Archive > Iron & Steel Review > January 2013

Iron & Steel Review January 2013 Issue

Competence for the Steel Industry

VIEWPOINT

Relevance of Automation in Steel Industry
India is always looking for innovations and new technologies to manufacture steel. After liberalisation of the steel sector in India, a large number of new steel projects have come up with most advanced technologies.

Special Feature

Scenario of Stainless Steel
Axel Fredrik Cronsted (Sweden) discovered Nickel on 1751 and Nicolas Louis Vauquelin (France) discovered Chromium on 1797. First patent on Austenitic Stainless Steel was granted to Eduard Maurer (Germany) in 1912. It took 161 years to produce stainless steel, even after the discovery of Nickel. On 1913 Henry Brearly (UK) produced Martensitic Stainless Steel and Elwood Haynes (US) was granted a patent on Ferritic Stainless Steel in 1919.

NATIONAL TRENDS

Hot production of Sinter Plant begins at ISP, Burnpur
Staying right on its planned schedule, the hot production of the Sinter Plant at ISP commenced in the presence of CEO, N. Kothari, engineers, consortium members and other officials.

RINL CMD starts erection works of Oxygen Pressure Reducing Station for Steel Melt Shop
RINL CMD A.P. Choudhary started the erection works of Oxygen Pressure Reducing Station (PRS) for Steel Melt Shop-2.

NMDC receives “Company of the Year” award
NMDC received the prestigious “Company of the Year” award for the year 2012, organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce.
RINL CMD inaugurates Boiler-6 in Thermal Power Plant
RINL-VSP CMD A.P. Choudhary marked the inauguration of Boiler-6 as a part of Power Plant expansion by lighting up the Boiler. With this, a major milestone was achieved in the enhancement of captive power generation. The total cost of the Boiler-6 including all auxiliaries is estimated at Rs. 339 crores.

GLOBAL TRENDS

• New heavy-plate mill stand for ThyssenKrupp VDM

  ThyssenKrupp VDM GmbH entrusted SMS Siemag with the supply of a new 2.7-m heavy-plate stand for its location in Siegen. In the future, this new mill stand will enable ThyssenKrupp VDM to supply plates with narrower product tolerances and higher weights.

• SMS Meer supplies welded tube plant with finishing line to Arvedi

  Arvedi Metalfer Do Brasil LTDA in Salto, Brazil, has placed an order with SMS Meer for the supply of an RD140 HF welded tube plant including finishing line. The plant is scheduled to go into operation in May 2013.

• Changzhou ChangBao orders stretch-reducing mill and groove dressing machine

  Changzhou ChangBao from Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, has placed an order with SMS Meer, Germany, for the supply of a new stretch-reducing mill, including automation system. The scope of supply also includes a CARTA® technology package and a KR III 25 CNC groove dressing machine.

• Outokumpu completes Inoxum transaction

  Outokumpu, a global leader in stainless steel and high performance alloys, announced the completion of the Inoxum transaction. With close to 40 per cent market share in Europe and 12 per cent globally, the broadest portfolio in the industry and unparalleled technical expertise and customer knowledge, Outokumpu starts as a clear global leader in stainless steel and high performance alloys.

• Fives strengthens its Steel portfolio with acquisition of KEODS

  Fives has just completed the acquisition of KEODS, a French company employing 12 people and providing high-level assistance for the metal industry. This deal strengthens the Steel portfolio of Fives Group with the addition of proven sophisticated expertise, notably focused on carbon flat products for the automotive industry.

• Acceptance for first MEERgauge® from SMS Meer

  Deutsche Edelstahlwerke (DEW) operates the world’s first 3-roll block with hydraulic roll adjustment under load from SMS Meer, Germany. The so-called PSM® (Precision Sizing Mill) system replaced two 3-roll blocks at the Siegen-Geisweid site. MEERgauge® enables fully automatic operation of the 3-roll PSM®, independently of the operating personnel.

• SMS Elotherm: Tailor-made induction heating technology for Ovako

  SMS Elotherm, Germany, has been awarded two orders for induction heating equipment by Ovako Tube and Ring AB in Hofors, Sweden. EloBar™ and EloTube™ machines by SMS Elotherm combine high energy efficiency with a comparatively small space requirement.

• New cold rolling mill speed record: Fives DMS achieves 1,200 m/min. for TISCO

  Fives DMS commissioned a cold rolling mill for TISCO at its plant in Taiyuan (P.R. China) that was able to achieve a maximum speed of 1,200 meters per minute for cold rolling stainless steel. This pulverises the previous world record, which stood at 1,000 m/min.

• Third Siemens Continuous Slab Caster goes into operation at Dragon Steel

  Siemens VAI Metals Technologies put a new continuous casting plant into operation in August 2012 at the Taiwanese steelmaker Dragon Steel Co. The two-strand caster was installed at the Taichung, Taiwan location and is designed to produce approximately two million tonnes of slabs made of carbon and micro-alloyed steels annually for high-quality flat-rolled products.

• Siemens increases power limits with liquid-cooled Sinamics S120 converters

  The Siemens Drive Technologies Division has expanded the power of liquid-cooled built-in units for the Sinamics S120 converter series. The power limit of the individual units has been increased from 1,500 kW to 1,700 kW.

FOCUS

Pellets – the ‘Dependables’ of steel
It seems that steel mills in the country of India are depending on pellets on a larger extent tagging the same as a raw material – thanks to the shortage of iron ore in this country. The dependability factor is set to rise approximately by 13 percentage points in the next two years, being 2015.

