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By Bruce V. Kiefer

A modernization project was undertaken by Kroman Celik Sanayii A.S. in order to improve their product quality, consistency and shape of the coil package, reduce maintenance and delays in rod mill, thereby increasing utilization and productivity. The project involved installation of a new Morgan Intelligent Pinch Roll and High Speed Laying Head, modifications to the existing controlled cooling conveyor, plus replacing the coil reforming station. The new pinch roll and laying head were to provide better control of the ring formation and consistency of the coil on the conveyor, while reducing delays on the conveyor. Changes to the controlled cooling conveyor included installation of new nozzle decks and Optimesh air distribution system along with re-arrangement of existing fans in order to improve both cooling rates and uniformity of cooling. This paper explains details and features of the newly-installed equipment technology. Resulting product and process improvements are presented, including increased tensile strength and uniformity, reduction in delays on the conveyor and reform tub, plus improvements in coil quality.

Oct 30, 2017

By Chad B. Donovan

There is a strong need in North America and other major steel producing markets where major capital investment in new equipment has been minimal over the past several years to make improvements to existing casting machines. In many cases, very cost effective improvements can be made to existing equipment in order to maximize the efficiency and production of an older designed continuous caster, a classic caster. SMS Group and its predecessor companies have been maintaining continuous casting molds for over forty years. This experience has allowed SMS Group to intimately understand the advantages and disadvantages of each design. The most vital component of the continuous caster is the mold copper design, as it has the most influence over the ability to cast a quality product. Updating to a modern copper design is less complicated than most steel producers think and the benefits are significant. Premium mold coatings such as UniGuard® and NanoGuard® allow casters to guard against exposed copper and wear while producing quality products for record campaign lengths.

Oct 30, 2017

By Patrick Edward Connell

The next generation of the well-established 3-roll Reducing & Sizing Block (RSB), the RSB SCS® is the latest milestone in reducing and sizing technology for SBQ products. It offers enhanced bar quality, improved productivity, mill availability and economy as well as a simplified, safe and environmentally friendly operation. A newly developed modular drive concept of the RSB SCS® grants a smaller footprint in the layout, a reduced oil-lubrication volume and a simplified maintenance schedule. Intelligent engineering leads furthermore to reduced hydraulic functions of the RSB SCS®, which ensures a safe and environmentally friendly rolling. Another integral part of the RSB SCS® is an innovative stand changing concept, which allows automatic stand changing within three minutes. The new RSB SCS® also includes a Fast Remote Control (FRC) which enables the immediate adjustment of the roll gap against the rolling force (under load) within milliseconds. Size changes along the free-size range can also be made within the traditional billet gaps in less than five seconds. At the core of the future-oriented RSB SCS® is a real-time closed-loop control system called Size Control System (SCS®) acting with 3-roll stands adjustable under load (AUL) and / or the heavy duty stands. These features remarkably further improve the rolled tolerances and their reproducibility, and at the same time simplify the operation by means of an automated optimization of the process parameters for the rolled bars.

Aug 16, 2017

By Dalila Chaves Sicupira

A pitting corrosion study of welded joints of lean duplex stainless steel (LDSS) UNS S32304 has been performed. LDSS S32304 thick plates were welded by different processes commonly employed in equipment and piping construction: SMAW (Shielded metal arc welding), GMAW (Gas metal arc welding) and FCAW (Flux cored arc welding). The electrochemical behavior of different weldment zones (fusion zone (FZ), base metal (BM) and heat affected zone (HAZ)) was characterized both independently using an electrochemical microcell and together through whole sample analysis. The electrochemical method applied was performed in acidified glycerin, a process fluid of the biodiesel industry. The results were correlated to the microstructural features of the materials. Based on the results, is possible to conclude that the breakdown potential (Eb) of the fusion zone (FZ) was higher than the Eb obtained for the heat affected zone (HAZ). In general, top samples show higher breakdown potential than root samples and also the samples welded using filler metal 2209 has a better anodic behavior than the filler metal 2307. According to the results, GMAW welding process with 2209 as filler metal was revealed as the optimum chosen for application of 2304 duplex stainless steels in this case.

