Steel Times International September 2017 by Quartz

FUTURE STEEL FORUM

ROLLING

INNOVATIONS

PERSPECTIVES

A special report on a groundbreaking steel conference

Vision-based strip steering control from Primetals Technologies

Six pages of new steel industry contracts and new products

Dr. Hirai Etsuro, chief technology officer, Primetals Technologies

www.steeltimesint.com September 2017 - Vol.41 No6

STEEL TIMES INTERNATIONAL – September 2017 – Vol.41 No.6

STEEL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES – REPORT STI Cover sept.indd 1

SPRAY-COOLED

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LEADING PARTNER IN THE WORLD OF METALS SMS group is your leading partner in the world of metals. As a family-owned business headquartered in Germany, quality and innovation are in our DNA. Fast and flexible, we develop individual and modular solutions – whether it’s the design of a new plant, Modernization, Digitalization, or Life Cycle Services. In close Collaboration with you, we help you ensure your success. Let’s add value along the entire value chain, together.

Leading partner in the world of metals

www.sms-group.com

Leading Partner_Kette_A4_e.indd 1

10.07.17 11:57

CONTENTS - SEPTEMBER 2017

FUTURE STEEL FORUM 2017

ROLLING

INNOVATIONS

PERSPECTIVES

A special report on a groundbreaking steel conference

Vision-based strip steering control from Primetals Technologies

Five pages of new steel industry contracts and new products

Dr. Hirai Etsuro, chief technology officer, Primetals Technologies

www.steeltimesint.com September 2017 - Vol.41 No6

STEEL TIMES INTERNATIONAL – September 2017 – Vol.41 No.6

STEEL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES – REPORT

SPRAY-COOLED

STI Cover sept.indd 1

11/09/2017 10:29:26

Picture courtesy of: The Systems Group Electric Arc Furnace at Nucor-Yamato Steel with roof and sidewall utilising Spray-Cooled technology

EDITORIAL Editor Matthew Moggridge Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855151 matthewmoggridge@quartzltd.com Consultant Editor Dr. Tim Smith PhD, CEng, MIM Production Editor Annie Baker Advertisement Production Martin Lawrence SALES International Sales Manager Paul Rossage paulrossage@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855116

7 2 Leader By Matthew Moggridge, editor, Steel Times International.

Sales Director Ken Clark kenclark@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855117 Managing Director Steve Diprose stevediprose@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855164 Chief Executive Officer Paul Michael SUBSCRIPTION Elizabeth Barford Tel +44 (0) 1737 855028 Fax +44 (0) 1737 855034 Email subscriptions@quartzltd.com Steel Times International is published eight times a year and is available on subscription. Annual subscription: UK £178.00 Other countries: £254.00 2 years subscription: UK £320.00 Other countries: £457.00 )

4 News Industry news, diary dates and contract news. 7 Innovations The latest new products.

Single copy (inc postage): £40.00 Email: steel@quartzltd.com Published by: Quartz Business Media Ltd, Quartz House, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QX, England. Tel: +44 (0)1737 855000

16 The hour before dawn Changing down a gear.

Fax: +44 (0)1737 855034 www.steeltimesint.com Steel Times International (USPS No: 020-958) is published monthly except Feb, May, July, Dec by Quartz Business Media Ltd and distributed in the US by DSW, 75 Aberdeen Road, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville, PA. POSTMASTER send address changes to Steel Times International

18 Latin America update Argentina’s long steel market.

c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437. Printed in England by: Pensord, Tram Road, Pontlanfraith, Blackwood,

20 Conference report And the elephants in the room are...

Gwent NP12 2YA, UK ©Quartz Business Media Ltd 2017

ISSN0143-7798

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Contents.indd 1

26 Conference report: Future Steel Forum An event not to be missed in 2018

TURN TO PAGE 26 OF THIS ISSUE FOR AN EXCELLENT REVIEW OF FUTURE STEEL FORUM 2017. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PRESENT A PAPER AT NEXT YEAR’S EVENT (JUNE 6-7 2018) GET IN TOUCH.

Rolling 33 Vision-based strip steering control. 41 Work roll upgrades.for extreme speeds 51 Special steels Desulphurising liquid steels. 53 Special and stainless steels Neutrons point the way. 57 Perspectives Steel - an essential base material. 60 History Preserved cast iron bridges. September 2017