Lack of iron ore causing hiatus to small steel companies
Small and medium steel companies in India are facing the storm, and it’s lack of iron ore. As per recent data by the Joint Plant Committee, the non-alloy and carbon steel segment saw a downfall of 2.1 per cent in production in the April-November 2012 period. Largely, the decline in production stood at 1.6 per cent. Total production in the segment stood at about 27 million tonnes (mt), a little more than the combined output of the main and major producers.

Demand in construction results in high steel prices
A renaissance in construction field witnessed a rise in steel prices. Post a series of up and downs, the surging demand of the related field extended this price rise in the Indian market. It is being cautiously watched as steel prices are incessantly rising due to higher cost of production on an expansion in input cost.

COMPANY NEWS

3tn: Efficient material handling and better overview in steel service centers
The technical warehouse management system TWMS/metals controls and visualises transport and storage activities in the metals industry from continuous casting through to the shipment of the finished products. It optimises the use of storage capacities across various warehouses or even plantwide, ensuring that the means of transport, such as cranes or cross transfer systems, are efficiently used.

COMPANY REPORT

Tata Group : Crossing the Lines and Going Strong
The Tata Group stands today as the industry major pacing ahead bagging effective amplitude. However, the journey was not as smooth as it would have been, by the by, the Group had to cross series of lines and as days are passing by, the assemblage is going strong.

MARKET & PRODUCT

Housingless roll stands
The housingless (HL) roll stand construction is the backbone of modern rolling mills. The modular design permits the use of HL stand cassettes in all possible configurations: horizontal, vertical, tiltable and universal.

PSM® – Precision Sizing Mill Advanced 3-roll technology in SBQ and wire rod production
The development of the advanced 3-roll PSM® was a milestone in SBQ and wire rod production. It significantly improves tolerances and efficiency while allowing for reliable, easy and fully automated control

Continuous Annealing Line SSAB
SSAB’s Continuous Annealing Line (CAL) in Borlänge, Sweden is the only installation in Europe serving since years the market for High Strength Martensitic Steels. The heart of the installation (see schematic below) is the furnace section with its water quench unit and pickling unit allowing extremely high cooling rates to obtain the required mechanical properties for the special steel grades of this market. SSAB is not only advanced in this cooling technology but also sets new standards in the environmental protection and use of energy.

STEEL TECHNOLOGY

The most modern and cost-effective DRI technologies
The gas-based DRI process works by circulating a reducing gas through a moving bed of particulate iron ore at temperatures up to 1,000oC. Oxygen is removed from the iron ore by chemical reduction for the production of highly metallised DRI. Thanks to the successful start-up of the first Energiron plant at ESI (Abu Dhabi), Danieli, with their partners Tenova HYL, is the new world leader in the DRP technology. The high energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of the process combined with a high flexibility both in productive capacity and product quality, independently from raw materials, make the Energiron Direct Reduction plant the best solution to be competitive in steelmaking.

Revolutionary development: New S/EAF 30% increase in productivity and lower energy consumption
With its continuous process, the new S/EAF from SMS Siemag is a convincing electric arc furnace design, which increases productivity by 30 per cent while reducing energy consumption.

COAL TRENDS

Future is Black
The title is chosen to show that the coal material which is black is the future material for sustaining the economic growth for iron and steel sector and power. For the past so many decades in human history, iron and steel played a vital role in civilisation and economic growth. Coal, the only source of carbon, is vital for the iron and power generation and in turn propels the economic engine, is black.

BEARING INDUSTRY

Innovative Bearings for Printing Press and Its Packaging
There are several processes involved in the act of papermaking and the equipments used in the papermaking and printing processes utilise more than 500 tapered roller bearings. These bearings are also used for all the steps that are involved in the process of printing, starting from printing to packaging.

IRON & STEELMAKING

Optimised secondary steelmaking: oxygen and sulphur partition models in a new Level 2 system for LF-VD
Danieli has recently developed a new Level 2 system to optimise the control of the LF-VD process. This new Level 2 is now succesfully running in several steel plants, and will also be used in others. The metallurgical models developed for the new Level 2 system are based on the dynamic calculation of the steel-slag composition in various process steps to continuously control and optimise the refining process. The component models involved in the new Danieli L2 system and their general usages are listed in Table 1. The calculations of the models are iterative.

REFRACTORY

Almatis: Complete Alumina Expertise
Almatis is the largest global producer of specialty aluminas with nine production plants around the world. Almatis started the specialty alumina business when it made the first sale of a calcined alumina to the abrasives industry in 1910. Almatis today provides premium aluminas globally to the refractory, ceramics and polishing markets.

ROLLING & CASTING

Challenges, opportunities and developments in rail rolling technology
Rail and Structural Mill (RSM) at Bhilai Steel Plant, an integrated steel plant of SAIL was setup in the early sixties with an installed capacity to produce 5,00,000 tonnes of finished rails and 2,50,000 tonnes of structural. Today, RSM is the sole producer of rails and caters to the entire requirement of rails of the Indian Railways. The mill has consistently fulfilled the quality and quantity requirements of rails for the Indian Railways and has produced highest prime rail production of 8,14,739 tonnes in the year 2009. Besides this, rails are also being exported to about ten countries worldwide.

SEMINAR & CONFERENCE

National Conference on Iron & Steel Technologies – Research & Application (ISTRA 2012)
The term ‘Change’ stands as the only constant in this whole wide world and it suffices each and every entity throughout time. The iron and steel industry is no different accepting the parameters of changes and technologies used in iron and steelmaking tags themselves as one of the most significant connotations within the related industry sectors.