Jan 16, 2018

By G. Martino, F. Silva, Emmanuel Marchal

The definition of the chemical specification at multiple steps of the steelmaking process is very common in the industry. Among all elements and compounds, the Sulphur content has a special control over several stages, from the coal blend to the final products. Coke, iron and steelmaking specialists usually agree on a static specification for each intermediate product according to their local operation capacity and production cost. However, local decisions have major impacts on the whole production chain and many global factors should be considered in order to make the best decision. In this study, we will exemplify focusing on Sulphur content concepts and techniques that could be applied to many decisions in an integrated carbon steel plant. The variation of coal and coke prices, the desulphurization cost and time, the processes operating points, the hot metal rate at converters, prices and demands of low and ultra-low Sulphur steel grades are some of the integrated factors that are usually disregarded during the specification process. Mathematical modeling presents itself as a proper option into dealing with all the complexity that emerges from integrating all these processes' trade-offs and decisions. This study presents the results of a mathematical model that encompasses economic, thermal, chemical, and mass balances, physical quality of materials and productivity constraints of all processes of a hypothetical integrated carbon steel plant. It optimizes the iron and steelmaking process on a global and unique objective, dynamically defining targets for product quality to achieve the lowest steel production cost. This study details multiple market-plant scenarios in order to compare economic and operating results of a static vs dynamic specification practice.

Oct 1, 2019

By Stephanie L. Kaster, John G. Speer, Blake M. Whitley

Niobium-microalloying technology has been increasingly applied in a wide range of steel applications over the past half-century, to increase strength, control microstructure, enhance properties and enable a variety of applications. To achieve desired performance levels, thermomechanically processed microalloyed steels are widely supplied by the steel industry for high volume applications in hot-rolled plate, sheet and structural steels. However, in steel long products and forgings, the final properties are often generated by downstream users, after heat-treatment, surface hardening, forging or wire drawing. Two examples are presented highlighting advancements associated with Nb-microalloying, to enhance microstructures and properties developed during thermomechanical and/or downstream processing. In the first example, a 0.02 wt. pct. Nb addition was made to a medium-carbon bar steel intended for induction-hardening applications requiring fatigue and fracture resistance in bending and torsion. The Nb addition as well as thermomechanical bar processing led to beneficial refinement of both the pre-induction and post-induction microstructures. In the second example, a 0.01 wt. pct. Nb addition to a high-carbon wire rod was found to refine the pearlite colony size and interlamellar spacing, and increase the hardness.

Oct 1, 2019

By Túlio Magno Fuzessy de Melo, Luciano Santos Marques, Vicente Tadeu Lopes Buono

The influence of the coiling temperature after hot strip rolling on the microstructure and on the tensile and hole expansion properties of a 800 MPa multiphase steel was investigated. For the temperatures between 150°C and 600°C the microstructure consisted of a ferritic matrix with a dispersion of fine martensite-austenite (MA) and regions of degenerated upper bainite. In all cases the ferrite presented a heterogeneous mixture of polygonal, quasi-polygonal and acicular grains. The yield and tensile strengths showed a tendency of decreasing with the increasing coiling temperature, probably because of the larger fraction of MA particles at lower temperatures and higher fraction of quasi-polygonal ferrite at higher temperatures. The elongation was not significantly affected by the variation of coiling temperature. The average hole expansion ratio showed a maximum of 80% for the material coiled at 400°C and fell below 50% only for the coiling temperature of 150°C, probably due to the larger hardness difference between the ferrite matrix and the MA particles.

Oct 1, 2019

By Gustavo Borges Tiboni

The erosive wear caused by the impact of solid particles against a surface is a tribological phenomenon present in many segments of the industry, such as transportation, aerospace, mining, power generation, among others. The most usual method to set the wear rate is by measuring the mass loss of the material. In order to apply one technique with potential to determine the rate of erosion wear, this study developed a dedicated equipment and conducted preliminary erosion tests monitored by non-destructive testing known as acoustic emission technique (AE). This can be defined as a technique able to detect mechanical waves generated by the release of elastic energy accumulated in the material. Erosion tests were performed in order to evaluate the ability of equipment to collect data from AE and to correlate these data with the wear of the samples. Samples of low carbon steel eroded by the impact of angular aluminum oxide particles suspended in air at three different velocities: 45, 57 and 67 m/s. The impact angle between the particles and the sample was set at 30 degrees and the test temperature at approximately 20°C. The wear rate has changed with the velocity in accordance with the kinetic energy of the particles and the AE parameter RMS showed sensitivity to the variation of particle impact velocity and to the wear of the sample eroded. The rate of AE signals collected over time correlated with the flow of particles striking the sample, and with the parameters of energy, rise time and duration of the signal.