15/09/2017 10:01:28

LEADER

North Korea changing names to protect the guilty

Matthew Moggridge Editor matthewmoggridge@quartzltd.com

Is it just me? I’m now what you might call a ‘frequent flyer’ and while I don’t particularly worry about flying when taking scheduled flights (where the inflight magazines have route maps) I’m always a little apprehensive when aboard a charter flight with a holiday company. I don’t know why, it’s just the way things are – possibly because I have my family with me when normally I fly alone. So I’m in a bus on my way to Alghero airport having enjoyed a week of Sardinian sun, and on the day I’m flying home the wind picks up and the rain starts to fall. But all was well, the flight was smooth and the plane landed softly in my ‘safe European home’, although it’s not so safe anymore. These days, there’s no escape from nutters. However, having read Nevil Shute’s On the Beach I figure that if any nation is going to survive a nuclear winter, it will be Australia. That said, with Beach Ball face nearby, firing off missiles like there is no tomorrow and threatening to attack Guam, I’m not so sure. If you’ve got this far you’ve probably guessed that I’ve returned from my vacation suffering from writer’s block. I’ve been away from the steel industry

for a week and I’m floundering, although North Korea seems like a topic worthy of discussion. Every day of last week, while waiting in my hotel room for dinner, I watched a French television channel, broadcast in English, showing footage of the aforementioned Beach Ball consulting with his uniformed cohorts and clapping as missiles were launched into the sky. North Korea has a steel industry, but it’s not in the big league. While Platts has reported a steelmaking capacity of 12Mt/ yr, the country was producing just over 1Mt/yr in 2015. The Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex is the country’s star player, capable of producing 6Mt/yr of steel. Despots with missiles are not to be tolerated and while military action would prove disastrous, the UN has approved more sanctions against the ‘rogue state’ – sanctions which have led North Korea to engage in a sneaky practice of changing the composition and names of its staterun commercial enterprises and putting them under the nominal ownership of individuals to circumvent the latest UN sanctions. Dick Dastardly once said he was so sneaky he didn’t even trust himself, but clearly the Beach Ball has no such qualms.

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BSE Consulting & Qualification

Learning from one of the World’s leading MiniMills!

The operational excellence of Badische Stahlwerke (BSW) – the mini-mill of the Badische Group – is the result of continuous investment and application of the ”Badische Philosophy“: skilled, motivated personnel provided with appropriate tools and assigned clear responsibility within a lean organisation. For more than 30 years now, Badische Stahl-Engineering (BSE) has been successfully implementing this special mini-mill culture to various steel plants and rolling mills all over the world – with comprehensive know-how contracts, classic seminars as well as individual training and consulting services. Contact us – we can help you to optimise YOUR productivity and efficiency by smart adaptation of selected methods and proven technologies. Badische Stahl-Engineering GmbH Robert-Koch-Straße 13 D -77694 Kehl/Germany Phone (+49) 78 51/8 77- 0 Fax (+49) 78 51/8 77-133 eMail info@bse-kehl.de www.bse-kehl.de BSE America 1811 Sardis Road North, Suite 210 Charlotte, NC 28270 Phone (704) 553-1582 www.bse-america.com

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4 NEWS IN BRIEF JSW to buy Italian steel plant Indian steelmaker JSW Steel is talking to the Algerian Cevital Group with a view to acquiring the Aferpi steel mill in Italy, according to online media reports. JSW had tried to buy the mill in 2014 when it was known as Lucchini, but Cevital got there ﬁrst and changed the name to Aferpi. It is rumoured that JSW will pay in the region of US$100 million for Aferpi and that the plan is to increase capacity from its current 18Mt/yr to 40-45Mt/yr by 2030. Source: The Economic Times.

Port of Monaco buys Acerinox steel The Port of Monaco extension project in Southern France will beneﬁt from steel supplied by Acerinox. The company plans to supply 4kt of duplex type corrugated stainless steel bars to be used in the framework of the concrete structures that will act as a protective barrier against the sea in critical areas.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Get yourself to: Düsseldorf is a great place to hold a steel conference and every year, in November, there’s one event that’s deﬁnitely worth visiting – it’s called Stahl (which is German for ‘steel’). This year’s event – Stahl 2017 – will focus on the subject of Overcoming Barriers. “Current challenges must be met in order to permit the development of future prospects,” says the organiser of this annual steel industry event, which is always held in Dusseldorf.

Among the many subjects under discussion this year will be the risks and opportunities of steel-based value-creation chains. Another is the development of a holistic European industrial policy in order to give steel a strong future in Germany. Value creation, material development for automotive construction and production efﬁciency will all be under discussion and once the conference is over there

Düsseldorf

is plenty to do in Dusseldorf’s Alt Stadt (old town).

Hoa Phat chooses Danieli

AK Steel announces price rises AK Steel, a leading producer of ﬂat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products, primarily for the automotive industry, has announced prices rises. Effective from 3 September this year, commodity sheet and strip, speciality sheet and strip and pipe and tube sheet and strip products will witness reductions of functional discounts by two percentage points. All remaining stainless steel products, including automotive sheet and strip, will see base products increased by US$40 per ton.

