of high-strength und ultra-high-
strength steel strip properties.

70
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

With the successful production of the first coil in December martensitic grades and multi-phase
2015, Kobelco Angang Auto Steel, China, has commis-
sioned the new continuous annealing line. The strips were
steels. Both cooling systems are char-
acterized by very constant cooling so i
treated in the cleaning section, in the furnace and the final that strip geometry and surface quality
skin-pass stand and thus received its end properties. SMS of the plates produced satisfy high re- Line data
group as a system provider supplied the plant installed in quirements.
Anshan in the Province of Liaoning completely from a single With a rolling force of up to 18 me- The line has been
source. Besides the construction of mechanical, process ganewtons the six-high inline skin- designed for a strip
and thermal equipment and the manufacture of key com- pass mill is designed to reroll strips thickness range
ponents, SMS group is also responsible for the complete with high tensile strengths up to 1,600 between 0.5 and
electric and automation systems. MPa. The materials strengths require 2.5 millimeters and
After the completion of the commissioning phase the skin pass rolling under high strip ten- widths from 750 to
plant will reach an annual output of steel strips of around sion. The inline skin-pass mill realizes 1,650 millimeters.
600,000 tons, mostly for the automotive industry. By an- strip tensions up to 350 kilonewtons. The maximum
nealing, rapid cooling and subsequent skin-pass rolling the Included are working rolls with two process speed is
strain hardening from the rolling process is reduced inside different diameter ranges, so that the 180 meters per
the material and the mechanical high-quality properties product spectrum with regard to ma- minute, while at
are specifically set. Among others, ultra-high-strength ma- terial strengths and rerolling levels is the entry and exit,
terials shall be produced for the manufacture of light and at optimally covered. Equipment such as speeds of up to
the same time safe automotive structural components. work roll and intermediate roll bend- 280 meters per
ing, strip edge-oriented roll shifting minute may be
EVEN HIGHER COOLING RATES and strip blowing in the stand exit sec- achieved.
The heart of the production line is the high-power and the tion secure the quality of the strips.
eco-friendly Drever radiant-tube annealing furnace with
two optionally usable cooling systems. The ultra-fast cool-
ing system based on gas cooling is used among others for
high-strength TRIP, dual-phase, complex-phase and other
high-strength steels as well as drawing and deep-drawing
grades. By means of water as cooling medium the water-
spray cooling system achieves even higher cooling rates. Jörg Nix
This enables the production of also ultra-high-strength joerg.nix@sms-group.com

The annealing line supplied to

Kobelco Angang by SMS group is
able to produce up to 600,000
tons of high-strength and ultra-
high-strength steel strips per year.

71
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
COST-efficient PROCESS
WATER CONDITIONING WITH
FOEN EVAP®
FOEN® offers a new system with patented polymeric heat
exchanger providing essential advantages when treating highly corrosive
process water as is incurred in pickling lines, for example.
FOEN EVAP® is an efficient method for process water con-
i ditioning. In addition to high environmental friendliness, the
system especially stands out due to its low total operating
costs. The reasons are extremely low expenses for energy
and maintenance as well as major savings resulting from a
FOEN®
substantial reduction of chemical treatment steps. The
Fontaine Engineer- FOEN EVAP® is mainly used in the metal industry, but can
ing und Maschinen also be employed to treat process water in other areas, as
GmbH (FOEN®) is for instance the paper and textile industries, to condition
part of SMS group. water escaping from dumps or for seawater desalination. It
It is headquartered offers considerable advantages whenever highly corrosive
in Langenfeld, process water is to be conditioned.
Germany, and has
further locations in PROVEN AND ECO-FRIENDLY TECHNOLOGY
the U.S.A. and China. In a FOEN EVAP® system the process water is vaporized
The company is a and largely returned to the process, separated by conden-
well known supplier sate and concentrate. Evaporation is based on the principle
of high-quality air of mechanical vapor recompression. But different from
knife systems for hot conventional systems, no metal heat exchangers are used.
dip galvanizing lines. Instead, the FOEN EVAP® system uses a special, patented
polymeric heat exchanger at a very small temperature dif-
ference of typically less than 3 °C.
The polymeric heat exchanger has distinctive advantag-
es over conventional systems. It is possible to use a very
thin polymeric film as surface material and to achieve a
very large total surface area. Also, the material is resistant
to highly corrosive process water. Therefore, FOEN EVAP®
72
is well suited for rinse water from
pickling lines which are very corrosive
due to their high acid content. As the
polymeric film is flexible and slightly
moving, it is almost impossible for dirt
particles to deposit on the surface,
which results in an extended lifetime.
Thanks to the large surface area of
the thin polymeric film and the small
temperature difference, energy costs
are very low. They are merely half or
even one-third the amount of conven-
tional evaporators, i.e. approx. 9 to 12
kilowatt hours per cubic meter of con-
densate. Further energy savings are
achieved by using the condensate heat
to warm up the incoming process water.
The FOEN EVAP® technology has
already been tested and proven in the
metal industry. A customer running a
copper rod mill confirms: “Since the
time we introduced this closed-loop
system, we reuse 97 percent of the
process water. We even won several
environmental awards for saving en-
ergy and avoiding greenhouse gas
emissions.”
 sms group newsletter 03/ 2016

The FOEN EVAP® vaporizes process water and returns the conditioned water to the process
according to the mechanical vapor recompression principle using a polymeric heat exchang-
er and based on a temperature difference of less than 3 °C.

The treatment capacity of the systems

can be increased at any time by adding
further modules. Some of the modules
are capable of conditioning up to 1,000
cubic meters per day. The equipment
is designed to make one module of a
vaporizing capacity of 120 cubic me-
ters per day fit in standard containers
for easy transportation and installa-
tion on site. Operation is generally au-
tomatic, and there is no staff required
at the system.
FOEN EVAP® pilot plant to test
the equipment in operational
practice.
i Service
Pilot plant on trial
As a special service FOEN® offers to
rent a compact FOEN EVAP® pilot
plant capable of conditioning seven
cubic meters of water per day. Thus,
customers will have the opportunity to
check the results achievable by a
major system without any risk in ad-
vance. The system includes a cassette
unit and will be delivered in a 20-foot
container. For this purpose, the design
had been simplified and made user-
friendly. There are no special skills or
previous knowledge required for op-
eration. The system is currently used
by Schwermetall-Halbzeugwerk domi-
ciled in Stolberg, Germany, to condi-
tion cooling water.

Sales
evap@foen-gmbh.de

73
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

SMS GROUP TO
SUPPLY SIDE TRIMMING
UNIT TO SEVERSTAL
The pre-assembled and function-tested machine can easily be
integrated in the existing continuous pickling line.

Severstal contracted SMS group to supply a new ASC (Auto- strip, which is between 1.2 and 6.0

i matic Setting Control) twin-head side trimming unit for the

continuous pickling line No. 3 in Cherepovets, Russia. The
objective of the modernization is to boost the capacity of the
line by higher availability of the side trimmer and to increase
Equipment
the quality of the strip edges. Improvements in burr forma-
Special Strip tion and edge uniformity will be particularly obvious when
Processing Equip- soft materials are processed. SMS group will supply the side
ment made by SMS trimming unit as part of its Special Strip Processing Equip-
increases com- ment, pre-assembled and complete with its own electrical
petitiveness. The and automation systems. The time of delivery is ten months.
components have The side trimming unit will be integrated in the existing con-
short delivery times tinuous pickling line during a short plant downtime.
and are supplied
ready for operation HIGH AVAILABILITY
including integrated Arranged at the exit side of the pickling line, the ASC side
automation system. trimming unit is equipped with circular knives at both
sides to trim the strip edges. It also serves to cut the hot
millimeters thick, to a desired width
between 700 and 1,650 millimeters.
The trimmings are separated at a
speed of up to 360 meters per minute
and then cut to small pieces by an in-
tegrated scrap chopper.
The side trimmer is designed as a
twin-head unit, which provides the ad-
vantage that the trimming knives in
maintenance position can be changed
while production is going on. For this
purpose, at both sides of the strip two
cutters are arranged on turntables at
an angle of 180 degree, requiring just
a short stop of the strip to change the
cutting units. The circular knife units
are equipped with a very precise, com-
bined knife adjusting system to auto-
matically set overlap and knife gap by
means of electric motors. This en-
sures premium strip edges without
any undesired burr formation at the
strip top or bottom sides.

New ASC twin-head Markus Jaenecke

side trimming unit. markus.jaenecke@sms-group.com

74
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

The new pickling tanks will boost the pickling performance in the stainless steel strip
processing line of Outokumpu Stainless in Avesta, Sweden.

Ongoing optimization at Outokumpu

Further modernization order for SMS group.

After SMS group had replaced the first one of the three
pickling tanks of Line 76 at Outokumpu Stainless in the
summer of 2015, it was awarded an order to change the two
remaining pickling tanks this summer. Further, the existing
four squeeze roll chambers will be upgraded to improve
their efficiency, and the four compensators will be replaced
by new ones. The annealing and pickling line which was
established in Avesta, Sweden, in 1976, has seen numerous
modernizations by SMS.
The line produces up to 300,000 tons of stainless steel
hot and cold strip with strip thicknesses ranging from 1.5 to
13 millimeters. The new pickling tanks will come with in-
creased performance and an improved sludge discharge
system. A higher acid turbulence inside the tank improves
the pickling rate, and the tank design has been optimized to
permit the generated sludge to be easily removed. The new
tanks are made from a special polypropylene material since
Duplex steel grades are frequently pickled by means of
highly concentrated and very aggressive hydrofluoric acid.
In addition to the two pickling tanks, the supply package
includes overflow boxes, compensators, catch basins as
well as the nozzle system for bottom and side spraying. All
modification work will be implemented during a two-week
shutdown period.
Nordine Beskri
nordine.beskri@sms-group.com

75
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Modern air knife system

for thyssenkrupp
thyssenkrupp orders DUMA-BANDZINK air knife system
including EMG eMass® strip stabilization.

In February 2017, within a short conversion phase, a new air cision in coating, the modern air knife
knife system will be installed in hot-dip coating line No. 7 of
thyssenkrupp Steel Europe located in Bochum, Germany.
thyssenkrupp decided in favor of a DUMA-BANDZINK air
system will feature perfect surface
quality as is demanded for many ap-
plications. One of the products that
i
knife system with integrated EMG eMass® strip stabilization will be produced on the hot-dip galva-
EMG emass®
because of its high layer accuracy and surface quality. nizing line is galvannealed strip for car
body shells. EMG eMASS® is a
PRECISE COATING system to stabilize
The electromagnetic EMG eMass® system will be posi- fast-running steel
tioned at the shortest possible distance to the nozzle gap, strips and suited for
which is the actual point of technology, and stabilize the turnkey supply.
strip flow in the zinc air knife, hence improving the accu- Daniel Plätzer
racy of the zinc layer. In addition to its extremely high pre- daniel.plaetzer@duma-bandzink.com

Direct integration
creates an optimum
synergy of DUMA-
BANDZINK air knife
system and EMG
eMass® strip stabili-
zation.

76
Rubrik — Unterrubrik
Thanks to the modernization, the furnace
is now designed for an annual production of
380,000 tons of stainless steel strip.
Notable capacity
increase
SMS group modernizes furnace at Aperam.
Aperam Stainless awarded SMS group an order to mod-
ernize the furnace of the direct rolling, annealing and pick-
ling line in Isbergues, France. The modernization will in-
crease the performance of the furnace by 50 percent. After
the modernization Aperam expects to produce 380,000
tons per year of cold rolled, annealed and pickled stainless
austenitic and ferritic grades (AISI 300 and 400 series) with
this line. The material is used in the automotive industry
and for many other industrial applications. This new order
was awarded to Drever International, Belgium, a company
of SMS group. The scope of supply consists of design,
manufacturing, assembly, erection and commissioning of
the furnace. Drever International also built the original
furnace in 1996.
The capacity of the horizontal direct-fired furnace will be
increased with the revamp from 60.7 tons per hour (contrac-
tual data of the original furnace) to 91.0 tons per hour. There-
fore, 24 meters of the existing preheating section will be re-
placed by a 51 meter preheat and heating section.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Furthermore, one of the existing air cooling modules will be
boosted, one air cooling module will be added, and the mist
cooling module will be replaced. Since only very little space
is available in this furnace revamp heating and cooling are
designed stronger than usual.
The furnace is heated up to 1,250 °C by low NOx burners
with open flames. Subsequently, the strip will be cooled via
air cooling from 1,100 to 220 °C within a distance of only
maximal 35 meters. Mist cooling is then used down to 80 °C.
At the maximum speed of 60 meters per minute a cooling
rate of 25 Kelvin per seconds will be reached in the cooling
section. In the final cooling section an even higher cooling
rate will be reached. The processed strip widths range be-
tween 800 and 1,580 millimeter and the strip thicknesses
between 0.8 and 5.0 millimeter.
Serge Vanderheyden
vanderheyden@drever.be
77
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
450,000 TONS OF HIGH-
QUALITY STRIP PER YEAR
Angang produced first coil on new galvanizing line from SMS group.
The heat treatment and galvanizing of
the first coil on April 17, 2016, marked
the start-up of the new continuous
galvanizing line built for Angang (An-
gang Guangzhou Auto Steel Co.) near
the city of Guangzhou in the province
of Guandong, China. SMS group sup-
plied the complete plant from one
source and was responsible for engi-
78
neering, process technology, furnace technology and gal-
vanizing technology as well as electrical and automation
systems.
The line is designed to produce 450,000 tons of galva-
nized or galvannealed steel strips per year and aims to
serve automotive and home appliances industries in South
China and the Pearl River Delta. Most notably, deep-draw-
ing grades and high-strength steels for the automotive in-
dustry are produced, including modern dual-phase steels.

Apart from automotive structural components, strips with a
high-quality steel surface are produced for the production
of exposed vehicle parts.
HIGH COOLING RATES AND FAST GALVANIZING
To achieve high cooling rates, a vertical radiant-tube fur-
nace with ultra-fast cooling system from Drever is integrat-
ed. A further highlight of the furnace is the pre-oxidation
chamber which allows steel grades with high manganese
The commissioning team with the first galvanized coil
on April 17, 2016.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
The new Angang continuous galvanizing line is designed to
produce 450,000 tons per year of galvanized or galvannealed strip
for the automotive industry.
or silicon contents to be galvanized without wettability
problems. A high-quality air knife system from DUMA-
BANDZINK is integrated for the galvanizing process. Due
to modern facilities such as a patented radial controller,
an automatic air knife lip cleaner and a knife-gap width
adjustment, the highest surface qualities are achieved.
Drever and DUMA-BANDZINK are both companies of the
SMS group.
Further important, quality decisive components of the
continuous galvanizing line are a high-performance clean-
ing section, a four-high skin-pass mill, a tension leveler, a
vertical roll coater with Drever drying and cooling system,
an ASC side trimmer with integrated scrap chopper and an
electrostatic DUMA-BANDZINK oiling machine.
The line is designed for strips with dimensions of typical
car sheets. In the process section the strip is coated with
zinc at a process speed of up to 160 meters per minute,
whereas in the entry and exit sections speeds of up to 220
meters per minute can be attained. The steel grades manu-
factured are CQ, DQ, DDQ, EDDQ, HS and DP.
www.sms-group.com
79
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

heat treatment line

for TMK Seversky
The new line allows product flexibility, cost-effective processing
and fuel savings of up to 30 percent.