Jul 31, 2018

By Xihuai Gong, Hongshuang Di, Jianping Li, Ning Yan

In this work, we investigated the effect of the rolling process (warm-rolled or cold-rolled) on microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of 9Mn steel. After intercritical annealing at 670°C for 10min, both cold-rolled and warm-rolled microstructures are composed of ultra-fined austenite and intercritical ferrite. The austenite in warm-rolled sample includes two types of morphology, namely equiaxed and lamellar, which exhibits a wide distribution of grain-size. The incomplete recrystallization or recovery behavior of ferrite in warm-rolled and annealed sample results in higher yield strength and shorter yield point elongation. Moreover, the warm-rolled and annealed sample extends the TRIP-related work hardening over a broad strain range, resulting in a better combination of ultimate tensile strength and total elongation.

Oct 1, 2019

By Edmar de Souza Silva, Antonio Augusto Gorni, Emanuelle Garcia Reis, Daniel Bojikian Matsubara

Controlled rolling followed by accelerated cooling, known worldwide as TMCP, aims to increase mechanical properties without toughness deterioration. The process principle is to promote the plate cooling with water jets along the range of the austenite transformation temperatures. The accelerated cooling process is only fully effective when controlled in an integrated manner, as it alone cannot ensure significant improvements in the final properties of steels. Plate surface quality depends on some parameters that must be controlled before the start of the plate accelerated cooling. Good flatness is essential to avoid irregular water accumulations during cooling. After the reheating process, the slab should have uniform temperature, uniform austenitic grain size and easily removable scale. The slab thermal and microstructural heterogeneities are inherited by the rolled plate and tend to increase further during the accelerated cooling. This results in flatness problems, high level of internal stresses and mechanical property variations. The descaling strategy is an extremely important factor and must be determined with great caution. It is important that scale thickness and distribution is uniform to ensure homogeneous cooling over the entire plate surface. Otherwise, there will be an uneven temperature distribution, which can cause serious problems of flatness, surface quality and mechanical properties.

Oct 1, 2019

By Franz Reufer

At Rogesa in Dillingen, Germany, a joint venture company of AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke and Saarstahl AG and at Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH in Salzgitter the sinterplants are equipped with the Paul Wurth EFA™ process for the final sinterplant off-gas cleaning. In Dillingen two and in Salzgitter one EFA™ plant are in operation at the respective sinterplants to comply with the very stringent environmental rules prevailing in Germany according to the German Clean Air Act called “TA Luft”. The main target is to eliminate or reduce emissions like dust, sulfur components, dioxins/furans and others in the sinter process off-gas. Since 2006 and 2011 the two EFA™ plant are in operation at Rogesa while the EFA™ plant in Salzgitter was also commissioned in 2011. These installations significantly contribute to the improvement of the emission situation of the Dillingen and Salzgitter Works. The EFA™ technology is the state-of-the-art process for such kind of application in terms of additive and energy consumption, reliability and availability. The report gives an overview of the EFA™ process and the performance results of the Dillingen and Salzgitter plant.

Aug 1, 2018

By Martin Chabicovsky, Milan Hnizdil

Emulsions are frequently used for the cooling and lubrication of working rolls during the cold rolling. The fact that the lubrication and cooling are not separable makes the optimization of both functionalities difficult. The higher emulsion temperature decreases the cooling efficiency compared to cold water. Heat transfer and fluid flow laboratory (Czech Republic), CRM (Belgium), Tata steel (Netherlands) and Henkel (Germany) cooperated on the increasing of a cooling efficiency during cold rolling. Part of this research was focused on an influence of the emulsion composition on a cooling intensity. The cooling efficiency was laboratory investigated. The stainless steel sample with thermocouple was heated and then it was cooled by a nozzle. Tests were performed with various emulsions and pure water. The heat transfer coefficient was computed from measured temperatures. The cooling intensity (heat transfer coefficient) of all tested emulsions was similar but an increase of the cooling intensity was found with water. Further various emulsions concentrations were tested. Results showed decreasing cooling intensity with increasing oil concentration. Adding additives therefore is thought to cause a noticeable decrease of the cooling intensity.