Vassella is new Bluescope MD and CEO Mark Vassella has been appointed managing director and CEO of BlueScope Steel of Melbourne, Australia. He replaces Paul O’Malley who will retire at end of 2017. Mr Vassella joined Bluescope in 2007 and is currently CEO of BlueScope Australia and New Zealand. BlueScope chairman John Bevan said that Mark will lead from the front. “His priority now is to keep delivering on the strategy,” he added, referring to the company’s clear focus on improving returns and driving growth.

In Vietnam, the Hoa Phat Group has chosen Italian steel production technology specialist, Danieli, as its technology supplier to complete the Quang Ngai Steel Complex Phase 1 Project located at the Dung Quat Economic Zone, in Quang Ngai province. Italian steel technology suppli-

er Danieli is to supply the Vietnam-based Hoa Phat Group with three continuous casters and two rolling mills to produce construction-grade steel at the company’s Quang Ngai Steel Complex in the Dung Quat Economic Zone, Quang Ngai province. According to Danieli, the three

six-strand ‘conticasters’, which will produce billets ranging in size from 130mm to 165mm, will be equipped with a Fast Cast Cube mould and Hy-Power oscillation drive system that, claims Danieli, will guarantee the best performances and the lowest operational costs.

3D printing boosts innovation at SMS group

The German steel production technology specialist, SMS group, has taken advantage of 3D printing technology to develop new spray heads for forging presses. 3D printing technology, claims the company, permits extremely lightweight and compact 3D spray

heads to be produced that are tailored to the conditions of the respective dies. “Flexible actuation of individual nozzles paired with fast handling and a homogeneously distributed mist shortens press cycle times and extends the service life of the

dies,” says SMS group. According to the SMS group, spray heads ﬁtted in closed-die forging presses serve to remove scale from the dies between the individual press strokes, to cool the surface, to apply lubricants and dry the die surface.

September 2017

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INDUSTRY NEWS

“Over the next 30 years we believe the value of steel required for car production will increase as manufacturers shift towards using cutting-edge steels. As a manufacturer of premium quality steel products we will continue to develop new innovative steels for the

”

car of the future.

Source: Tata Steel

Astounding Facts and Figures... China’s energy demand will peak by 2040, ﬁve years later than previously forecasted by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). They will peak at 4.06 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, up from 3.75 billion tonnes in 2035. Source: China National Petroleum Corporation.

China’s ﬁrst domestically made tank was rolled off the production line 60 years ago in the city of Baotou. Source: Xinhua News Agency.

Research by Tata Steel has indicated that electric vehicles will drive an increase of 4.2Mt/yr in demand for steel in Europe between 2015 and 2050 to almost 22.5Mt/yr. Source: The Daily Telegraph.

Scrap steel from four recycled cars is enough to frame a typical 2,000 sq ft house. Source: Steel Fabrication Services. The Hebei province of China accounts for nearly one quarter of China’s steel production. Hebei, along with Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Tianjin and Beijing, have been asked to cut steel output by 50% over the November to February winter period. Source: Frontera News

DIARY OF EVENTS

September 2017 26-28 17th China International Steel & Raw Materials Conference One of the most prestigious and well-known events in the global steel and iron ore industries, claims the organiser. Iron ore price trends and the dry bulk shipping market plus other topics will be under discussion. Further details, www.ironoreconference.com

October 2017 02-04 North American Steel Conference, Swisshotel, Chicago, USA If you’re interested in the USA steel industry – and who isn’t? – then attending CRU’s North American Steel Conference is a no-brainer, you must go. Key speakers include Wiley Rein’s Alan Price. Further details, log on to www.crugroup.com 02-04 EMECR 2017, KOBE International Conference Centre, Japan. Organised by the Iron & Steel Institute of Japan An international conference on energy and material efﬁciency and CO2 reduction in the steel industry and covering ironmaking, the blast furnace route, thermal energy insulation and carbon and material recycling. For further details, log on to www.emecr2017.com

In 2013, enough steel was salvaged from recycled cars to make over 13 million new ones. Source: Steel Fabrication Services The average computer is roughly 25% steel. Source: Steel Fabrication Services. Tata Steel claims that it supplies almost 50% of steel requirements for UK car manufacturers, from body panels to drivetrain components. Source: Tata Steel.

The 87-storey Shard building in London contains 1,000 tonnes of steel produced by Tata Steel in Shotton, UK. Source: Wales Online.

24-27 Korea Metal Week 2017, Hall 7-8, Centre 2, Kintex, South Korea International metals industry conference covering many subjects under one roof. For further information, log on to www.korea-metal.com

November 2017 14-17 Metal Expo, Hall 75, VDNkHa, Moscow, Russia Last year it attracted 530 companies from 32 countries, including steelmakers, tube and pipe manufacturers and distributors and engineers. In fact, there’s so much going on, you’d better check the website. For further information, log on to www.metal-expo.ru

September 2017

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Ever Wanted To Go Swimming In Your Furnace?