TMK’s subsidiary Seversky Tube Works, located in Polevs-
koy, Russia, has placed an order with the SMS group for a
heat treatment line for tubes. The plant produces seamless
and welded pipe mainly for oil and gas. With the installation
of this line, TMK is strengthening its presence on the Rus-
sian market with tubes for oil and gas exploration as one of
the world’s leading tube manufacturers worldwide. The de-
sign capacity of the line is 265,000 tons heat-treated pipes
per year. The line is scheduled to commence operation in
the first quarter of 2018. This new order was awarded to
SMS Meer S.p.A., Italy, a subsidiary of SMS group.
EFFICIENT PRODUCTION OF SMALL BATCH SIZES
The heat treatment line ordered by TMK allows carrying out
various process steps, such as quenching, tempering, and
normalizing. Therefore, it basically consists of an austen-
itizing furnace with walking beam transport system, an
SMS quenching head, an SMS quenching inside lance, a
walking beam tempering furnace and a cooling bed. SMS
group will also supply the complete water treatment sys-
tem in service to the heat treatment line.
The heat treatment line will be able to treat tubes up to a
wall thickness of 40 millimeters. Thanks to the high prod-
uct flexibility, the line is also suitable for the cost-effective
processing of small batch sizes and different product
groups. Eco-friendly recuperative burners with very low ni-
trogen oxide (NOx) emissions in the furnaces allow fuel
savings of up to 30 percent compared with conventional
burners.
Roberto Millone
roberto.millone@sms-group.com

The SMS group Quenching Head.

80
Heat treatment facility in process at Axis Pipe and Tube.
Successful commissioning of heat
treatment facility and pipe threading line
Axis Pipe and Tube extends product range for new customer segments.
At Axis Pipe and Tube, based in Houston, Texas, USA, SMS
group has successfully commissioned a heat treatment fa-
cility and pipe threading line including two 4 axis CNC
threading machines.
With the two new plants for its Bryan works in Texas,
the company is capable of producing OCTG tubes (Oil
Country Tubular Goods) used for natural gas and crude oil
production. With the new state-of-the-art equipment, Axis
Pipe and Tube is extending its product range and will be
able to open up new customer segments.
SMS group supplied a heat treatment line, that includes
a natural gas fired walking beam hardening and temper-
ing furnace as well as a water quenching unit and a 10 roll
hot straightener, to produce tube grades of up to HCP110.
The supplied pipe threading line features two 4 axis CNC
threading machines which operate on the principle of sta-
tionary tool and rotating tube. A hydrostatic pipe tester
with a maximum test pressure of 15,000 psi, a finishing
section and all connecting transport equipment for the
threading line were also supplied by SMS group. The con-
necting transport pipe handling equipment is designed to
prevent pipe to pipe contact after threading. The tubes and
pipes processed on the threading machines conform to
manufacturing standards as per API 5CT.
This project enables Axis Tube and Pipe to become even
better at satisfying the ever more exacting demands of the
market relating to product quality and productivity, both at
present and in the future.
Sales
tubefinishing@sms-group.com
81
 Most modern large-
diameter pipe
mill in the world
Corinth Pipeworks produces with fully automated
JCOE® pipe forming press of SMS group.
In 2013, Corinth Pipeworks (CPW) from Athens, Greece, has
commissioned SMS group to supply an 18-m JCOE® plant for
longitudinally seam-welded large-diameter pipes. Only two
years later, the first pipe was welded on the new plant. The
large-diameter pipe plant is designed for a capacity of
400,000 tons of pipes, with outer diameters between 16” and
56”, a wall thickness of up to 40 millimeters and a length of
up to 18.3 meters.
Quality pipes for pipelines
This new capacity of the large-diameter pipe plant is al-
ready being used: the contract to supply large-diameter
82
pipes – LSAW (Longitudinally Sub-
merged Arc Welded) as well as HSAW
(Helically Submerged Arc Welded) –
for a total length of approx. 495 kilo-
meters was awarded by Adriatic Pipe-
line AG (TAP) to Corinth Pipeworks.
The large-diameter pipes are required
for the onshore part of the pipeline via
Greece. The supply of the pipeline
project will be finished next year.
With the investment in the new large-
diameter pipe mill, Corinth Pipeworks
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

With the investment

in the new large-
diameter pipe mill,
Corinth Pipeworks is
extending its product
range to meet the
growing worldwide
demand for high-
strength pipes for
the extraction and
transit of oil and gas.

Top: The plates are

formed on an 18-m
JCO® short-stroke
press with a pressing
force of 100 MN. The
plant is provided with
an automation pack-
age precisely con-
trolling the forming
via special sensors.
Possible negative
influences caused by
starting material and
operators are thus
minimized.

is extending its product range to meet

the growing worldwide demand for
high-strength pipes for the extraction
and transit of oil and gas. The JCOE®
technology from SMS group enables
Corinth Pipeworks to satisfy high qual-
ity requirements. Pipe dimensions with
high wall thicknesses and small diam-
eters can also be produced in econom-
ic quantities.
On demand, offshore dimensions
up to pipe length of 12 meters are pre-
pared on a GCP® (Gap Closing Press)
for tack welding. The GCP® closing
press reduces the gap without any cy-
cle time loss. In this way, the pipe

83
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Tack welding in the

tack-welding stand
with hydraulic beam
adjustment takes
place with up to 6 m/
min. Two internal
and two external
welding machines
ensure fast final
welding with up to
five welding wires.

can be tack-welded in a safe and precise manner. A ro-
bot-assisted laser measurement system precisely mea-
sures the inner contour of the specially formed open-seam
pipe. The 25-MN press is equipped with DVP hydraulics.
For a customer
statement from World’s first use of new ShapeView system
Apostolos Papavasi- The state-of-the-art JCOE® large-diameter pipe mill from
liou, CEO of Corinth SMS group enables highest technical requirements to be
Pipeworks, please met, and strictest environmental directives and demand-
refer to: ing applications as are demanded by the most important
www.sms-group. oil and gas companies in the offshore industry to be com-
com/nl2016-video- plied with. The plant is provided with the new automation
corinth-pipeworks-en system Shape, precisely controlling the forming process
with the aid of special sensors. Possible negative influ-
ences by the starting material or the operator are thus
minimized. The system consists of the three modular sub-
systems “ShapeBase”, “ShapeView” and “ShapeControl”,
and generally aims at optimally form-
ing longitudinally seam-welded large-
diameter pipes by the JCOE® process.
“ShapeView” was used at CPW for the
first time in the world – enabling an
optimized control of the forming pro-
cess in real time. Therefore, the new
large-diameter pipeline at Corinth
Pipeworks is the most modern in the
world.
Sales
LSAW@sms-group.com

84
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

The JCOE® forming

process is charac-
terized in particular
by its high flexibility

i
and a correspondigly
broad product range
with pipe diameters
ranging from 16 to
64 inches with wall
thicknesses of more Corinth
than 45 mm. Pipeworks
(CPW)

CPW already suc-

cessfully operates
an HFI tube welding
line and a two-stage
spiral pipe plant
from SMS group.
With the new JCOE®
large-diameter pipe
mill, the company
now completes its
production capaci-
ties in the field of
With the automation system Shape the customer is able to make use of the software welded pipes.
proposing standard machine settings. On the other hand, reliable start parameters are
calculated and output based on theses machine parameters.

85
The plant will be built on a 200,000 square meters plot of land in
Kizad and is expected to formally launch operations in 2018.

GROUND BREAKING AT
AL GHARBIA PIPE COMPANY
New large-diameter pipe plant in Abu Dhabi.

Al Gharbia Pipe Company (Al Gharbia), a joint venture be- Procurement, Construction) contract to a consortium formed
tween Senaat, one of the largest industrial holding com- by SMS group and Larsen & Toubro Limited, who will be re-
panies in the UAE, and two of Japan’s leading companies sponsible for constructing the complete LSAW (Longitudinal
in the steel sector; JFE Steel Corporation and Marubeni- Submerged Arc Welded) pipe plant on a turnkey basis.
Itochu Steel Inc. (MISI), broke ground in April in Khalifa
Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad).
Al Gharbia will be the UAE’s first plant capable of man-
ufacturing large-diameter, thick wall, sour service, longi-
tudinally welded steel pipe to service the oil and gas
transportation sector, with the infrastructure and con-
struction sectors as secondary markets.
Once fully operational, production capacity is set to Ground
reach 240,000 tons annually, of which around 40 per cent breaking in
will be exported to neighbouring markets in the GCC and the Khalifa
Industrial
greater Middle East, as well as North and East Africa. The Zone Abu
new line will be designed to make pipes up to 12.2 meters Dhabi (Kizad).
long with an outside diameter ranging from 18 to 56 inch-
es. The maximum wall thickness will be 44.5 millimeters. Sales
In August 2015, Al Gharbia awarded its EPC (Engineering, LSAW@sms-group.com

86
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Cost-efficient production of
premium SBQ products
Qingdao Iron and Steel successfully commissions
SBQ rolling mill from SMS group.

On February 19th, 2016, Qingdao Iron and Steel, based in Qin- Technology module. In addition to these, further modules
gdao in the Chinese province of Shandong, rolled the first bar like the Technological Control System (TCS) and the Con-
on the SBQ (Special Bar Quality) rolling mill supplied by SMS trolled Cooling Technology (CCT®) module provide the pos-
group. The rolling mill is designed to produce premium sibility of online correction of the roll settings and ensure
SBQ products with excellent mechanical properties and op- optimized temperature control in the rolling line.
timized microstructure, while complying with most exact-
ing dimensional tolerances. The first bars were already
rolled with a diameter tolerance better than 1/6 DIN.
The centerpiece of the rolling mill is a 3-roll precision
sizing mill, type PSM® 380/5, which is capable of rolling any
final diameter between 16 and 100 millimeters.
The hydraulic screwdown under rolling load allows any
customized sizes to be economically produced also in small
lots. The 3-roll PSM® features a MEERgauge® system for Sales
cross-section measurements as well as a Monitor Control barandwirerodmills@sms-group.com

The centerpiece of the new rolling mill is the 3-roll precision sizing mill, type PSM® 380/5.

87
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

SMALL STEPS –
BIG IMPACT
An upgrade or elimination of a bottleneck in an existing rolling mill is a demand-
ing task. The challenge is to combine effective solutions with minimum
downtime. Such challenges SMS group accept not only for its own delivered
mills. Some examples show the competence and experience for such small
but effective modifications of the SMS group in the field of Long Products.

DISTRIBUTION GEAR
ArcelorMittal South Africa wanted to
increase the production speed at their
2-strand wire rod mill in Newcastle.
i
The solution was the replacement of
ArcelorMittal
the existing distribution gears of the South Africa
finishing blocks. With the new distri-
bution gears the rolling speed could ArcelorMittal
be increased over 20 percent. The Plant in Newcastle
time frame was eight days during a produces low and
scheduled plant shutdown. Produc- medium carbon
tion resumed 24 hours after comple- commercial grades,
tion. SMS was selected because of the low carbon rimmed
tailored solution with the assurance of steel substitutes,
the success of numerous similar proj- sulphur containing
ects. The new distribution gear ratios free cutting steels,
were carefully selected to enable opti- micro alloyed steels
mization of finishing block speed re- and high carbon wire
quirements with the newly installed rod steels.
AC motors.

Customer benefits:
Improved operation & reduced
maintenance
Lower operating costs
Greater reliability

88
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Standard fan and

high velocity fan air
velocity profile with
3-fan technology.

COOLING FANS
Celsa Atlantic in Spain saw the need to
enhance the product mix of their wire
rod mill in A Coruna.
˜ To achieve this the
i
existing air cooling capacity of the cool-
Celsa Atlantic
ing conveyor had to be upgraded. This A CorUna
has been realized by use of SMS group’s
latest 3-fan technology. This was se- Celsa Atlantic
lected as the most powerful and practi- produces low and
cal solution. This technology assures a medium carbon
cooling performance with optimized air commercial grades
velocity profile across the conveyer for mesh, fencing
width. and fasteners, high
yield strength rebars
Customer benefits:
and higher carbons
Enhanced product portfolio rods up to 8 millime-
Improved control and performance ters diameter.

Reduced operating costs

Greater reliability

89
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

New spindle
. carriers.

SPINDLE CARRIERS
Saudi Iron & Steel (Hadeed) in Saudi
Arabia operates for over 30 years a
SMS Wire Rod and a Bar Mill, both
i
renowned for their continued world
Hadeed Steel
class productivity. The requirement Industries, Al
was to eliminate maintenance issues Jubail
relating to the wire rod mill interme-
diate stand spindle carriers mainly Saudi Arabia based
caused by water ingress into the car- Saudi Iron and Steel
rier bearings. Hadeed wished to use Co. (Hadeed) pro-
the concept installed in the SMS bar duces a wide range
mill and SMS specifically adapted the of flat and long
spindle carrier design for use within Original spindle carriers. products including:
the rod mill location. The design rebar, wire, section,
moved the spindle carrier bearings hot rolled strip, cold
outboard of the stand away from rolled strip, cold
cooling water and incorporated bal- rolled galvanized and
ance weighted bearing housings and cooler coated strip.
controlled disengagement of the cou-
pling box.
Existing mill stand equipment
Customer benefits:
New spindle carriers
Reduced maintenance costs
Greater reliability and mill
availability
Improved productivity

90
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Shear in the
workshop.

sHEAR ARRANGEMENT
Al-Ittefaq Steel decided to replace the
vintage existing shear with new tech-
nology within an enhanced divide and
i
chopping arrangement to improve cut-
Al-Ittefaq
ting repeatability and performance and Steel Products
reduce the maintenance costs. SMS Co. (ISPC)
group replaced the existing shear as-
sembly with a new shear and incorpo- Saudi Arabia based
rated the customer’s preferred dual Al-Ittefaq Steel
drive motor arrangement and knife ad- produces steel
justing technology. The existing con- reinforced bars,
tinuously rotating chopping shear was billets, DRI and
also retained in the new shear ar- downstream
rangement. premium steel.