Oct 1, 2019

By Michael Brandner

In the past the research and development of new materials for hot mill rolls was mostly done by trials. Such trials are expensive and difficult to transform from small size to the big size of a solid roll. Computation is the cheaper way to get ideas processed and can be varied in different directions. The main part before simulation is the generation of the needed basic data of the specific materials. Some data is already well known and can be bought from databases; others have to be done specifically for our materials. The evaluation of such results has to be done still with solid trials, but the number of trials can be reduced. The advanced techniques of finite element calculation offer a wide range of possibilities to get answers about alloys, solidification, casting parameters and their influence. The possibility to calculate a heat treatment cycle and to get an answer about the internal stress modification during the cycle is a great help to understand the principle of transformation. Examples of different calculations in various fields will be given. The close cooperation with universities and other research institutes as well as the in-house possibilities will be presented.

Jul 30, 2018

By Michael Breuer, Christian Mengel, Luis Acainas Caballero, Olaf Jepsen

Stability of the hot strip mill rolling process remains a main topic when it comes to processing thin and hard materials. Strip steering especially at the end of rolling and tail out rips are a main source of unscheduled down times in a hot strip mill. Main focus of this paper is the new X-Roll® Guide system to improve mill stability and quality. An overview of SMS group developments in the recent years regarding equipment and control strategies is given. The new side guiding system in the entry area of the finishing mill is introduced and explained with operational examples. The system provides reproducible conditions for the threading process and during rolling. Steering control has a direct benefit on the availability of the mill. New developments of the roll alignment control strategies based on roll force and mill stand entry guide force measurement will be presented. Additionally a camera based measuring system is introduced that generates a direct process feedback of the strip position. It provides together with the roll alignment control the necessary control parameters for adjusting the roll gap and guiding the strip correct centered through the mill. As a summary the SMS group system is explained combining all features.

Oct 1, 2019

By Norbert Asamer

At various stages during the hot rolling process, the different rolled products – blooms, billets, bars, respectively sections, but also slabs or plates – need to be cut. While the cross sections of these products are being reduced during each rolling pass, the lengths are being increased accordingly. Thus, it becomes necessary to cut the products to shorter lengths suitable for the next steps of production by state-of-the-art designed dry abrasive cut-off machines.

Jul 30, 2018

By Gilmar Zacca Batista

The present work is a part of a comprehensive program that aims to evaluate the girth welding procedures for heavy wall API 5L X65 pipes produced for sour service applications. This article describes the results of toughness, strength and sour resistance of girth welds produced with different welding consumables. The methodology applied included girth welds production with GTAW process for root pass using ER70S-6 consumable and FCAW process for filling passes using E71T- 1CJ and E91T1-GM-H4 consumables. Mechanical tests of Charpy, CTOD, tensile, hardness and stress corrosion cracking were also performed. The E71T-1CJ resulted in a girth weld with tensile and yield strength around 7% lower than the pipe. However, according to the papers analyzed at this study, a value up to 10% of undermatching could be acceptable. The CTOD and Charpy tests showed good toughness and weld metal embrittlement was not observed. The hardness and the stress corrosion cracking tests demonstrated that the consumable ER70S-6 is suitable for sour service. All properties evaluated met the requirements specified by the onshore pipeline standards, showing that the consumables ER70S-6, E71T-1CJ and E91T1-GM-H4 are suitable for the welding of heavy wall X65 pipe with sour service and toughness requirements. If an overmatching is required, the E91T1-GMH4 shall be used to assure a strength overmatching and prevent plastic strain concentration at the weld metal. The results provided by this paper can be used for consumable selection and for welding procedure qualification of pipelines construction when heavy wall API 5L X65 are used for sour gas transportation.