Protect Your Employees. Protect Your Investment. The Safer Alternative.

Approximate leak volumes calculated in typical operating conditions through 5 cm hole : Actual results may vary

INNOVATIONS

Dillinger contracts SMS to upgrade caster

Ovako modernises EAF safety system Swedish steel producer Ovako has awarded Systems Spray-Cooled (SSC) the contract to modernise and increase safety on its Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). It will be the first Spray-Cooled roof in the Nordic region, the company claims, and will be located at Ovako’s bar, billet, tube, and rings facility in Hofors, Sweden. Ovako was first exposed to Spray-Cooled technology at the European Electric Steelmaking Conference in Italy and has weighed the new technology against its current pressurised tubular roofs. The main concern was implementing the technology with Ovako’s environment (piping); otherwise, the steelmaker has been highly enthusiastic about the technology and, claims SSC, saw clear advantages for maintenance and safety. Because Spray-Cooled equipment operates at atmospheric pressure, the cooling water is not pumped across the area to be cooled. Therefore, the potential for high pressure, high volume water leaks is eliminated, the company claims. Under the contract, the new roof will be engineered to work with www.steeltimesint.com

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Ovako’s current furnace set-up, as well as ‘future-proofed’ to integrate with planned furnace upgrades. To alleviate concerns about potential piping issues, the new roof will be engineered using state-of-the-art 3D laser scans of the current furnace and surrounding mill. According to SSC, the 3D laser scan will aid in the design, especially since the available drawings are 25 years old and are said to have discrepancies. It will also allow piping to be designed accurately for easy fitment and should greatly reduce or eliminate unforeseen issues in the process. The Hofors steelmaking operation, based around ingot casting, has an annual capacity of about 500kt of ingots. The tube rolling capacity is about 120kt annually and the ring rolling capacity about 45kt/yr. What is described by SSC as an‘unconventional cantilever-lift roof’ will be fabricated in Germany. Ovako and SSC plan on commissioning in January 2018. Further information, log on to www.spraycooled.tsg.bz

German steelmaker Dillinger has upgraded its CC6 continuous caster so that it can produce 600mm thick slabs. The company approached German plant builder SMS group to carry out the work based on a strong relationship that has existed between the two companies over many years. The new plant was commissioned on 25 July. SMS has described Dillinger’s new caster as ‘one of a kind’, designed to produce slabs within the 300mm to 600mm thickness range. The caster’s permanent load holding system, neutral axis technology, and load take-over strategy were particular challenges for SMS, but they were all overcome. With its new caster in place, claims SMS, Dillinger has ‘set new standards in the heavy plate grade segment’. In 1961 SMS delivered Dillinger’s first continuous caster and followed up in 1998 with the CC5, which was upgraded in 2010, setting a new world record at the time by producing 450mm thick slabs. In 2015 the record was broken by Dillinger’s CC6 when it produced 500mm slabs and now, of course, the CC6 has done it again. SMS said that ‘multiple world record holder’ was a great name for Dillinger’s latest caster, adding that the equipment combines a high degree of technological stability, extreme production reliability and huge potential ‘to meet the demands of tomorrow’. Further information, log on to www.sms-group.com September 2017

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INNOVATIONS

Siempelkamp’s radial-axial ring rolling machine Siempelkamp, a leading manufacturer of open and closed die forging presses, has designed and built a cutting-edge radial-axial ring-rolling machine capable of producing high quality aerospace grade rolled rings. Siempelkamp claims that its new machine has ‘exceeded customer expectations’ by enabling the flexible production of high-end aerospace rings and commercial carbon steel rings at the touch of a button. “The machine has many innovations specifically targeted to produce both rectangular and profiled high-end aerospace-grade rolled rings,” said Siempelkamp. It was crucial that the company developed a solution that would enable quick changing of the main roll. With this in mind, Siempelkamp’s engineering team designed a main roll cassette that allows operators to change tooling in less than 30 minutes. “This quick changeover is possible because of the design of the cassette as well as the hydraulic clamping elements which hold the main roll cassette in position,” the company explained, adding that with integrated remote height adjustment, the user can remotely adjust the height of the main roll to ensure it is in the correct position relative to the rolling table. “This main roll cassette is a standard feature of the machine, said Siempelkamp. With the new ring-rolling machine, it is possible to utilise either a standard main roll cassette or a support roll type cassette. “This allows for seamless interchangeability between these two different main roll designs without any mechanical changes to the machine,” Siempelkamp said. When it is necessary to produce ID profiled rings, the mandrel is also designed with a remote height adjustment ability, allowing for precise positioning of mandrel tooling in relation to the rolling table. The ring-rolling table has been designed and built to allow for quick height adjustment and has a hydraulic clamping and wedge system for remote adjustment. The rolling table also has the ability to be adjusted during the rolling process. The system’s axial cones are designed with integrated cone caps. When changing the axial cones, it is only necessary to change the caps and not the entire shaft assembly. This greatly reduces maintenance costs and time, which leads to greater productivity and profitability. The upper axial cone has a unique design feature; the ring mill actively controls the angle of the cone, ±2°. This is critical during the production of washer-type rings, as the forces induced on the upper axial cone during the rolling process tend to push the cone up. As a result, the ring mill’s hydraulic and electrical control system is actively controlling the upper axial cone counterbalance cylinder. The cylinder is continuously adjusted to try and maintain ‘parallelism’ between the upper and lower axial cone. Siempelkamp’s control system – which runs the latest generation ring-rolling software (dewww.steeltimesint.com