Customer benefits:
Reduced maintenance costs
Greater reliability
Improved productivity

Steve Briggs New shear

steve.briggs@sms-group.com arrangement.

91
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Modernized reversing
tandem rolling mill for
Hyundai Steel
Commissioning at Pohang site in South Korea took
place two days before scheduled date.

SMS group has modernized the section and rail mill taken
into operation in 1993 after it has been in service for more
than 20 year. The reversing tandem rolling group was
equipped with a complete new automation system and con-
verted to fully hydraulic roll adjustment including axial roll
shifting. In addition to that, the rolled material guide system
was modified, whereby the front part of the rolls and the
program changing time were also improved.
The upgrade became necessary since the old automation
systems for the tandem mill group no longer corresponded
with state-of-the-art technology and major spare parts
could hardly be procured. Moreover, the dimensional ac-
curacy of the final products should be enhanced to keep up
with the increased market demands. Apart from the con-
version of the roll adjustment systems and other key mill
parts such as the axial holding flaps to a new more rigid

92
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Successful produc-
tion of first section
on the upgraded
tandem reversing
rolling mill at Hyun-
dai Steel.

33
days of plant shutdown were needed during
the comprehensive modernization.

system with improved functionality, the complete automa- Conversion-adapted engineering, just-
tion system as well as large parts of the converter units and in-time delivery of plant components,
the MCC switchgears were renewed by SMS. The aim was detailed and reliable planning of as-
to replace two MMC multiprocessor controls, altogether sembly work and commissioning to-
seven S5 controls and the Coros visualization system by an gether with the corresponding imple-
advanced PC- based TCS and two modern S7 controls. mentation by our qualified staff in close
Plant visualization now runs on an InTouch platform where cooperation with the customer under-
error messages of the whole rolling mill come together. lines the competence of SMS group for
sophisticated conversion projects.
ENHANCING GEOMETRICAL TOLERANCES On the following pages you will find
Many different interfaces to the old remaining controls further examples of upgraded section
posed a special challenge. The plant-wide SinecH1 bus as and billet mills.
well as the safe communication with the main drives con-
trolled by means of Simadyn-D had to be secured. Another
highlight is the newly developed minimum tension control.
Thanks to this method, the customer is able to achieve
high dimensional accuracy required already at the material
head, particularly during rail production.
Through the modernization the geometrical tolerances
of the finished products such as beams, rails, sheet piles
and special sections were improved. Beams may now be
produced with a tolerance of ½ JIS.
This comprehensive modernization was realized during
a scheduled plant shutdown in only 33 days. The timetable
was meticulously kept and could even be shortened so that Elmar Krieg
the plant was available already two days ahead of schedule. elmar.krieg@sms-group.com

93
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Low
investment –
high
efficiency
New continuous roughing line at Saarstahl.

Particularly at the present time, new Renewed

plants often do not suit the budget of a compa-
ny. In the course of modernization measures,
roughing line
existing facilities may be provided with state-
of-the-art technology. Customer: Saarstahl AG, Germany

Objectives: Major modernization goals

are quality assurance and flexibility to
But even smaller investments can be highly effective and make an ex- be able to respond to customer wishes
isting plant more efficient. Carrying out modernization work does not from the automotive industries and the
automatically mean to stop production for a longer period. Here, indi- mechanical engineering sector.
vidual solutions help to minimize production downtimes.
Together with the customer the possibilities of modernization mea- Measure: A new seven-stand roughing
sures are discussed. Upgrade packages of SMS group range from line replaces the old blooming stand
technical upgrade up to complex revamping. SMS experts work closely built in 1962. A real challenge: large-
with the customer on site to meet the challenges which such modern- scale modernization during ongoing
izations involve. Please find below some examples of successful mod- production. Saarstahl and SMS have
ernizations for section and billet mills. jointly developed a concept managing
the upgrade of the rolling mill in Völklin-
gen without production downtimes. To
do this, a bypass was installed on the

i
site. Specially installed turntables and
roller tables directed the billets from
BENEFITS the furnace to the existing blooming
stand. Shorter cycle times and faster
Modernizations offer high efficiency product changes were made possible by
a high level of automation.
Extension of complete plant’s service life
Extension of product range
Extension of maintenance cycles
Automation of processes
Saving valuable resources
Increase in plant performance
Reduction of emissions
Increase in plant availability

94

Economic rail production – thanks to univer-
sal rolling method.
Revamped
rail mill
Customer: ArcelorMittal, Spain
Objectives: Changing the rolling
method from the conventional two-
high to a more economic universal
rolling method. This reduces pro-
duction costs and improves dimen-
sional accuracy and surface proper-
ties. In addition, the product range is
extended and rails up to 108 meters
are produced.
Measure: The core of the moderniza-
tion is the installation of a working
group, consisting of a universal and an
edging stand. They come with CCS®
stands (Compact Cartridge Stand)
which are employed in numerous sec-
tion and rail mills. The existing finish-
ing stand is additionally replaced by a
universal stand. For the planned con-
version measures only standard down-
times are used.
Continuous operation at Trinecke Zelezarny.
New bloom-
ing mill
Customer: Trinecke Zelezarny,
Czech Republic
Objectives: Extension of plant’s service
life, maintaining continuous operation.
Measure: Replacement of the existing
blooming mill by a new two-high re-
versing blooming mill stand and instal-
lation of a hydraulic bloom shear with a
shear force of 1,100 tons.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
World’s largest sheet piles produced at
ArcelorMittal.
Replacement
of straightener
Customer: ArcelorMittal,
Luxembourg
Objectives: The new machine enables
the straightening of the largest sheet
piles worldwide und thus extends the
product range. The twin-bearing con-
struction achieves better straighten-
ing results for extra wide sections.
Measure: During a downtime period
of just four and a half weeks the exist-
ing straightener was dismantled and
the new CRS® straightening machine
for sheet piles with double-sided
bearings was set up. The supply
package included the mechanics, the
electrics and the automation, the me-
dia systems and the complete chang-
ing facilities for the straightening roll
change. All nine rolls can be changed
at the same time in less than 40 min-
utes by a manipulator. To achieve this,
the column on the operating side can
be extended. The new facilities were
tested and examined beforehand by
means of a simulation to make sure
that commissioning was possible in
this narrow time fame.
95
 Well planned
with simulations
More safety, shorter conversion phases and well trained personnel –
simulations make modernizations easier in many ways.

The modernization project at ArcelorMittal in Luxembourg

shows the advantages of simulating a revamp. In virtual re-
ality to visualize, design and evaluate machine components,
SMS group adopts an approach allowing direct intercon-
nection of virtual projects with planning and simulation
tools. Therefore, it was possible to provide ArcelorMittal
with a comprehensive insight into the machines and the
whole production facility and to test real material flow pro-
cesses with real force feedback. Simulation tests were ap-
plied from the first discussion up to plant acceptance.
What will be offered by simulations for planning
activities:
Safety in project planning and implementation
Short conversion phase and fast commissioning
Tested and perfectly functioning software
Training of plant operators in advance
i BENEFITS
Simulations are available for the following application
possibilities:
 upport for layout planning. The design engineer inspects
S
the plant.
Material flow simulation. By means of modular modules
(buffer sizes, roller tables, and others) the material flow in
the production plant is examined and optimized.
 upport for detail engineering. Design engineer is provid-
S
ed with in-depth information on arrangement of compo-
nents. This particular three-dimensional visual impression
is impossible in a conventional screen view.
Installation and assembly information. In particular, the
accessibility can be checked.
Simulation of production operation and logistics. Process
es and process chains can be mapped and varied.
 raining and education. Operating, erection and mainte-
T
nance staff can be trained in advance.

Elmar Krieg
elmar.krieg@sms-group.com

96

Revamp within short time und during
ongoing production
Deutsche Edelstahlwerke DEW put new cooling bed on stream.
The tension of all those involved in the project was high
when the first rolled bars reached the cooling bed in the
rolling mill of Deutsche Edelstahlwerke Siegen, following
four years of planning and only seven weeks of implemen-
tation. Everybody was therefore very relieved when the
bars were sliding through the roller table as planned
where they were carefully slowed down and lifted onto the
rake-type bed in a controlled manner. Premiere success-
fully completed – the modernized cooling bed was taken
into operation.
It took only two regular maintenance shutdowns to install
the new cooling bed. The internationally operating producer
of special steel long products now runs a plant designed for
bars in the size range from 20 to 90 millimeters.
The new cooling bed allows closer length tolerances and
higher quality surfaces of the produced steel bars and en-
sures much better straightness of the products due to more
even cooling of the bars. Consequently, the expenditure in
the subsequent finishing section is reduced significantly.
Cooling bed on
delivery side.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
“The new cooling bed enables us to once again significantly
improve the quality of our rolled products so that we are
from now on excellently positioned to meet the growing de-
mands of our customers,” rolling mill manager Dr. Thomas
Helsper is pleased. In this way, the new plant ensures for
example higher bar surface quality. “Especially in the auto-
motive industry surface scoring is an absolute no-go,” adds
Dr. Helsper.
REVAMP IN ONLY SEVEN WEEKS
For the extensive construction measures there was a total
of just seven weeks available to the project team of SMS
group. “To make sure that Deutsche Edelstahlwerke was
able to continue supplying its customer without any restric-
tions the regular maintenance shutdowns had to be suffi-
cient for the implementation. This means a tight schedule,
because normally we rather calculate three months for
such projects. Good planning was therefore in demand,”
project manager Stefan Schulte of SMS group reports.
During a three-week shut down in summer 2014 all ex-
isting plant components of the cooling bed were dismantled
and reassembled to be able to complete most of the foun-
dation and cable duct work. During the summer shut down
in 2015 seven excavators were employed which demolished
the old facilities within six days. The foundations still miss-
ing were built in parallel to the demolition. The individual
components of the new equipment reached the plant in
Siegen on 39 trucks and 18 heavy-duty transport vehicles
– a logistical masterpiece. “We were glad to have SMS as an
experienced partner on our side,” praised rolling mill man-
ager Dr. Thomas Helsper.
This conversion demonstrates the competence of SMS
group for most demanding reconstructions and moderniza-
tions during ongoing production.
Sales
barandwirerodmills@sms-group.com
97
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Largest front-load-
ing extrusion press
built by SMS group
with a pressing force
of 160 MN.

98
 EXTRUSION ON AN
XXL SCALE
Largest extrusion press built by SMS has started production.
99
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
»We have had very good experience with the availability, productivity and
precision of the tube press supplied by SMS group. That was one of the reasons
why we also decided in favor of SMS for the two new orders.«
Wang Min, owner of Jilin Liyuan.
The 160-MN press will be used in particular for the extru-
sion of large profiles of medium-hard aluminum alloys that
are used for new high-speed trains and other rail-bound
vehicles. The benefits: thanks to the large profiles, less
welding work is necessary during wagon construction, sta-
bility is increased whilst reducing the weight. The front-
loading press processes billets with a diameter of 720 mil-
limeters, a length of 2,500 millimeters and a weight of 2,750
kilograms. They are used for the production of profiles with
widths of up to 800 millimeters and lengths of up to 35 me-
ters. SMS group had already supplied a 45-MN direct/indi-
rect tube press to Jilin Liyuan in 2011. Wang Min, owner of
Jilin Liyuan, says: “We have had very good experience with
the availability, productivity and precision of the tube press
supplied by the SMS group in 2011. That was one of the
reasons why we decided in favor of SMS for the two new
orders. Of particular note are the vast experience and the
engineering know-how for the 160-MN press. Like us, SMS
group has special knowledge of the process technology for
the production of extremely wide profiles. It is therefore the
right partner for us because we have very high expectations
and SMS has succeeded in converting our requirements
into solutions.”
INCREASING COMPETITIVENESS
With the second new press – a 36-MN direct/indirect tube
press – Jilin Liyuan is expanding its product spectrum in the
field of seamless tubes. The new press allows the processing
of billets of high-strength aluminum alloys weighing 300 ki-
lograms with a diameter of 322 millimeters and a length of
1,350 millimeters. They are used to extrude special tubes for
applications in power stations and in oil and gas exploration,
as well as profiles for the electronics and automotive indus-
try. The SMS press is also characterized by its high flexibility.
In direct extrusion mode, Jilin Liyuan can also produce nor-
mal profiles.
100
All press lines supplied by SMS group at Jilin Liyuan have
been equipped with up-to-date induction furnaces for billet
preheating by IAS GmbH which also belongs to SMS group.
Multi-zone IGBT converters of the latest generation have
been installed in the 160-MN and 36-MN lines’ furnace in-
stallations to fulfill the high process requirements concern-
ing temperature control in a precise way. This was an im-
portant aspect to receive the acceptances after a short
time. A loss-reduced coil design reduces energy consump-
tion of the high performance plants by up to 20 percent
compared to conventional installations.
For the largest extrusion press built by SMS the installed
capacity for each furnace installation is 2.4 MW and it pro-
vides special billet handling to transport the unit weights of
2.75 tons within the plant in a surface-protecting manner.
With the two new presses, Jilin Liyuan, as one of the
leading producers of extruded aluminum profiles and
tubes, is expanding its product portfolio in China particu-
larly in the high-grade and profitable special segments,
and is thus increasing its competitiveness. Project man-
ager Klaus Fußbroich SMS group says: “The cooperation
with the customer was very harmonious and marked by
close partnership. Thanks to the good coordination, com-
missioning of both presses was successful and we received
the final acceptance certificate already after a short time,
as all the agreed products and alloys as well as the quality
and production targets were achieved to the fullest satis-
faction of the customer.”
Klaus Fußbroich
klaus.fussbroich@sms-group.com
 Ecomelt-PR80 Multi
Chamber Melting Fur-
nace at TALEX, UAE.

TALEX casthouse –
successful start of
operation
The new TALEX extrusion plant in Abu Dhabi operates using its own extrusion
billet. The casthouse, which started operating in February 2016, was built as a
turnkey plant by Hertwich Engineering, a subsidiary of the SMS group.

101
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

For more than forty years the industrial zone in Abu Dhabi
has been the country’s fastest-growing economic area. Its
current expansion projects include a new extrusion plant.
The operator of the new plant is Taweelah Aluminium Ex-
trusion company (TALEX) LLC, which was founded in May
2011 as a joint venture between SENAAT Industrial Holding
(formerly Abu Dhabi Basic Industries) and Gulf Extrusions.
The investment follows the trend for the high-performing
smelting industries in the Gulf Region countries to expand
into downstream activities (value added material). In fact,
and not least because of the dynamic building boom, the
Gulf Region has developed to become one of the centers of
worldwide extrusion production.

HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCTS FOR SPECIAL DEMANDS

In the first expansion stage TALEX set up two extrusion
lines and a casthouse for extrusion billets. Besides stan-
dard extrusion applications the new TALEX extrusion plant
will also produce high-grade extruded products for special
requirements in the automobile industry.
For the construction of the entire casthouse complex the
Austrian company Hertwich Engineering was awarded the
contract. After the first expansion stage (now completed)
the annual output of the casthouse will be around 30,000 to
40,000 tons of extrusion billets.
At TALEX an “Ecomelt-PR 80” (melting performance of 4
t/h) two-chamber furnace with a preheat ramp was in-
stalled, which is particularly suitable for melting post-con-
sumer scrap containing moderate amounts of Volatile Or- Before entering the homogenising fur-
ganic Compounds (V.O.C). The concept is based on a nace, each individual log is checked for
multi-chamber furnace in which the processes of preheat- centre cracks by ultrasonic inspection.
ing, gasification of organics and melting are combined in a Defective logs are rejected ahead of
single unit. the furnace.
The melt is transferred via a launder system from the In this first expansion TALEX opted
Ecomelt melting furnace to the holding and casting fur- for continuous homogenising. In the
nace. The molten metal from there is sent to the casting continuous homogenizing furnace,
station via the I-60 SIR inline degassing and filtration units. since by virtue of the design, each
For degassing, filtration and the VDC casting process TAL- individual log is heated in exactly
EX decided in favour of Hycast technology. The vertically the same way and thus a reliable,
cast logs are lifted out of the casting pit by a crane and laid uniform and controlled temperature
down at a transfer station. adjustment throughout the entire ho-

102
 Vertical Casting
Machine in the
front, Continuous
Homogenizing and
Sawing Plant in the
background.

mogenising charge is achieved. Fur-
thermore, the heating of each individ-
ual log can be accurately controlled.
For cooling, an air-cooling station
matched to the alloy mix is used.
AUTOMATED SCRAP DISPOSAL
The cooling station is followed by the
saw for cutting off the head and butt
ends to produce long billets between
4,000 – 7,500 millimeters. The cut bil-
lets are transported by a further roller
table to a stacking machine and from
there, finally, to a semi-automatic strapping station and on-
ward to a weighing machine. The scrap produced at the saw
is also disposed automatically: the swarf is drawn off by
suction and briquetted while all the scrap is returned to the
melting furnace. The plant has been designed for the sub-
sequent integration of a second casting furnace and a
batch-type homogenising unit. With this equipment, the
plant’s planned capacity and alloy variation will be reached
in the final stage.
www.hertwich.com

103
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
buntmetall amstetten
orders extrusion press
and billet heater
SMS group to deliver the perfectly harmonized plants.
Austria-based buntmetall amstetten GmbH, a leading pro-
ducer of semi-finished and finished parts made of copper
and copper alloys in Europe, has placed an order with SMS
group for the supply of a 50-MN extrusion press for NF
metals and an inductive billet heater to be installed up-
stream of the press.
The new 50-MN extrusion press will replace the existing
25-MN SMS-Schloemann extrusion press built in 1961. The
new press and its ability to handle higher input weights will
provide buntmetall amstetten the possibility to boost the
productivity of its operations and further expand its range of
“specialty” products.
FULLY AUTOMATED OPERATION
The extrusion press will come with fully automatic handling
equipment. All manual activities will in future be performed
by an industrial robot. The billet heater, to be installed up-
50-MN extrusion press for non-ferrous metals complete with fully
automatic handling unit designed by the SMS group.
104
90
stream of the press, will consist of four
vertical induction furnaces, which will
be supplied by the SMS group company
IAS, based in Iserlohn, Germany. Heat-
ing the billets in vertical induction fur-
naces is an innovative approach which
allows to bring also difficult-to-heat
percent of the prod-
alloys to the required pressing temper-
ucts made in Austria
ature within a narrow tolerance range.
are exported.
Commissioning of the extrusion
press and the billet heater is scheduled
to take place in spring 2017.
At its Amstetten works, buntmetall
produces tubes, bars, rods, wires and
profiles made of copper and copper al-
loys. The products are used in sectors
as wide ranging as facilities engineer-
ing, solar systems engineering, heating
and air conditioning equipment, me-
chanical and plant engineering, electri-
cal engineering, the aviation and auto-
motive industries, ship building and
offshore technology, and even comput-
er technology and advanced supracon-
ductors. The Austria-based company
exports 90 percent of its products.
Bernhard Steinert
bernhard.steinert@sms-group.com
Rubrik — Unterrubrik
25 Years Partnership between
EGA and Hertwich
Hertwich Engineering (HE) has become the technology and
market leader in the business sector of melting, heat treat-
ment and recycling technology for aluminium. On the way
to this success, the trustful collaboration with Dubai Alu-
minium (DUBAL), now an operating subsidiary of Emirates
Global Aluminium (EGA) and referred to as EGA Jebel Ali,
has been extremely helpful. On the occasion of the 25th an-
niversary of the partnership, both parties met for a joint
celebration in Dubai.
In the past two and a half decades, EGA Jebel Ali has
become one of the largest and most efficient primary alu-
minium smelters in the world, producing more than one
million tonnes of aluminum per year. Together with Emir-
ates Aluminium (EMAL), another EGA subsidiary referred to
as EGA Al Taweelah, EGA today has a production capacity of
2.4 million tons per annum, accounting for around 5 per-
cent of smelter production worldwide. Almost half of EGA’s
annual production is processed into billets for extrusion
and forging.
COOPERATION WITH EGA JEBEL ALI CONVERTS MARKET
For Hertwich, the collaboration with EGA Jebel Ali has been
valuable in many respects. In the field of Heat Treatment of
extrusion billets, Hertwich has successfully developed new
concepts to reduce energy consumption and thus also emis-
sions, achieve a uniform temperature distribution inside the
furnace, which is a pre-condition for quality products; and
inspect the material for center cracks and inclusions. The
whole heat treatment process including Ultrasonic Testing,
Sawing and Packing has been integrated in a fully automat-
ed production process by Hertwich.
In order to establish these new technologies on the ini-
tially sceptical market, EGA Jebel Ali has been a helpful
partner. Only when EGA Jebel Ali, as one of the leading cast-
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Left to right: Fadi Awadhalla (EGA), Mo-
hamed Nagib (EGA), Walid Al Attar (EGA),
Franz Niedermair (Hertwich Engineering).
houses worldwide, decided to install the Hertwich Technol-
ogy and showed the expected results, competitors followed.
This happened in 1994, when EGA Jebel Ali successfully
commissioned the first Hertwich Continuous Homogeniz-
ing Plant including two sawing machines. Thereafter, a se-
ries of notable aluminium producers ventured to invest in
the new technology: Comalco and Boyne in Australia, NZAS
in New Zealand, ALCOA (previously Eastalco and Intalco) in
the USA, Alba, and others. Since then, more than 120 con-
tinuous homogenizing units have been installed, and around
60 percent of all billets for extrusion produced today are ho-
mogenised using these units.
CONVINCING NEW BATCH FURNACE CONCEPT
The development of the new batch furnace concept (reverse
air) by HE was not very different. Again EGA Jebel Ali was
the first company to venture onto this new ground. Having
witnessed the advantages of the new batch furnace con-
cept, other notable casthouses have selected it as well. In
2016, three plants of this type are to be commissioned.
In total the production of the homogenising units installed
by HE at EGA’s two operating subsidiaries amounts to more
than one million tons per year. A total of six continuous fur-
naces and the same number of batch homogenising fur-
naces have been installed, including numerous auxiliary
units such as charging machines, sawing and ultrasonic
inspection equipment, briquetting presses and much more.
There are also two horizontal continuous-casting lines with
a total capacity of 130,000 tons.
105
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

SMS group also supplies

extrusion line No. 5 and 6
to Al Taiseer
The leading producer of aluminum profiles is all set to meet
the growing demand in GCC countries.

106
 sms group newsletter
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
03/ 2016

Since aluminum production started in the Gulf region in

the early 1970’s the GCC countries (Gulf Cooperation
Council) very soon became a key market for aluminum ex-
i DatA
trusion presses in the range of 5 to 12 inch. First SMS
press lines have been delivered back in the 1980’s when The main data of the state-of-
the demand for extrusions for building & construction the-art front-loading presses are:
started to grow in the area. Today in the GCC countries
Pressing force 27 MN
approximately 55 extrusion companies are operating 130
Billet diameter 8 inch
presses and producing about 500,000 tons per year of alu-
Maximum billet length 1,300 mm
minium extrusions.
Maximum profile weight 15 kg/m
The driver for the extrusion market in the Gulf area is
Energy efficient inverter-drives for
building and construction however also automotive extru- all pumps
sions and heavier profiles for railway or industrial applica-
tions are being extruded.

107
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Top: Discharge
table of the
extrusion line.

Bottom: Puller,
run-out and
cooling table.

108

Al Taiseer processes on all six
extrusion lines 8-inch Blocks.
One of the key account customers in the region is Al
Taiseer Aluminium Company in Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia. This
modern, family-owned enterprise is one of the top-level
extruders of the GCC countries. Operating already four
modern 8-inch SMS-Schloemann extrusion lines, Al Tai-
seer ordered two additional 25/27 MN (8 inch) extrusion
lines to fulfil the continuously growing demand from the
market. Both lines are installed, commissioned and in op-
eration now.
RELIABLE PARTNER SMS GROUP
Al Taiseer’s vice president Nasser Al Fattouh justifies his
repeated order to SMS: “22 years ago we received our
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
first press from SMS. In the whole
time we could rely on the good quality
and precision. Plus the service, which
is of course important. We all find
this with SMS.”
The run-out systems of the extru-
sion lines as well as the energy effi-
cient log heaters are made by OMAV
S.p.A., Italy and meet perfectly the
high demands that a modern extrusion
handling system has to fulfil.
IAS GmbH, a member of the SMS
group, delivered the two TEM-PRO
109
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Right: Moving cross-

head with linear
precision guiding.

Bottom: Al Taiseer,
a leading extruder of
the GCC countries.

110
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

»Now we have press one, two, three and four … and

we are expanded with press five and six successfully
at the same time. We ordered all from SMS.
We get a good quality of all the machines plus
the good service from the SMS team.«

Nasser Al Fattouh, Vice President Al Taiseer.

A video on this proj-

ect under:
www.sms-group.
Heaters®. These temperature profile heating systems
generate a temperature profile (taper) in the billet und thus
ensure a precise temperature control during extrusion.
i Overview
com/nl2016-video- Regarding energy efficiency, productivity, ease of oper-
el-taiseer-en ation and overall reliability the new equipment is setting Project history – Al Taiseer
new benchmarks. So these two extrusion lines are excel-
 994: delivery of a 24 MN extru-
1
lent examples of SMS group’s full-line approach for alu- sion line, one of the very first SMS
minum extrusion plants combining the top class SMS presses in the GCC countries
frontloading press with market leading European equip- 2000: delivery of a 2nd 24 MN
ment – thus offering the customer a best-of-class solu- extrusion line
tion for his specific tasks.  004: installation of line no. 3 with
2
a 27 MN press – the first SMS
front-loader in the region
 008: installation of line no. 3 with
2
a 27 MN press – the first SMS
front-loader in the region
 013: the customer has expanded
2
with a new factory building for an
additional modern powder coating
plant and space for 2 more extru-
sion lines
 015/16: line nos. 5 & 6 are in
2
operation
Axel Bauer
axel.bauer@sms-group.com

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sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Second Compact Type Remelt Plant for SCM
Hertwich Engineering supplies new plant to produce billets for extrusion.
The company Service Center Metals (SCM), USA, founded in
2002, operates two extrusion lines. For the recycling of
scrap – both its own and from outside – to produce billet for
extrusion in its own presses, in 2014 SCM set up a first
compact type remelt plant with an output of at least 30,000
tons per year. Hertwich Engineering has been building and
continuously developing plants of this type since the 1980s.
For SCM a plant configuration has been set up, which is
unique in many respects and clearly operating to the cus-
tomer’s complete satisfaction. Now Hertwich has received
an order to supply a further compact type remelt plant for
post-consumer scrap.
The new plant, with a capacity of 45,000 tons per year,
combines all the working steps, from melting the scrap to
the bundled logs, in one, continuous material flow process.
MINIMUM OXIDATION LOSSES
The scrap is melted in an Ecomelt PS type melting fur-
nace. In this modern furnace version the preheat chamber
is replaced by a vertical preheat shaft. The material is
loaded into the preheat shaft from above. Hot gases are
circulated through the scrap in upward direction, whereby
the organic compounds are gasified. Produced pyrolysis
gases are fed into the main chamber and combusted. At
the lower end of the preheat shaft, the preheated material
submerges into a flowing melt bath and is melted. For
generating the necessary melt flow between the chambers
a liquid metal pump is used. Due to submersion melting,
oxidation losses are minimal.
The melt drawn off from the furnace is degassed, fil-
tered, and conveyed to two horizontal continuous casting
units arranged parallel to one another. The maximum log
112
diameter amounts to 14 inches (record-breaking for hori-
zontal casting) and – as another special feature – it is pos-
sible to cast two different diameters at the same time. The
casting technology for logs of 14 inches in diameter was
used for the first time by SCM in 2014.
The solidified logs are cut by a flying saw, laid on a stor-
age conveyor and then tested for internal cracks and inclu-
sions. The 100-percent ultrasonic inspection takes place in
two units, each with three testing probes. Any defects
found are marked and if necessary cut off after the ho-
mogenising process.
The tested logs are homogenised continuously. Continu-
ous homogenisation is noted for its precise and uniform
temperature control during heating and holding. This guar-
antees constant optimal metallurgical properties. A further
advantage is that the energy consumption and the treat-
ment time are substantially more favourable than with the
conventional batch furnaces previously used.
The cooling station is located immediately after the ho-
mogenizing furnace. After having passed through it the
logs can be cut to length, stacked and strapped – these
work steps are also integrated in the automated produc-
tion process.
Sales
info@hertwich.com