Aug 16, 2017

By Kengo Usui

The energy consumption of Iron-making, especially Blast Furnace (BF), is very large. In order to maximize the utilization of limited resource, it is essential to reduce energy consumption and recovering waste energy in BF. This paper introduces energy saving equipment based on NSENGI’s over 80 BF construction experiences since 1963. The first is the technology for the Top Charging System for low fuel-rate operation. One of the important factors to achieve such operation, the burden should be charged uniformly. Since 1974, NSENGI have developed and delivered over 80 Top Charging equipments for such purpose and nowadays, developed new type Top Charging equipment with improvement of charging precision. The second is the technology for Solely BFG Operation in Hot Stove, which means no use of other fuel gas such as LDG, COG. It is realized by high combustibility of NSENGI’s Top-Combustion Hot Stove with Metallic Burners, and large amount of heat recovery of Waste gas Heat Recovery system with heat medium. The third is the technology for effective energy recovery in TRT. With NSENGI’s latest Gas Cleaning System “Multi-Vessel Electrostatic Precipitator" (MVEP), TRT will be able to generate higher electrical energy by approx. 30% than that of wet-type. In comparison with dry bag-type, MVEP allows temperature fluctuation which lead to generate higher electrical energy by approx. 10% NSENGI therefore, will be able to accept and meet your request widely.

Aug 1, 2018

By Wolfgang Kern

The implementation of the Gas Treatment Plant (GTP) for CSPECEM, Ceara-Brazil is a result of the closed partnership between Paul Wurth Italia S.p.A. and DMT, the German leading company in Coke Oven Gas Treatment Plants. In addition to technical issues reducing emissions, avoiding of waste and saving environment and energy were technical challenges during the engineering phase. Below mentioned three descriptions of technical solutions represents examples of a number other innovations based on DMT’s know-how and experience in the field of by-product plants. Generally the design of the complete GTP is based on the consideration of modern features and design upgrading, with the aim of a safe operation with stable conditions and a long-living cycle of the whole of the plant.

Aug 16, 2017

By François DUMORTIER

Due to the increasingly stringent requirements and the needs of the automotive industry, galvanizing lines for automotive products have to be modernized and improved. Beginning of 2017, SEGAL, a Tata Steel CGL located in BELGIUM and fully dedicated to automotive market, placed an order to increase the line capacity from 550kt/year to 600kt/year to process a wider range of steel grades and improve the product quality according to automotive requirements. To improve quality, a major revamping of the skin pass was necessary. The objectives were first to increase the work roll diameter from Φ560mm to Φ650mm to be able to transfer the required roughness with low elongation on soft material and second to increase the rolling force and tension to reach higher elongation on high strength steels. The result was the adaptation of the whole skin pass mechanics. Old mechanical elongation system has been replaced by a completely new single AC motor with helical gearbox at each bridle roll. John Cockerill achieved such complicated revamping in a very short time since the shutdown started only 6 month after the contract signature. The shutdown down schedule has been optimized with pre-erection works and the teams working 24/7 to implement all the changes. The complete project (skin pass, furnace, loopers) have been adapted during the three weeks shutdown. Today the customer can use both 560mm and 650mm work roll diameters. Thanks to the use of the new 650mm work roll diameter, the customer is able to make the same elongation using a bigger roll force (average 20% more), which has strongly improved the roughness transfer to the strip and the removal of the defects. SEGAL is really satisfied able to produce and supply higher quality automotive products to his customers.

Oct 1, 2019

By Piezanowski Ludivine

With the aim to reduce the hot metal production cost, ArcelorMittal Gent decided to integrate more ores with finer particle size distribution in the raw material mix for the production of blast furnace sinter. As a consequence of such an increase of finer material in the sinter raw mix, the sinter machine productivity and the quality of the sinter are affected. In order to compensate this impact, modern granulation technology can be employed. Within this context, ArcelorMittal Gent has invested in a vertical intensive mixer. The equipment was placed before the existing drums, with a function of “mixer”, whereas the drums are fully optimised for the nodulizing process. The paper presents the results of the industrial operation during the commissioning phase of the new equipment. Gradually increasing the proportion of fine material in the sinter raw mix has made it possible to compare the performances of the old system using drums for mixing and pelletizing with the new system using an intensive mixer combined with a nodulizing.

Aug 1, 2018