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veloped by Siempelkamp) – has been designed using modern off-the-shelf components. It features a Siemens S7-400 PLC and a Siemens Simotion CNC controller to provide state-of-theart control. Siempelkemp’s SicoRoll 3.0. SicoRoll 3.0 ring-rolling software is a completely integrated software package for the entire ring rolling process. It assists with the development of the ring blank geometry, ring rolling curve and ring growth curve, as well as the complete simulation of the ring-rolling process. To reduce long-term maintenance costs on the main roll and axial cone motors, Siempelkamp’s machine has been designed utilising variable frequency AC drives and motors, which provide the customer with reduced maintenance costs and a higher level of energy efficiency. The lasers utilised for measuring the ring position on the axial cones are a commercially available solution. In addition to measuring the ring position, it is also possible to integrate a temperature monitoring device to constantly feedback the ring temperature to the operator. With the additional temperature monitoring system, the

control system can ensure that the ring is never rolled below a pre-determined temperature. An additional key feature of the laser system is that external cooling water is no longer required; the laser is cooled via compressed air. Compressed air not only cools the measuring device, but helps to keep airborne contaminants from entering the unit. In addition, a second laser can be added to the machine to provide additional functionality. Additional functionality includes automatic tilting of the mandrel to produce sleeve-type rings, controlling of the upper axial cone during the production of profiled rings, or measuring key dimensions on profiled rings. To maximise productivity, time is critical when producing aerospace rings. The hydraulic system has been designed so that the machine’s gross opening and closing movements are as fast as possible. This allows the ring mill to close quickly on the ring blank and begin the ring-rolling process. For further information, log on to www.siempelkamp.com September 2017

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INNOVATIONS

Tata revamps Ijmuiden HDG line

In a move designed to further strengthen its position among automotive market suppliers over the coming years, Tata Steel Europe has announced plans for a major revamp of its Hot Dip Galvanising Line 2 at Ijmuiden in the Netherlands. The steelmaker has taken on Italian plant builder Danieli to perform a 'multi-phase revamp' that will boost a new production capacity of 460kt/yr for coated steel and a new product mix focused on higher-value steel grades. The contract includes design, equipment manufacturing, installation and commissioning activities for a major furnace upgrade, new automation and optimisation of the entry and exit sections. The furnace section of the line will be extended by installing an additional free-flame zone and radiant tubes, in order to add extra thermal power capability for the increase in production

capacity. According to Danieli, a completely rebuilt gas jet cooling section will mean 'extremely high cooling rates and improved uniformity for strip temperature at the exit of the section'. It will also optimise the dynamic response of the furnace during transitions between different coils, both in terms of steel grades and strip sizes. Electrical and automation systems will be replaced and redeveloped by Danieli Automation based on advanced automation system controllers designed to integrate existing and new equipment in a uniform automation platform. Danieli claims that this investment will 'further strengthen Tataâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading position among automotive market suppliers in the years ahead.' Further information, log on to www.danieli.com

Primetals China Steel

China Steel Corporation (CSC), a leading flat steel producer in Taiwan, has awarded Primetals Technologies the contract to upgrade its continuous slab caster S6 at the companyÂ´s Kaohsiung plant. The project includes the replacement of obsolete or redundant features through the modernisation of the mold and the installation of proven technology packages. The aim of the upgrade, says Primetals, is to increase flexibility and product quality and minimise break-outs. Additional enhancement features will be considered going forward. Primetals Technologies says it will equip the caster with its DynaWidth hydraulic mold width adjustment to allow accurate slab width change during or between casting. It will also provide its Mold Expert breakout prevention and mold monitoring system to

Hadeed signs for Tenova DRI system

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minimise the possibility of breakouts, and the DynaFlex hydraulic mold oscillation system with a new frame type oscillator offering ‘complete flexibility over oscillation control during casting to maximise cast product surface quality. Primetals will be responsible for design and supply as well as providing advisory services during erection and commissioning. CSC-owned China Steel Machinery Corporation (CSMC) will manufacture new mold parts and a new frame type DynaFlex oscillator in Taiwan. China Steel Corporation (CSC) has an annual production capacity of around 9.9Mt (metric tons) per year. Around two thirds of the production is for the domestic Taiwanese market, the rest is exported. The CSC plant in Kaohsiung includes two BOF shops with a total of seven 2-strand slab casters