COMMISSIONING AT
Eti Alüminyum
The modern plant was supplied by Hertwich.
In March 2016, Hertwich Engineering successfully commis-
sioned a continuous homogenizing plant with a capacity of
118,000 tons per year at the Seydisehir
¸ plant of Eti Alüminy-
um A.S.,
¸ Turkey.
With a major investment the Turkish company Eti
Alüminyum, a subsidiary of Cengiz Holding, is building a
fully integrated billet production facility for the extrusion
industry at its Seydisehir
¸ plant.
The new electrolysis plant is under construction, and
the casthouse, which started operating in 2008, is cur-
rently being extended. Currently around 130 Turkish ex-
trusion plants are operating a total of 230 extrusion lines.
PRECISE TEMPERATURE CONTROL
In the context of this project Eti Alüminyum has placed an
order with Hertwich for the supply of a state-of-the-art
Continuous homog-
enizing plant at Eti
Alüminyum A.S.,
¸ Turkey.
¸
continuous homogenizing, sawing and packing plant for
118,000 tons per year of extrusion billets. The new plant
was commissioned in March 2016 and processes logs
from two casting pits with diameters of 152, 178 and 203
millimeters. It is designed to enable rapid diameter
change and is noted for precise temperature control in the
holding section of the furnace. Overall, the scope of the
delivery includes a saw, the homogenizing furnace with
air cooling station and a semi-automatic strapping ma-
chine for bundling the homogenized billets.
Sales
info@hertwich.com
113
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Hindalco Industries
relies on Hertwich Contin-
uous HOMOGENIZING
Extrusion billets have to pass a heat treatment process before they are
going to be extruded in a press. For this process, Hertwich Engineering supplies
Continuous Homogenizing Furnaces, which are established worldwide.
For the production of extrusion billets
at its newly built plant in Madhya
Pradesh, Hindalco Industries decided
in favour of heat treatment in a con-
tinuous homogenizing furnace. The
continuous homogenizing and sawing
plant for billets (diameter range 178 to
229 mm) has a capacity of 64,000 tons
per year and is the fourth such unit
supplied by Hertwich to India.
Hindalco Industries Ltd., which be-
longs to the Aditya Birla Group in In-
dia, employs around 20,000 people
and has a turnover of almost 15 billion
US $ per year, making it one of India’s
Continuous homogenizing furnace
with log entry store magazine
(foreground) and the homogeniz-
ing furnace (background).
largest companies in the raw materi-
als sector. To extend its pre-material
basis Hindalco has supplemented the
Renukoot smelter in Uttar Pradesh
with a newly built Mahan plant in Bar-
gawan, Madhya Pradesh. The new
plant, which also produces pre-mate-
rial for the company’s own extrusion
plants, began operating in 2013.
REPLACEMENT OF BATCH FURNACES
When setting up the billet production
facility the management decided
against the batch furnaces used ex-
clusively until then and gave prefer-
ence to a continuous homogenising
concept by Hertwich. The unit has
been commissioned in March 2015.
The cast billets pass along a visual
inspection line which is presently up-
graded by an ultrasonic testing unit to
detect centre cracks inside the logs.
Then the head and butt ends are
cropped off, again as part of the auto-
mated process.
The cropped billets are transferred
to the homogenising furnace via a
buffer storage magazine. First they
are heated to the specified ho-
mogenising temperature in the heat-
ing zone. In the subsequent holding
area of the furnace the material is
kept at that temperature for 2 to 6
hours depending on alloy. Cooling
takes place in the associated air cool-
ing station. The cooling rate can be
adjusted within a wide range (350 to
around 550 °C/hour), sufficient to cov-
er all the homogenizing recipes that
may be called for during operation.
Thereby heat treatment parameters
are determined and documented for
each individual log.

South Africa expands Aluminium recycling
Hulamin Ltd., South Africa, successfully commissioned an
Ecomelt PS 250 recycling furnace with an initial capacity of 50,000 tons
per year manufactured by Hertwich Engineering.
The Ecomelt Melting Technology developed by Hertwich En-
gineering (a subsidiary of SMS group) has established
worldwide. The furnace at Hulamin is one of the most pow-
erful furnaces among 30 similar furnaces delivered to date.
Today, Hulamin Ltd., located in Pietermaritzburg, South Af-
rica, is the most important producer of aluminium semis in
South Africa. As local can makers and fillers are more and
more converting their lines to use aluminium can stock and
Hulamin will recycle the Used Beverage Cans (UBC’s) back
into salable goods, recycling capacities had to be expanded.
Therefore the company ordered an Ecomelt-PS 250 recy-
cling furnace from Hertwich Engineering. Meanwhile, after
an installation time of only 6 months, the furnace has been
successfully commissioned in record-breaking time.
DECOATING AND MELTING IN A SINGLE STEP
In the traditional method for can scrap recycling, the scrap
is freed from paint and adhering contaminants in a sepa-
rate process before melting. The decoating takes place in a
drum furnace or conveyor-belt furnace, with after-burning
of the resulting volatiles. Typically, the paint-free cans are
then melted in a sidewell melting furnace.
The system developed by Hertwich, namely the Ecomelt-
PS melting furnace, combines the separate operations of
Ecomelt-PS 250
melting furnace at
Hulamin, Pieter-
maritzburg.
decoating and melting into a single, continuous working
process in which the energy content of the pyrolysis gases
is used for heating the furnace.
i Facts
The furnace installed in Pietermaritzburg meets all
criteria concerning melting performance, energy
consumption, melt loss and emissions.
 he material mix provided, consisting of contaminated
T
scrap can material (up to 65 percent) and thin-walled
production scrap can be processed without problems.
 he specific energy consumption has been reduced by
T
almost 50 percent.
 ltimately, the same applies to the net melt loss values.
U
Results up to now prove that values lower than 3 percent
are achieved.
 inimal emissions (NOx, dioxins, VOC, no salts) and lower
M
fuel consumption, which results in lower CO2 emissions,
contribute to environment-friendly furnace operation.
115
Rubrik  sms group newsletter 02 / 2016

Helical Ultrasonic Testing Station

at Impol d.o.o., Slovenia.

Impol is further extend-

ing its semis capacity
Hertwich Engineering has successfully commissioned a Continuous Homgenizing
and Sawing Plant for extrusion billets at Impol d.o.o., located in Slovenska
Bistrica, Slovenia. As scheduled, the plant has been commissioned in spring 2016.

Impol is a major European supplier of extruded and rolled

products and forgings. Today, with 1,850 employees the
Group achieves a yearly turnover of almost 500 million euros.
i Impol
Its annual production volume amounts to some 180,000 tons.
The contract for the new continuous homogenizing plant The equipment supplied
is part of an investment project with which the group aims includes:
to boost its casthouse capacity by 15 percent. The new plant
 continuous homogenizing
A
supplements an existing Hertwich plant commissioned in furnace with an associated cool-
the early 1990s. It has a capacity of 43,500 tons per year and ing station
is designed for billets up to 305 millimeters in diameter.  downstream helical ultrasonic
A
The new homogenizing unit is installed directly adjacent inspection station

to the existing plant. In principle the two plants are operat-  he saw for cutting off the head
T
and butt ends and if necessary for
ing independently of one another, but they are linked to cutting out defective sections
each other by a conveyor. A packing system, consisting
of a billet stacker and automatic
strapping

Sales
info@hertwich.com

116
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Pandolfo extends
its homogenizing capacity
Pandolfo Alluminio S.p.A., a leading Italian extrusion plant, has placed an order
with Hertwich Engineering for the supply of a modern Batch Homogenizing Fur-
nace for extrusion billets. Its commissioning is scheduled for August 2016.

Pandolfo has been operating a Hert-
wich continuous homogenizing unit for
50,000 tons per year in its casthouse in
Maniago since 2010. To increase its ca-
pacity by 35,000 tons per year this unit is
to be supplemented by a batch-type ho-
mogenizing unit – also from Hertwich.
The new batch furnace will mainly
be used for homogenizing special al-
loys, which favour a batch homogeniz-
ing operation due to frequent pro-
gramme changes. The diameter range
processed extends from 178 millime-
ters to 482 millimeters. The produc-
tion programme demands particularly
precise temperature control in the fur-
nace and rapid cooling, even for the
larger billet cross-sections.
OPTION FOR FURTHER EQUIPMENT
The new contract includes a batch ho-
mogenizing furnace, the cooling sta-
tion and a fully automatic stacking
machine with spacer handling. In this
first extension step only one furnace is
envisaged, but its arrangement will
leave open the possibility of adding a
second batch furnace.
In this case the new batch furnace will
work with an existing saw and packing
system, which until now have only
been occupied by the continuous ho-
mogenizing furnace. By means of an
additional conveyor, the homogenized
and cooled billets will be transferred to
the feed roller track of the saw. Pan-
dolfo has therefore chosen to use the
option of operating a continuous ho-
mogenizing and a batch homogenizing
furnace in conjunction or tandem op-
eration with one another.

Example of a Hertwich
batch homogenizing
unit.

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sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

X-Pact® Vision – operation

and visualization
Responding to the constant advance of digitization and the growing
degree of automation, SMS group has redesigned its operating and visualization
concept, which is now called X-Pact® Vision. The concept is also conveniently
applicable to any plant configuration in a modernization project.

118
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

X-Pact® Vision Control

Station: the DAVID
discussion pulpit
(Data Analysis and Vi-
sion Desk).

X-Pact® Vision HMI

of SMS group: the
operator is in the focus
of attention.

i
With this new Vision concept, SMS group is setting a semi- The structure is clear and the mask Tom
nal benchmark in visualizing complex process interactions, layout purposeful. Thus the operators
while focusing on the needs of the human operator. Plant can easily focus on and get a clear Based on new mo-
operation has been redefined in order to comply with the view of the production process. Pieces bile solutions, SMS
requirements of modern, highly automated plants. Process of information are grouped in a mean- group has developed
information is accessible at any place and time thanks to ingful way. This allows the screen the Technical Opera-
the web-based reporting function of X-Pact® Vision. With masks to be reduced to the essential tion Management –
mobile devices, the process results can be evaluated in a and create an intuitive structure, pro- TOM for short. This
highly intuitive, secure and time-saving way, providing po- viding both high transparency and enables the operator
tential for process optimization. easy orientation. to record notes and
Last but not least, intuitive naviga- peculiarities on the
X-Pact® Vision HMI: Plant operation made easy tion through the various available dis- production process
Controlling the extremely complex production processes in plays and menus, the vast possibilities without paper, using
metallurgical plants and rolling mills demands a lot of the of customization as well as the con- an intuitive touch
operating personnel. In order for operators to be able to text-based operator guidance perfect display, which facili-
react swiftly and take the correct decision also in critical this concept. The outstanding user tates quick entries
situations, they must have access to all information rele- friendliness of SMS group’s HMI solu- by means of pre-
vant to them and their jobs. The innovative X-Pact® Vision tion provides additional efficiency and formulated texts and
HMI (Human Machine Interface) concept developed by SMS eventually enhances the motivation to icons. The recorded
group supports operators in performing their tasks. use the new system. events are stored in
The new HMI concept makes it much easier for the op- a database and may
erator to capture information about the production process X-Pact Process Guidance System
®
be further processed
that is relevant to him in his current situation – in an easy- With its new automation structure, at a later stage.
to-grasp, clearly structured and intuitive way. the X-Pact® Process Guidance

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sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

X-Pact® Vision
Control Station.

System sets new standards in

plant automation for steelworks and
rolling mills.
The entire visualization has been
redesigned, placing operator guidance
and prompting in the center of atten-
tion. Any functionalities in connection
with the control and maintenance of
plants as well as metallurgical and
material-specific inputs and outputs
can be conveniently triggered and han-
X-Pact® Vision
dled from an HMI station. A new dy- Control Station:
namic display has been added capable operating area.
of guiding the operator through the
entire process. This display automati-
cally and at just the right time provides The X-Pact® Process Guidance System allows SMS group to
the operator with all relevant process implement automation solutions that are highly ergonomic,
information, user input prompts and transparent and future-oriented and meet the individual re-
operating screens. quirements of the customers and the plants.
To this end, the software architec-
ture has been fundamentally enhanced X-Pact® Vision Control Station
by forming interdisciplinary working The degree of automation in metallurgical plants and roll-
groups. A data cloud and the link to da- ing mills is constantly growing. Nevertheless, highly so-
tabases provided the basis for uniform phisticated technology will not make the human operator
communication methods. Redundan- redundant. All information converges at the control sta-
cies that existed in the various automa- tion. In addition to the innovative HMI, SMS group also of-
tion levels have been eliminated and fers modern solutions for the control station, in other
modules of functionalities formed. words, the ideal integrated operating solution. What

120

Control station in an aluminum tandem mill.
makes this solution so special is the
clear separation between an operat-
ing area and a social/analysis area.
During production, people in the op-
erating area must highly concentrate
and may by no means be distracted.
On the contrary, the social or analysis
area serves as a meeting place for
colleagues, customers and visitors.
Here, production results can be ana-
lyzed and presented without having to
actively interfere with the actual pro-
duction process.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
The operating area
The heart of the control station is the operating area. Espe-
cially there, SMS group’s solution offers a number of advan-
tages over conventional solutions. The control pulpit, which
is the central workplace, is customized to the specific re-
quirements of the production process. Here, the operator
receives detailed information on the running process. The
HMI screens are located directly in the operator’s line of vi-
sion. Additional overview screens are mounted on the ceiling.
Plant areas that are not easily visible are represented as live
images and can be displayed in a correspondingly large for-
mat whenever required. The desk can be moved by a motor
to standing level. The HMI screens move along with it.
121
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

»X-Pact® Vision allows us to take into consideration the specific

design of our customers’ plants, aspects of modern multimedia devices and
features of intuitive operation.«

Stefan Luxenburger, Specialist Operation and Process Guidance SMS group.

Operating elements which are not allowed to be imple-

mented via touch panels or the HMI for reasons of safety
are arranged in a clearly structured, easily accessible man-
ner in the area in front of the screens. In this way, it is en-
sured that measures are taken intuitively and correctly –
even in emergency situations.
The operating area is completed by ergonomically opti-
mized control room chairs designed for 24/7 use, reducing
physical strain on the operators and supporting their power
of concentration.

The social or analysis area

Located at the center of the control station’s social/analy-
sis area is the Data Analysis and Vision Desk – DAVID for
short. It has been consciously designed to stand out from
the other functional furniture as a stand-alone item in-
tended especially for teamwork. Equipped with the latest
communication technologies, the discussion desk “DA-
VID” is the information center of the plant. Here, all infor-
mation for production analyses, performance evaluations
and shift meetings is compiled. To effectively support the
work in teams, a large multi-touch display is horizontally
installed into the desktop and can be operated intuitively.
Also for customer visits, the discussion desk with its
great variety of features plays a central role, making it
predestined to serve as a central meeting place in the
plant. The large DAVID multi-touch display.