Hadeed Saudi Iron & Steel Company has signed a final acceptance certificate for the delivery, by Tenova, of a DRI-based furnace optimisation system for the Hadeed plant's Electric Arc Furnace 5. Tenova’s i DRI technology project at Hadeed has already demonstrated its performance credentials by achieving a 1.42% yield increase, a 4.1% productivity increase, a 3.23% reduction on electrical consumption and a 1.6 min reduction on Power on Time (PON). "As applied to the DRI process, the models are responsible to calculate the most important parameters used by the i EAF®control modules”, says Tenova, an international engineering

and three 4-strand bloom casters. The slab casters mainly produce carbon and low alloy steels. The two-strand continuous slab caster S6 was originally started up in 1996 and is equipped with a straight mold. The machine radius is around 9m and the metallurgical length is around 44.7m. It produces slabs with a thickness of 250mm with widths ranging from 750mm to 1,880mm. Grades cast include ultra-low and low carbon steels, peritectic and high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels, micro-alloyed and low-alloyed steels as well as pipe grades. Start-up of the modernised caster is expected in mid-2018. For further information, log on to www.primetals.com

company based in Italy. Working alongside the plant PLC, system performance was achieved through validation of several fundamental outputs, including: offgas measurements using EFSOP technology; a downstream analyser; temperature and off-gas flow sensors; furnace and auxiliary service automation; process modelling for real-time mass and energy balance; chemical energy control and optimisation of oxygen lances; and DRI feed rate control.

For further information, log on to www.tenova.com

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12/09/2017 15:33:45

INNOVATIONS

Danieli for SD Inc US steel producer Steel Dynamics Inc. has awarded Danieli the order for a new billet welder and spooler line to be installed at its facility in Columbia City, Indiana. The new equipment will be capable of processing 240kt/yr of rebar from #3 to #8 and smooth rounds from 3/8” to 1-1/16” in compact coils up to 5.5 tons. Commissioning of the new line is expected in the last quarter of 2018. According to Danieli, this will be the 27th

Danieli spooler line (58 units in all) designed and installed since 2000. The combination of billet welding and spooling technologies will maximise yield because of the endless production process, Danieli said. “Twistfree spooled coils add value to final products

because they do not require uncoiling and recoiling operations before downstream processing,” the company added. For further information, log on to www.danieli.com

ExxonMobil and Primetals sign lubricants deal ExxonMobil and Primetals Technologies have signed a global lubricants agreement to provide lubricants and enhanced technical services exclusively to Primetals’ customers. The offer includes three new product families engineered specifically for Primetals Technologies’ high speed long rolling and flat rolling systems. Primetals has ‘preferentially endorsed all three product families for use in its equipment’ and the offer also includes an enhanced new equipment warranty. “Metals producers today want a lubrication programme that boosts machine efficiency and reduces costs,” said Tim Hinchman, director of strategic global alliances at ExxonMobil. “This

partnership enables us to combine our lubrication expertise with Primetals Technologies’ equipment expertise to achieve one shared goal – help our customers improve their operational reliability, productivity and profitability.” The two companies will provide a suite of equipment and lubrication technical services to help customers who use the new products to optimise equipment performance. These services, performed globally by ExxonMobil and Primetals Technologies’ field engineering teams, include specialised training in products and lubrication best practices, lubricant analysis, equipment troubleshooting and maintenance support.

Gabriel Royo, vice president and global head of metallurgical services at Primetals Technologies USA commented: “To meet their demanding productivity goals, operators want suppliers who can deliver end-to-end support to optimise mill reliability and performance.” According to Royo, ExxonMobil is the ideal partner to help Primetals deliver a complete solution – “providing world-class products and technical support for our advanced equipment designs – so our customers can focus on achieving their business goals,” he added. Further information, log on to www.primetals.com

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12/09/2017 15:33:49

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INNOVATIONS

Edwards launches handheld vacuum gauge Edwards has introduced the P3 hand-held vacuum measuring system, which it describes as an easy-to-use, battery-powered device with onboard display of measured pressure. The device is claimed to be ideal for on-site service calls and in situ pressure checking and can provide mobile and fixed pressure measurement for installations of all kinds including service, maintenance, universities or laboratory applications. According to Edwards, the Piezo Pirani sensor enables pressure measurement of all common gas types, in the range of 1200 to 5 x 10-4 mbar. With its integrated battery, the device can be attached and operated at any pressure point, and it can directly display or store up to 2000 values. In fact, all data values stored can be exported via USB. Dave Goodwin, senior product manager, high vacuum, at Edwards commented: “We are delighted to launch our new hand-held P3 pressure gauge. It is simple to use and ready to go, and with no need for a separate controller or power supply, it is perfect for quickly checking vacuum installations and pump performance.” For more information visit www.edwardsvacuum.com

Aumund sets up new company AUMUND Group Field Service GmbH (AGFS) is a new company registered in Rheinberg, Germany, and adjacent to the AUMUND Group’s headquarters. Headed up by managing director Erwin Last, AGFS carries out industrial installation services on behalf of the Aumund Group’s brands – AUMUND Fördertechnik GmbH, SCHADE Lagertechnik GmbH and SAMSON Materials Handling Ltd – but also for customers outside of the AUMUND Group. The new company will carry out and supervise installation and commissioning of machines as well as servicing, maintenance and repair work. Through this merger the AUMUND Group will optimise the range of site installation, equipment start-up and inspection services. Last described the formation of the new company as a ‘corporate consolidation’ and a further step towards ensuring sustainable employment prospects for Rheinberg. “We will set a consistent standard for site services and commissioning over the whole of the

The AUMUND Group Field Service team in the Rheinberg ofﬁce (from left): Sybille Stonham, Frank Stefan, Erwin Last, Kamil Lewandowski, Martina Chervatin and Benjamin Pietta

AUMUND Group,” he said. The core team consists of 28 employees. Further information, log on to www.aumund.com

Vallourec positive about Danieli mill Vallourec Deutschland (VAD) has been reporting positively about its new cross-rolling mill, installed by Danieli. According to VAD the equipment has performed well from the start and reached the new mill’s performance targets shortly after start-up, according to Danieli. The machine, which was built, assembled and pre-tested at Danieli’s HQ workshops in Italy, was installed during an eight-week outage period at the steel plant. “Innovative, pre-fabricated foundation modules and erection techniques were adopted to achieve such short shutdown targets,” said Danieli, adding that the VAD installation was a ‘new milestone’ in seamless pipe production. VAD’s chairman, Dr. Ulrich Menne, said that its new cross-rolling mill will enable the company

to expand its product range and produce higher quality premium materials with higher resistance to deformation in terms of alloyed and high-alloy materials. “At the same time we want to expand our dimension range,” he said, adding that VAD wants to take a ‘further step’ towards meeting new market requirements in the field of thinwalled pipes and pipe lengths. Danieli Centro Tube developed the cross-rolling mill with the specific aim of meeting the ‘demanding requirements’ of VAD. The company wanted the flexibility to roll carbon, alloy and high-alloy steel grades starting from 400mm to 800/850mm OD ingots and tubes ranging from 244mm to 711mm OD (9-5/8 to 28 inches). For further information, log on to www.danieli.it

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THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN

Changing down a gear The fourth essay in the “Hour Before the Dawn” series considers the reliance of the global steel industry on its automotive sector customers. By Mick Steeper*

WHEREVER did mankind get the idea that steel is good for surfaces? If we stop and think about it, we all know that the main drawback of our otherwiseideal engineering material is its susceptibility to corrosion. It follows that applications demanding large exposed surfaces, or components with large surface area to volume ratios, are not going to see steel at its best. So isn’t it just perverse that strip production is the principal focus of the global steel industry and attracts the biggest spend on assets and research as well as delivering most of the income? This focus derives from the needs of steel’s most valued customer sector – the car manufacturers. Until the mechanisation of transport, steel was merely the material of choice for the proverbial swords and ploughshares, depending on the politics of the day. Actually, it was mostly swords – steel was unashamedly the fabric of war, until first the railways and then the motor industry made it the staple material of modern consumer society. Although we nowadays use the term “integrated works” to describe the single-location conversion of iron ore into semi-finished rolled products, the pioneers of modern steel applications went from ore to motor car in one huge factory complex – look at the history of the Ford Motor Company at Dearborn, Michigan, for what is probably the definitive example.

Ford, along with all of his competitors, saw steel as a sole option for the power train, chassis, axles and bearings and much of the engine. His Model T popularised structural bodywork and surface panels made from steel too, but there were always alternatives in these secondary areas. Maximising the steel content of a car made sense in the assembly plant because it suited the mechanisation of the process, it simpliﬁed the supply chain and hence overall it reduced costs. It made even more fundamental sense, of course, to those earning their income through producing the steel, and so the drive for steel autobody was maintained even as the car manufacturers progressively exited from steelmaking themselves. Technological developments consolidated the position of steel as the whole-car material. Corrosion resistance was addressed by galvanising. Design initiatives integrated the structural and partitioning functions of what we now know as the body-in-white. Cars came to look as if they were sculpted from steel, and the consumers liked it. The ﬁrst 50 years of automotive steel were dominated by the United States. The second half-century began with a shift to the east, initially to Japan, and the intertwining of the two industries became still stronger. The shape and the