122

X-Pact® Vision Mobile Operation
The mobile solutions of the X-Pact®
Vision concept mean new freedom for
managers and metallurgists, as they
can access the production processes
in real time via mobile devices (tablet/
smart phone).
Thus, the feature of web-based re-
porting provided by X-Pact® Vision
from SMS group provides potential for
process optimization as the process
results can be evaluated in a highly in-
tuitive, secure and time-saving way.
Data safety is guaranteed by internal
Wi-Fi connection with access authori-
zation and authentication.
Mobile quality control of e.g. slabs
by means of the X-Pact® Vision Prod-
uct Inspector is another newly devel-
oped software application for tablets.
As well as documenting the quality of
produced slabs at fixed locations, the
operating personnel can now perform
a mobile check at any suitable location
in the works. SMS group offers the
Product Inspector as a cost-effective
stand-alone solution or as a solution
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Mobile quality con-
trol of slabs.
Web-based
reporting.
integrated into the quality control system. The software is
based on open web standards, making it suitable for use on
any office or industrial tablet. By making quality manage-
ment more efficient, the Product Inspector optimizes the
production process.
Revamping with X-Pact® Vision
The X-Pact® Vision systems form the link between the pro-
duction plant and the operator, visualizing all processes in
a production-oriented fashion including all information
relevant to the operator. All attributes and functions of the
X-Pact® Vision concept are implemented on the basis of
proven technologies. The upgradability of the systems guar-
antees their compatibility. The control station is set up in
modules, scalable and perfectly suited for revamps. The use
of standards ensures stability and makes for easy service-
ability of the system. With the right operating concept in
place, plant operators are on the safe side – and SMS group
has the ideal solution for it.
Stefan Luxenburger
stefan.luxenburger@sms-group.com
123
At the moment the single-stand mill rolls the heated billets in reversing operation down to gages
of 8 to 15 mm and coils the strip in the final pass in gages between 5 and 10 mm.

Modernization of
an aluminum hot rolling
mill from Schloemann
The hot rolling mill of IMPOL Seval at the Sevojno production
location is being revamped in two stages.

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In February 2016, SMS group received an order from the at a pressure of up to 1,000 bar, which
Serbian firm Impol Seval, Valjaonica aluminijuma Sevojno, ensures that deposits and adhering
for the comprehensive modernization of the aluminum hot
rolling mill supplied by Schloemann in 1972. The main ob-
jectives of the revamp are a considerable increase in pro-
aluminum residues are removed reli-
ably from the roll surfaces. i
duction and an improvement in quality of the rolled strips X-Pact® automation system
AluControl®
as regards thickness and profile tolerances. Thanks to the AluControl®
integration of the entry-side coiler into the production pro- The heart of the new mill is the new X- AluControl® has
cess, it will be possible in future to work with three coiling Pact® automation system, AluControl®. been developed at
passes rather than only one as previously, thus greatly en- It comprises the technological control SMS group over the
hancing the efficiency of the mill. systems and the Level 2 process past few years as an
To enable the mill to also roll large ingots, the entry and models. automation package
exit sections are being completely revamped. The posi- Via a link to the existing production that is specially
tions of both coilers are being shifted and raised, so as to planning system, Level 2 receives all suited to the require-
allow larger coil diameters to be wound. The belt wrap- of the product data and, depending on ments of the hot
pers, pinch rolls and side guards are being renewed and the thermal condition of the mill, cal- and cold rolling of
adapted on both sides. At the exit end, a new trimming culates the optimum pass schedule in aluminum. Alu­
shear will be installed. It will be coordinated with the high- each case and the mill setting values. Control® has proven
er exit speed resulting from the reduced final gage of min- The Level 1 control systems ensure its value in more
imum 3.5 millimeter. that the assured close tolerances for than 20 installations
strip gage and profile will be achieved. since 2012, for new
New X-ray measuring unit All plant data and process informa- plant projects and
The strip gage and profile will be measured continuously tion are displayed in the new visual- revamps alike, and
over the width by a new X-ray measuring unit. The mea- ization system in a user-friendly consistent improve-
sured data are the input variables for the technological con- manner. The hot rolling mill at IMPOL ments have been
trol systems. In the millstand itself new cooling headers Seval is being revamped in two stag- implemented in
will be installed, partly for the purpose of ensuring roll-gap es. An initial plant shutdown in the practical application.
lubrication and partly for allowing optimum distribution of spring of 2017 will be followed by a
the rolling emulsion for cooling the work rolls. The adjust- second shutdown after six months of
able cooling patterns are an important actuator for achiev- interim operation. When commission-
ing a constant strip profile. The capacity of the emulsion ing takes place at the end of 2017, the
system will be increased by approx. 30 percent. mill will be changed over completely
In future, negative bending of the work roll will be pos- to the new AluControl® and will thus
sible, i.e. a convex setting of the roll gap, thanks to the in- become a modern rolling mill for
stallation of additional bending cylinders in the chocks of high-quality hot strips.
the backup rolls. Optimum strip geometry can thus be
achieved, even when the work rolls have an increasing
thermal crown. For cleaning the rolls, a high-pressure sys-
tem is to be installed as a replacement for the rotating roll Dr. Martin Ahrens
brushes used hitherto. Emulsion is sprayed onto the rolls martin.ahrens@sms-group.com

125
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

126
Demand for gear wheels
Three output wheels of a diameter larger than four meters: In the Hilchenbach gear shop, one output wheel
each is in process for a converter tilt drive, a hot rolling mill roughing stand and an aluminum heavy-plate mill.
The high-strength gear components which had been optimized for the respective application were ordered to
boost production and to increase plant availability. The engineers Jörg Hertel, Dr. Gerhard Hansberg and Ralf
Gehle (f.l.t.r.), who are responsible for the gear projects, illustrate the dimensions of the gear wheels weighing
up to 40 tons.

Klaus Lazzaro
klaus.lazzaro@sms-group.com

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Experience
Industry 4.0
SMS group presents prototype for eService platform.
At the Tube & wire 2016, plant owners were able to achieve
a concrete idea of what the future holds with digital prod-
ucts and smart SMS group services.
The Service Division presented a functional prototype of
an eService platform with integrated electronic spare parts
catalog which provides a number of smart functions and
thus accelerates maintenance and spare parts procure-
ment, and ensures more flexibility and transparency for ev-
eryone involved in the process.
128
Dr. Dirk Oedekoven, Vice President Technical Service, SMS
group: “The visitors were impressed by our solution. On a
concrete example of the exit guide of a peeling machine we
could show which advantages can be offered by digitizing
the service segment. It is a key module and SMS group is
additionally working on further solutions.” Electronic spare
parts catalogs – also with online availability – exist already
a long time; the question therefore is: what exactly makes
the new system of SMS group so special?

Design thinking fulfills customer needs
André Peschen, Production Manager Processes & eService
and one of the responsible developers: “Our digital product
provides significantly more advantages and more intelligent
functions than has been the case to date. It already started
during the development phase. During visits to customers
special needs and pain points were identified with a radical
user-focused approach. Design thinking enhances collab-
orative creativity to solve problems holistically and to the
customer’s best advantage. Using this methodology a so-
called rapid prototyping was possible and we are able to
present initial approaches in the form of scribbles and click
dummies. Consequently, we always maintained a close dia-
log with the customer throughout the entire development.
Therefore, we could consider optimizations and customer
ideas very specifically and at an early stage.”
Mobile solution with assembly group recognition
One of the most important innovations of the SMS solution
is that customers are able to determine the respective
component directly on the machine and to receive key in-
formation on ET packages, etc. immediately. With a tablet
Dirk Oedekoven
(left) and André
Peschen, both from
SMS group, present
the prototype of a
digitized solution.
PC you can scan the QR code on the component where the
corresponding assembly group is directly displayed. André
Peschen: “For identification, however, other technologies
such as RFID technology or OCR recognition of writing are
also usable.” The user may then select the respective
component on the drawing. Depending on the selection,
the associated bill of material is also directly displayed.
Photos and other additional information help to identify the
proper component more easily. At the same time, avail-
ability (for example in a consignment warehouse) and costs
as well as delivery dates can be checked. Via the function
of the shopping basket the spare part can of course also be
ordered comfortably.
A spare parts catalog that thinks along
André Peschen: “Naturally, the user may quickly locate the
respective part via the tree-like menu. One special feature
is that further parts which may be required for the spare
parts are shown, for example suitable seals for a bush. In
this way, the customer is directly provided with an overview
of complete repair sets, saving on follow-up orders which
cost valuable time.”
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sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
1. It can be that
simple in future:
Scanned QR code of
assembly group.
2. A drawing of the
respective assembly
group appears on
the iPad.
It can already be noticed that the new digital eService
product of SMS group is fulfilling the requirements of dif-
ferent customers. For the test version various plants were
mapped. Apart from the peeling lines, different cold pilger
mills and even a complete wire rod mill were cataloged. For
the latter, an adjoined consignment warehouse with all in-
formation was also generated in addition to the main plant.
Since all plants of SMS group are structured individually,
each customer using the service is able to reach his equip-
ment on the platform via a personalized and protected area.
The aim was to map a so-called “Full Bill of Material”, virtu-
ally the digital twin of the actual plant.
Intelligent full bills of material
André Peschen explains the background: “This is one of the
great challenges we can master using modern software
tools. Via interfaces, we unite the often very heterogeneous
data and drawings in a unified user interface. This was also
one of the major requests of the customer who does not
want to locate the spare parts from different sources and
methods. We provide homogeneous information and draw-
130
3. Operator (main-
tainer) can only
select desired parts
– the parts list is au-
tomatically adapted.
ings for each customer plant – inclu-
sive of parts of our sub-suppliers. For
a minimill this may quickly amount to
several hundred thousand BOM items
and numerous drawings interlinked
with each other. It is about the same as
customers are accustomed to from the
usability in the private sector when
shopping online. The customer does
not see the complexity behind our
­eService, but it becomes much easier
and faster for him to reach the goal.”
Integrable service products
Within the framework of Industry 4.0
and eService the electronic spare
parts catalog is one of the first con-
crete digital products of SMS group. It
is by no means only limited to mobile
tablet use. At a later stage, the user
shall have access to the protected on-
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

5. Availabilities,
delivery dates and
documentation can
be displayed.

4. Wear or defec-
tive part can now be
ordered with just one
click and shopping
basket function.

6. Those who wish

advice may be
connected with the
corresponding expert
with just one click .

line platform “my SMS group” using any terminal device – convincing that the first pilot projects
even via desktop. Following his identification with individu- are going to start soon – together with
al security mechanisms, any personified information is the customer. I believe we thereby
displayed to him. This means, the customer may control prove as SMS group that we are on
the access authorizations depending on the fields of activi- the right track to build linked service
ty, thereby also achieving a simplification in operation. De- intelligence and digital service trans-
pending on the user, only the required modules are then formation.”
displayed – at present, there are for example the subject
areas “Equipment”, “Smart Alarm” and “Best Contact”. In
the course of time, the modules shall be extended continu-
ally as digital products so that the entire service process is
digitally mapped and supported.

First pilot projects for smart technology

Dr. Oedekoven: “With our service platform the customers
have a central information access which they can use any-
time and anywhere. User guidance is extremely simple
due to smart technologies directing the customer to the
right section respectively to the deposited information
such as technical datasheets and operating manuals. Our André Peschen
digitization plan with eService at the Tube & wire was so andre.peschen@sms-group.com

131
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Automated die
adjustment for repro-
ducible quality
The advantages: Reduced workload of operating staff while
increasing occupational safety at the same time.

132
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

»With the automated die adjustment from SMS we are able to

attain clearly improved process transparency. Moreover, the adjustment of
the die is significantly improved which also has a positive effect on
the occupational safety of the machine operator.«

Andreas Sieber, Plant Manager, Steeltec AG, Emmenbrücke, Switzerland.

In plant operation, drawing of bright steel with a drawing
machine requires manual die adjustment. In this case,
adaptive frequency and reproducibility of the setting pa-
rameters and thus the product quality are operator-depen-
dant. The automated die adjustment newly developed by the
Technical Service division of SMS group starts precisely at
this point. Modernization services by OEM: reduction of re-
jects and in operator workload.
The solution for which a patent application has been
submitted automates the alignment of the die holder,
whereby adjustments become reproducible. This has a pos-
itive influence on product quality reducing the reject rate.
The workload of the machine operator is reduced due to the
automation. In addition, occupational safety is enhanced
because of reduced intervention in plant operation.
i CHARACTERISTICS
The new automated die adjustment
Hardware:
Stand for setting up the measurement laser
Laser for detecting the wire rod position
Installation:
Laser connected to motorized die adjustment
Calibration and commissioning of the system
Motorized die adjustment and sufficient space required for
installation
Touchpanel for visualization and operation
Features:
 isualization including illustration of target and actual
V
wire rod position downstream of the shear
Display of material diameter
Operation per touchpanel
Hardware and software control using latest technology
with TIA Portal
Optional: Documentation of process parameters

i
Simple solution, pragmatic implementation
By installing a control circuit of the actual wire rod deflection
downstream of the shear to achieve the target deflection, a
BENEFITS
motorized die adjustment is automated. As a result, the
straightness of the drawn products is optimized by the auto- Customers benefit in more than one way
mated die adjustment, based on wire rod deflection already
before straightening. Furthermore, the process data for Reject reduction, even at coil head and tail end
quality assurance can be output to the operator. Improvement of material straightness already before
straightening
Reduction in operator workload
Increase in occupational safety
Reproducibility of setting parameters of die
Displaying quality fluctuations in primary metal
Enhancing process reliability
Johannes Kahlen
johannes.kahlen@sms-group.com

133
 INNOVATIONS FOR GREATER
CUSTOMER BENEFITS
As from now, modern and economical concepts for oil film bearings are
marketed by SMS group under the name of X-Roll® Oil Bearings.

Customer needs for more mainte- DEVELOPING OWN CONCEPTS

nance-friendly and production-en-
hancing roll neck bearings can be ful-
filled even more flexibly in the future.
For that reason, the more than 60-year
partnership with Primetals Technolo-
gies USA LLC (former Morgan Con-
struction Co.) was rearranged. With X-
Roll® Oil Bearings SMS group is now
able to offer both well-established and
independently further-developed prod-
ucts on a new technological level.
Already in the last few years, SMS employees developed
specific concepts to be able to provide oil film bearing sys-
tems in a more process-safe, environmentally- and mainte-
nance-friendly manner. The application of symmetrical
back-up rolls with fixed and guide bearing considerably
contributes to good working results of the oil film bearing
systems of SMS. Tailored to the specific requirements of
different flat rolling mills, the product portfolio today in-
cludes effective SMS in-house sealing systems.
“By means of FEM calculations the bearing components
and roll necks are designed by us in a fatigue-endurable

134
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Left: Oil film bear-

ings of SMS group
in use at hot strip
mill of ArcelorMit-
tal/Nippon Steel &
Sumitomo (AM/NS),
Calvert, U.S.A.

Right: Innovative
coating of X-Roll® Oil
Bearing bush with
bearing metal.

90
way. If requested, our delivery program also provides vari-
ous fastening systems as modernization package. For ex-
tending the inspection intervals of bearing systems, for ex-
ample the newly developed clearance-free bearing support
is a possible solution,” says Frank Benfer, Head of Oil Film
Bearing Product Unit at SMS group.

SIGNIFICANT SAVING POTENTIAL

The new bearing systems have proven reliability in both new
constructions of flat rolling mills and in modified versions for
older plants. The bearings are adapted to the needs of the
working processes in the rolling mill and the roll shop. When percent – oil consumption can be reduced
in use, saving potentials of half of the total operating costs by this amount, depending on the modern-
could be identified. For example, customers confirmed to ization concept.
SMS group that oil consumption was reduced by up to 90
percent. In addition to that, plant operators benefit from sig-
nificantly improved work safety and simplified handling.
“We want to further expand the increased benefit of our
concepts. The newly acquired flexibility gives us the freedom
today to cooperate even closer with our customers, to join
forces when pushing developments ahead and to set our own
standards in oil film bearings also in future,” Frank Benfer
added. This enables SMS group to comply with customers’
requirements for complete bearings sets, upgrades, repairs,
spare parts and on-site service even more target-oriented in
future.

Sales
oilbearing@sms-group.com

135
Lively panel discussion: Holger Ade from the German Forging
Association moderated the event on the topic “How secure is the
competitiveness of the German forging industry?”

Taken from practice for use in practice: “The 1st Maintainers’ Day
Closed-die Forging” of SMS group exactly matched the interests of
the experts.

136

Joining together
in preparing
for the future
First Maintainers’ Day Closed-die Forging at SMS group.
The number of suppliers of closed-die forgings on the world
market is growing continuously, the consequence is in-
creased competition. German and internationally renowned
forging companies still have a knowledge edge in terms of
development but it is noticeably decreasing. And there is
the cost pressure by competitors with low labor costs and
rising material and energy expenses.
Answers to issues concerning the future
The first Maintainers’ Day Closed-die Forging of SMS group
was a platform for exchanging views among specialists.
The discussion focused on the following urgent issues:
 hich concrete challenges must be tackled by the forg-
W meet the huge demands with regard to time and costs.
ing technology industry already today?
Which developments are evident for the future?
Which possible approaches should already be pursued
today more actively?
More than 30 maintenance managers and technical ex-
perts of renowned companies accepted the invitation to
Mönchengladbach in April. Dirk Oedekoven, Vice President
Technical Service of SMS group, welcomed the audience
and guided the participants through the two-day event.
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
Challenges in today’s day-to-day business
At the beginning of the event, Marc Hübbers, Head of Forg-
ing Technology Service Europe at SMS group, introduced
the history and the portfolio of the Service Product Unit
Forging Technology at SMS group. Then, practical exam-
ples of current projects of participating companies formed
the starting points as regards contents. Whether with auto-
mation and cycle time reduction of an MP2000 (Hirschvogel
Umformtechnik GmbH), with a general overhaul and mod-
ernization of an FPRN 500 (Märkisches Werk Halver) or
with bringing together two machines during a just-in-time
repair of a KSP 200 (Daimler AG): again and again it was
shown which exceptional measures were taken in part to
“Whereas in former times ten weeks were available for re-
pair work, nowadays only six weeks are required,” summa-
rizes Frank Dobus, Operations Manager at Hirschvogel
Umformtechnik GmbH, in an illustrative manner. “We can
only be successful when we take a common and coopera-
tive approach to our projects!”
Panel discussion on the FORGING INDUSTRY’S FUTURE
The first day was concluded by a panel discussion around
the question, how secure the competitiveness of the
137
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

»Whereas in former times ten weeks were available for

repair work, nowadays only six weeks are required. We can only be successful
when we take a common and cooperative approach to our projects!«

Frank Dobus, Operations Manager at Hirschvogel Umformtechnik GmbH.

German forging industry is. Holger Ade, Head of Busi-
ness Administration of the German Forging Association,
provided a keynote speech and moderated the discussion.
It quickly became clear which transformation the forging
industry is undergoing. Apart from quality, speed and cost
reductions are required above all. To achieve this, new but
practicable approaches are needed for press technology,
digitalization and partnership. Particularly the topic of dig-
italization was lively discussed in the present context of
Industry 4.0. Dirk Oedekoven emphasized that “digitaliza-
tion cannot be the answer to our problems but only a con-
temporary formulation of our homework.”
Uwe Schumann, Head of Maintenance Massive Forming
of Daimler AG: “Even SMS group as our service partner
has to support us with these challenges. The events and a
continuous dialog with SMS show us that new and tougher
conditions have been recognized and that adequate solu-
tions are already offered and developed. Here, thinking and
working are highly practical.”
Solutions for future challenges
On the second day the discussion of solution approaches to
the aforementioned challenges was in the focus. The day
started with visiting the manufacturing and assembly
­workshops of SMS group in Mönchengladbach. At the
Mönchengladbach location, 42,000 square meters out of a
total space of 124,000 square meters alone is provided for
manufacturing and assembly. Because
of the proximity of design and manuf­
acture both areas are able to work
closely together.
Since the completion of a plant
modernization at the beginning of
2015, a new assembly hall with 4,000
square meters is available offering a
crane capacity of 180 tons. In addition,
15 new machine tools of the latest
generation were installed in the area
of the previous mechanical workshop.
A master computer-controlled MC
processing line with fully automated
workpiece feeding and a tool for unit
weights up to ten tons, a boring mill
line for machining cubic workpieces
up to a unit weight of 120 tons and a
five-axis turning/milling center with
maximum possible machining capac-
ities of a workpiece weight of 60 tons
and a workpiece length of 20 meters
are further key figures.
In the course of discussions it be-
came clear that such manufacturing
possibilities are a precondition for ma-
ny repair and modernization projects,

138
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Exciting presentation: Uwe Schumann, Head

of Maintenance Massive Forming Daimler
AG, and Marc Hübbers, Head of Forging
Technology Service Europe of SMS group,
spoke about an exceptional just-in-time
repair of a wedge press, type KSP 200.

30
Experts exchanging
views: Frank Dobus,
Plant Manager at
Hirschvogel
Umformtechnik
GmbH, Denklingen,
in a conversation
with SMS Works
Manager Jochen
Gerards about
service concepts.

participants of renowned companies took part

in the “1st Maintainers’ Day Closed-die Forg-
ing” of SMS group in Mönchengladbach.

however, additional requirements to flexibility and cost tics of energy consumption meet the current challenges of
structure are resulting from day-to-day maintenance op- the industry. Particular advantages are low maintenance in
erations. Accordingly, the concept of the new, independent combination with less costs for spare parts, high energy ef-
and complementary SMS Service workshop was very well ficiency and prevention of current peaks. Accordingly, the
received, which enables minimal lead times and costs with possibilities were directly discussed in an intense way,
maximum flexibility. With its own workshop only for servic- namely how this concept can also be translated into exist-
es and with OEM knowledge SMS group is able to provide ing machines.
much faster and better assistance. Qualified personnel and
machines are exclusively available for service tasks. Many modules for new competitive opportunities
After presenting the concept of the new service work- In general, it has become apparent that many promising
shop, possible efficiency improvements for commissioning concepts and approaches exist to enhance the competitive-
were demonstrated by SMS group simulation on the basis ness of European forging companies. The participants saw
of project examples. For this real-time function simulation the right approach in the topics that were introduced to re-
the real control hardware is linked to the simulation com- act properly to growing future requirements. The challeng-
puter. Advantages of such “virtual start-up” are a reduction es facing the industry can only be mastered together.
of commissioning period and total cost, a steeper ramp-up
curve according to SOP and potentials for carrying out
functional tests without interfering with the real plant. Sim-
ulation models are useful whenever the risk of “failure” is
particularly high, i.e. when for example conversion work or
modernizations have to take place within a short time inter-
val with little time for preparation or when a new automa-
tion hardware and/or software is applied.
Furthermore, the maintenance-friendly drive concept of
the innovative MEERtorque® series was presented and dis-
cussed intensively. Properties such as the wear-free cou- Heinz Zacharia
pling, the recovery of braking energy and the characteris- heinz.zacharia@sms-group.com

139
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
CVC® shifting device
for Outokumpu
Order received from Outokumpu.
Outokumpu from Finland has ordered from SMS group a
new work-roll bending and shifting system for its Tornio
based Steckel mill. Furthermore, the blocks will be
equipped with an additional lubrication system for the wear
plates. So far only manual relubricating of the wear plates
during roll changes has been possible and caused relatively
fast wearing down of the plates. For the additional lubrica-
tion, the new wear plate and the CVC® block will be equipped
with additional lubrication holes through which grease is
pumped during operation. The system will be connected to
the existing millstand grease supply system. The grease
metering blocks with four outlets currently existing on the
mill stands only have to be replaced with metering blocks
that have six outlets. With this new equipment Outokumpu
will increase the service life of its mill.
Technical Service
service@sms-group.com
140
Drum shear will be
overhauled
SMS group supplies to ArcelorMittal.
In early 2016, ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany,
has commissioned SMS group to upgrade a drum shear
cassette of its hot strip mill. To achieve this, SMS group
staff members dismantle the shear weighing about 82
tons into its individual parts. In the course of this, they de-
termine which components remain unchanged, or have to
be refurbished or replaced so that the shear fulfils its
function in the production process after the overhaul. Rust
and deposits are removed and anticorrosive is re-applied.
Delivery of the upgraded shear is scheduled for December
2016. For its customers, SMS group repairs all shears in
steel or aluminum lines. Shears are core units – if they do
not function properly the complete production process is
affected. At ArcelorMittal two shear cassettes are there-
fore alternately used between overhauls. On the hot strip
mill in Eisenhüttenstadt steel is produced for special ap-
plications in the automotive industry.
Technical Service
service@sms-group.com
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Robot enhances
efficiency
SMS group modernized 40-year-old extrusion press at
SG Extruded Products Group in Bittterfeld, Germany.

Last year, SMS group modernized a 42.5-MN extrusion Bitterfeld plant was absolutely new to
press from 1972 of customer ST Extruded Products Group the customer. “Looking back, the de-
(STEP-G) in Bitterfeld, Germany. Owing to the billet exten- cision proved to be perfect,” said Ingo
sion from 1,000 millimeters to 1,350 millimeters and the Hennig, Plant Manager at STEP-G
extrusion force increase from 42.5 MN to 50 MN, the plant (Bitterfeld).
output is significantly higher than before. The extrusion
press is employed for the production of forging stock and
aluminum profiles. The ugrade also included the use of a
new billet loader robot. Due to a restricted space situation
within the plant, conventional loading facilities for the
press were not an option. The seven-axis robot cares for
billet loading and ensures that the billets are safely and i PLANT
quickly positioned in the press center. Due to shorter dis-
tances and quicker loading, temperature losses in the bil-
STEP-G in Bitterfeld
let are minimized and energy efficiency of the whole pro-
cess is enhanced. Using a robot for billet loading in the ST Extruded Products Germany
GmbH
Manufacture of extruded
aluminum profiles
The robot at the Bitterfeld plant.
In 1916, establishment of
Bitterfeld site
Approx. 120 employees
2 presses: 20 MN/ 50 MN
Final applications in the automo-
tive industry, trade, mechanical
and structural engineering

Technical Service
service@sms-group.com

141
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

i BENEFITS
Benefits of Clean Lance System

 eduction of investment and oper-

R
ating costs
Ensuring occupational safety
 roduction increase due to longer
P
service life of lances
 kull accumulations effectively
S
reduced and prevented
Stable overall system
Spray system easy to maintain

The Clean Lance System

of SMS group
More safety for processes, environment and employees.

Water-cooled oxygen lances may be damaged or even fail
when skull is removed by flame-cutters, or levered respec-
tively beaten off which is time-consuming and labor-inten-
sive. Thanks to the new complete system of SMS group –
the Clean Lance System (CLS) – skull accumulations on
oxygen lances can be reduced to a minimum.
The control unit is the core of the system consisting of
control and valve cabinet and it is protected inside a mobile
unit where it may be easily employed together with the stir-
rer at any place near the oxygen lance.
The unit is manually operated directly on the integrated
screen or optionally via cable remote control. Automatic
control as well as remote operation can be performed from
the control stand. Here, the control unit operates the elec-
tric stirrer, the diaphragm pump and the valves.
FULLY PROTECTED NOZZLE SYSTEM
The spray ring with its customer-specific components re-
mains for stationary use at the respective converter. The
rings provide several spray nozzles particularly tuned to the

142
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

The CAD model illustrates

the complete coating by six
spray nozzles.

process including the associated supply lines for coating

material, compressed air and flushing water. The spray ring
box ensures complete protection of the nozzle system
against the rough environmental conditions at the convert-
er. The modularly designed system enables easy mainte-
nance. Since the nozzles are closed again after each coat-
ing procedure clogging is prevented and permanent coating
material circulation is realized.
Already the first coatings under production conditions
when using manual sprayguns have convinced pilot cus-
tomers of the advantages of oxygen lance coating on BOF Oxygen blowing lance with typical skull accumulation (left), and
converters without vapor barrier. With the semi-automatic after coating with ThixoGuard by the Clean Lance System (right).
Spray ring of Clean Lance System with guardrail and blowing
coating system an industrial solution has matured from lance with ThixoGuard coating.
one prototype.

Enhancing sustainability itself. High effectiveness and easy handling of ThixoGuard

To reduce the dust load SMS group optionally offers an in- could not only be proven in numerous tests carried out in
novative converter dome with integrated CLS spray ring. SMS group workshops but also on first converters in Eu-
The specially developed design combines the Clean Lance rope which also promises better chances of success when
System with a nitrogen curtain minimizing the escape of in use in other production areas.
dust in the converter dome, lance cover and blowing lance,
and protecting the nozzle area at the same time from­
dust exposure. The newly developed non-adhesive coating,
Thixo­Guard, is of water-based nature and thus also pro-
tects the environment. In addition to that, the lifetime of the
lances is increased, because thanks to its use skull can be Ronald Genßler
removed much easily after the melt or even comes off by ronald.genssler@sms-group.com

143
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016
MEDIA SYSTEMS FROM
ONE SOURCE
The portfolio of SMS group includes media systems for new and
modernized facilities, irrespective of the type of plant, from
support in project development to overall process expertise and up
to commissioning assistance by its own staff.
To make sure production is running smoothly and reliably,
media systems used in plant engineering have to be a
combination of precisely harmonized components. Hy-
draulic controls, oil lubrication systems and machine pip-
ing take care that, for example, the energies or lubricants
needed for the production process are accurately distrib-
uted. For many years, SMS group has been mastering this
interaction of all sub-components. SMS group provides its
wealth of experience in media systems for new facilities
and modernization projects and offers the pertaining port-
folio of products and services regardless of which type of
plant is concerned.
VALVE UNITS IN HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS
SMS group specializes in hydraulic controls and associated
valve units. The company designs and manufactures valve
units in line with the customers‘ demands up to a length of
two meters in different configurations (control columns,
valve tables, media supply rails, individual blocks). Since
the SMS workshop is able to perform multi-axis sloping
boreholes and to use cartridge valve technology an ex-
tremely compact design can be implemented. This helps
satisfy system requirements up to the highest dynamic
control level. In-house painting and state-of-the-art corro-
144
sion protection treatment like carboni-
triding, nickel coating or galvanizing
make sure the valve units can be used
over a long period. All controls are
completely factory-wired and tested by
SMS group. The only thing to do on site
is to connect to the terminal box.
PUMP UNITS
Based on the most common load and
performance demands in SMS group
applications, a series of pump units
was developed able to cover all re-
quirements. The individual, but funda-
mentally standardized units offered by
SMS group are a low-cost alternative
and, combined in a reasonable and
function-oriented way, meet the de-
mands of plant users. Thanks to the
large number of reference sets, SMS
group also has extensive knowledge
and experience in the use of special
fluids. As a unit, the pump stations are
completely factory-wired.
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Hydraulic pump station.

i Setup
The pump stations are modular and comprise:

 ank unit
T filter, water cooling via plate heat
The size is graded in steps from 2 to
18 cubic meters according to the tank
volume. The tank is of two-chamber,
rectangular design with direct-priming
pumps, heating elements and mani-
fold.
 ecirculation unit
R ing on their displacement: 125 cm³,
In line with the gross tank volume and
the demand, SMS developed different
performance stages with a recircula-
tion capacity between 170 and 1,000
dm³/min. The unit comprises a gear
type or screw spindle pump, 3-μm
filtration with SMS-certified double
exchanger, filling and draining pos-
sible by means of integrated pump and
filter.
 ain pump unit
M
The product range of SMS group
includes different pump sizes depend-
180 cm³, 250 cm³. Sizes 355 cm³ and
500 cm³ are under way, other pump
sizes may be supplied on request. The
unit consists of pressure-controlled
axial piston pumps of swash-plate
design (control alternatives on re-
quest), modularly equipped pump
block with full-flow pressure filter,
individual shut-off and relief option,
mounted on a baseframe for one or
two pumps, and, optionally, with noise
protection.
 eturn-flow filter unit
R
The SMS standard scope includes three
filter sizes depending on the respective
return-flow volume. The unit compris-
es a double filter with nonreturn valve
on a baseframe.

145
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

SUPPLY OF ACCUMULATOR UNITS

Bladder accumulators of the following
sizes are available from the SMS stan-
dard portfolio: 2 x 32 dm³, 4 x 32 dm³,
2 x 50 dm³ up to 8 x 50 dm³. The ac-
cumulators are of single- or double-
row design, with separate safety and
shutoff blocks and with a common
baseblock including fluid energy sep-
aration.

SUPPLY OF OIL LUBRICATION SYSTEMS

When oil lubrication systems are or-
dered, SMS group generally takes care
of the basic and detail engineering.
Here, too, a great variety of standard-
ized components is available, and the
company can present a multitude of
references. This ensures savings in
time and money.

MACHINE PIPING
The design of machine piping suitable
for pre-fabrication on the basis of iso-
metric drawings and of piping mod-
ules adapted to the machine permits
Controls in column
exactly fitting units to be shipped, design for media
which are easy and fast to install at modules.
the jobsite.

146
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Controls configured
as valve table.

i
HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS TEST FIELD
At its Hilchenbach location, SMS group has one of the most
modern testing facilities for hydraulic systems. At the end
of the hydraulic systems manufacturing and assembly line,
Portfolio
all of the hydraulic controls produced by SMS are subjected SMS group media systems
to an extensive test. For this purpose, three test stations are
 imensioning and calculation of
D
available. They satisfy all requirements imposed by today’s
the facilities
safety and environmental standards. The progress and the
Valve block design
results of the exactly defined, reproducible and partly auto-
(Detail) Design pump stations
mated test procedures are electronically recorded and so  iping concepts based on modular
P
are the valve presets. components
Hydraulic consumer groups, combined with the possi- Assembly drawings
bilities of modern measuring and control technology, en-  anufacture of all kinds of valve
M
sure optimum function tests to be performed for the mul- control stands
titude of different hydraulic controls. This effort pays off as Pump stations
flawless hydraulic controls only will be supplied to con-  ccumulator stations /accumulator
A
units
struction site, and commissioning will be shortened sig-
 lectrical controls as required for
E
nificantly.
the respective facility
 ench tests of the valve control
B
stands
 ervice and commissioning
S
worldwide

Andreas Löhr
andreas.loehr@sms-group.com

147
 SMS group at
Tube & wire 2016

540
In April, about 70,000 visitors from 130
countries visited the trade fairs for the
tube and wire industries organized in
the Düsseldorf exhibition halls. SMS
group was also represented at the Tube
& wire. Apart from many discussions
with the customers, SMS group pre-
sented the latest developments (de-
tailed information were already pre-
square meters was the size of this year’s
sented in Newsletter 02/2016) and stand of SMS group at the Tube & wire.
could register new orders.

148
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

At the Tube & wire,

Marcel Fasswald,
Member of the
Managing Board of
SMS group, (left) and
Apostolos Papavasi-
liou, CEO Corinth
Pipeworks, met each
other and reported
on a successful co-
operation of the two
companies. Corinth
Pipeworks already
successfully operates
an HFI tube welding
line and a two-stage
spiral pipe plant
from SMS group.
With the new JCOE®
large-diameter pipe
mill the company
now completes its
production capacities
for welded pipes.

At the trade fair,

SMS group was able
to win an important
big order. The Italian
producer of long
products, Acciaierie
e Ferriere di Piom-
bino S.p.A. (AFERPI),
commissioned SMS
group with the sup-
ply of a new steel
complex with an
annual capacity of
700,000 tons. The
picture shows Dr.
Guido Kleinschmidt,
Member of the Man-
aging Board of SMS
group,(left) after
signing the contract
with Fausto Azzi,
CEO, AFERPI.

149
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

During a panel
discussion organized
by SMS group the
participants talked
about future trends
on the interna-
tional pipe and tube
market and analyzed
how producers and
plant manufacturers
can respond to the
current conditions
on the market.

In the presence of
Dr. Heinrich Weiss,
Chairman of the
Shareholders’
Committee, and
Burkhard Dahmen,
Chairman of the
Managing Board of
SMS group, a coop-
eration agreement
was signed with
TAMKAR for future
joint service ac-
tivities on the Iranian
market. Heinrich
Weiss emphasized
that due to its good
name and strong
customer orientation
the family-owned
company TAMKAR is
the right partner for
the planned service
activities.

150
 sms group newsletter 03/ 2016

Jafar Barekatain,
Chairman of the
Board of TAMKAR,
and Pino Tesè, Man-
agement of Techni-
cal Service Division,
signed the joint
venture at the Tube
& wire. The start of
operational activities
is scheduled for this
very year.

SMS group employ-

ee Tuckyin Choy
(left) explained
latest technological
developments by
using the multime-
dia table.

Impressions from
Tube & wire 2016:
www.sms-group.
com/nl2016-video-
tube-wire-en

151
sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Seminar in Brazil

In Belo Horizonte, SMS group provided

information on integrated service.

After two successful events organized by Paul Wurth do
Brasil in 2008 and 2013, SMS group held an integrated ser-
vice seminar in May 2016 in Belo Horizonte, Brasil. About
150 delegates from the entire steel industry of Brasil joined
the event. SMS group demonstrated the competence of its
Technical Service division through various presentations
covering local Brazilian and also global service projects. In
the current, difficult market situation of the Brazilian iron
and steel industries the solutions shown to improve pro-
duction and quality and to minimize costs were perceived
with high interest. SMS group do Brasil has a long tradition
in serving the clients in Brazil and also assisting other mar-
kets in South America by its offices and workshops.
SMS group’s objective of organizing this seminar was to
further strengthen its presence on Brazilian and South
American market for technical services.
Contact
service@sms-group.com

152
Rubrik — Unterrubrik

The SMS group booth at the Metal + Metallurgy trade fair.

Metal + Metallurgy
in China
For more than 20 years now, Metal + Metallurgy has been
ranking among the leading trade fairs for the steel indus-
try in Asia. This year, too, SMS group had its own exhibi-
tion booth in Beijing. On the very first day, Yin Ruiyu, the
former Chinese Vice Minister for Metallurgical Industry,
and Dieter Rosenthal, Member of the SMS group Manag-
ing Board, met at the stand. The following days were gov-
erned by numerous interesting talks with customers. Olaf
Stalfort, Manager Commercial Sales and responsible for
China at SMS group, says: “This time, we put the focus of
our presentation and the symposium on the subjects of
efficiency increase and modernization of existing plants
as these are the issues our customers are currently deep-
ly involved with. And we support them as a reliable and
loyal partner.”

Olaf Stalfort In conversation (f.l.t.r.): Yin Ruiyu, Dieter Rosenthal, Stefan Leser
olaf.stalfort@sms-group.com (CEO SMS group China) and Olaf Stalfort.

153

Metallurgy and machine building
SMS group present at industrial forum.
The 8th International industrial forum “Recon-
struction of industrial enterprises – break-
through technologies in metallurgy and ma-
chine-building” was held in April 2016 in
Chelyabinsk. At the same time the 16th Interna-
tional exhibition “Urals industrial and economic
week (UIEW)” was also held which served as a
platform for various specialized exhibitions for
10th International Rolling Conference
SMS group present in Graz.
The SMS group booth in Graz.
154
In the middle: Pino
Tesé, Management
Technical Service of
SMS group, opened
the industrial forum
in Chelyabinsk.
the metallurgical sector. SMS group was present
during the exhibition and the forum. The experts
of SMS group presented their newest develop-
ments and achievements. About 2,000 special-
ists from the large, medium and small business
of the industrial branch visited the forum’s
events and the exhibition’s exposition.
The 10th International Rolling Conference “ROLLING 2016”
was organized by the Austrian Society for Metallurgy and
Materials (ASMET), and held in Graz, Austria, in June this
year. The international experts could take a look at new
developments in the fields of casting and rolling close to
final dimensions, hot rolling of flats and long products, and
cold rolling.
SMS group presented a total of ten papers at the Confer-
ence. Dr. Michael Degner who attended the event on behalf
of SMS group, stated: “The lectures held during the confer-
ence focused, in addition to the description of new equip-
ment, on the presentation of measures to increase plant
availability. Other topics were further measures for the op-
timization of quality and output as well as for cost reduction
and resource conservation in the production process.”
 sms group newsletter 03 / 2016

Imprint
SMS group newsletter
Issue 03/2016

Publisher
SMS group Corporate
Communications, Eduard-
­Schloemann-Straße 4
40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Responsible under Press
Law: Thomas Isajiw
Phone +49 211 881-0
E-mail: communications@
sms-group.com
www.sms-group.com

Printing and prepress

First comprehensive presentation:
The extensive range of supplies
and services around thermal
processes.
processes
The title of the latest film. Druckhaus Kay GmbH
Hagener Strasse 121
57223 Kreuztal,
Germany
Published on
August 25, 2016 
© SMS group / circulation
in German 6,600, in English
14,000 / printed in Germany

Publications and
The information provided
in this magazine contains
a general description of the
performance characteris-
tics of the products con-
cerned. The actual products

films from SMS group

may not always have the
characteristics described
and, in particular, these
may change as a result of
further developments of the
products. The provision of
this information is not in-
tended to have, and will not
have, legal effect. An obliga-
tion to deliver products
Brochures and various film formats provide a detailed having particular character-
istics shall only exist if ex-

insight into the range of products. pressly agreed in the terms

of the contract.

The SMS group product range is growing continuously. New High productivity, reliability and pre-
technologies and machines are being developed. Orders cision are crucial factors in making
are being completed successfully. To provide our customers products for the railway industry.
with more detailed information on our innovations, we pub- Therefore, Chinese rail producers
lish all essential news in our brochures, magazines and count on plant solutions from SMS
videos. In the following, please find a selection of our latest group. The English-language film en-
releases. titled High productivity for high-
The new brochure Furnace Technology for the first time speed rails provides a detailed insight
shows the complete range of furnace technology offered by in the production process. Learn more about
SMS group including comprehensive information on the upcoming events at:
product portfolio, technologies and references. Since heat www.sms-group.
treatment determines the essential material properties as com/press-media/
well as the quality of the final product, it is the core process events/
for the production of modern materials. Today, SMS group
is able to supply facilities for nearly all thermal process
steps needed to produce high-quality products of carbon, Contact
silicon and stainless steel as well as of aluminum. communications@sms-group.com

155
WE TRANSFORM …
THE WORLD OF ALUMINUM
T H E S MS G R O U P MAGA Z I NE
I SS U E 03 / 2016

ISSU E 0 3  / 2 016

THE MODERNIZATION
EXPERTS

THE SMS GROUP MAGAZI NE

Modernization of hot rolling mill at ArcelorMittal
Gent: Mill stands in the test phase.

SAVE THE DATE

Nov. 29 – Dec. 1, 2016

These are the stand-out properties of aluminum: low weight We’d be delighted to see you at our booth. There you can
combined with high strength, good electrical and thermal find out all about our full range of machinery and plants –
conductivity, corrosion resistance, and recyclability. for producing, processing, and refining aluminum as well
as aluminum products. Take this opportunity to talk with us
personally. Be our guest!
Visit us at
ALUMINIUM 2016
Hall 9, Booth No. 9C20 SMS group offers products customized to your require-
Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 ments. You also benefit because all our solutions are
Düsseldorf, Germany designed for top efficiency and resource saving. NEW ORDER  COMMISSIONING e-Service
Eco-friendly steel complex for Largest extrusion press ever built by Platform prototype means: Industry
AFERPI in Italy. SMS group to start production. 4.0 you can experience.
 42  98  128
SMS GROUP GMBH
Eduard-Schloemann-Strasse 4 Phone: +49 211 881-0 communications@sms-group.com
40237 Düsseldorf, Germany Fax: +49 211 881-4902 www.sms-group.com