productive volume of the modern steel plant was dictated by service efficiency to its automotive customers, and the sheet products were by now wholly dominant over the forgings and long profiles. Waves of technology came and went according to the needs of the automotive sector: the adoption of continuous casting and its prevalent slab thicknesses were dictated by it, the design of coating and heat treatment lines was governed by it, the development of high strength strip steels was demanded by it. Service to the automotive industry came to differentiate steel companies, to the degree that it became central to their competitive proposition. So what are the future prospects for this market? They are far from straightforward. On the plus side, global car ownership is still rising, albeit much faster in the developing economies than in Europe, North America or indeed Japan – the very regions in fact that made all of the pioneering advances in steelmaking and motor manufacture. The threats to automotive steel are legion, however, and though many of them apply globally, the first manifestations of these threats are also going to be felt in the steel car’s places of origin. Substitution is among them, but it is not the most significant. The aluminium industry attacked

* Chair of the Iron and Steel Society (steel division) September 2017

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THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN

the beverage can market with greater vigour than it is now pursuing the automotive body-in-white, and part of the reason for the competition’s measured approach to market penetration is a recognition that the end market is in flux and might shift against a metallic BIW altogether in the relatively near future. Cars are a consumer product, and so we can be sure that they will quickly transform into whatever the market wants and whatever technology makes possible. There is already a universal and irresistible change taking place, in the long-overdue displacement of the internal combustion engine by electrical motive power. Close behind comes another change, harder to implement but with greater implications for the steel industry. Developments in autonomous systems, together with increasing urbanisation, will surely lead to smaller vehicles that buzz around our cities under robust automatic control. To transfer between urban centres, we can foresee very high-speed road-trains moving at high traffic densities on a reallocated fraction of the existing motorway network. Neither of these use-cycles has much need for crash resistance, because the town cycle will be low speed (compensated by continuity of motion) and the inter-city transit could potentially carry the passengers separately, or at any rate such future cars would only ever crash like presentday aeroplanes, very rarely and by systems failure. In design terms, fuel efficiency considerations might then reduce cars to “tents on wheels” with far less steel, metal or indeed structural material of any kind in their construction. A car for life? Maybe the car as we know it will endure, as the coveted possession of the next generation’s hipster equivalents. Or maybe it won’t. If it doesn’t, and something like the above scenario plays out, or even if we all just lose the irrational habit of buying a new one every couple of years and run one car for life instead, what then happens to the global steel industry? We can begin to measure the potential impact by framing it in the steel business crisis of recent times and its origins in overcapacity. This time, not only would that overcapacity in global steel production be greatly compounded, but it would be the high-value end of the industry that would experience most of the collapse in demand. From there, the out-turn is probably best left to the reader’s imagination. Strip steel today is the prime product of the global industry, but its ascendancy might be under threat. Most of our industry’s eggs are in one basket: the automotive one. The comments at the head of the article meanwhile remain true – steel is really at its worst as a surface product. Conversely, steel is at its best in applications where it confers structural strength, transmits torque or performs similar engineering duties through a substantial section, with light-weighting no object. There are, and moreover always will be, very many applications like that, amounting to hundreds of millions of tonnes of annual sales. Have we forgotten how to make money from them? Some strategic memory is called for since, just maybe, steel might soon have to turn away from its century-long automotive odyssey and go back to its roots. �

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September 2017

Hour before dawn.indd 2

12/09/2017 14:18:29

LATIN AMERICA UPDATE

Argentina’s long steel market In July 2017, Gerdau commissioned a new 650kt/yr electric arc furnace (EAF) in Argentina. These days, due to global overcapacity, investments aimed at expanding capacity in South America are quite rare. In this context, it is worth analysing the Argentinian long steel market. By Germano Mendes de Paula*

100

Production (kt) - LHS

Fig 1

2017 Q1

200

2016 Q1

2015 Q1

300

2014 Q1

2013 Q1

400

2012 Q1

2011 Q1

500

2010 Q1

2009 Q1

600

2008 Q1

BETWEEN Q1 2008 and Q2 2017, quarterly long steel production in Argentina averaged 405kt (Fig 1). The segment faced two strong production crises: in 2009 and in 2016. The first was derived from global financial turmoil, but the domestic factors (such as denunciations of official data manipulation) also explained the strong flight of capital. It is estimated that between 2007 and July 2009, more than $43bn came out of Argentina’s financial system. In Q1 2009, the country produced only 239kt of long steel products. Its GDP diminished 5.9% in that year. The second and most recent crisis occurred in 2016. President Mauricio Macri assumed office in December 2015 promising that the negative effects of his reforms would be over by H2 2016. He reverted heavy governmental intervention policies that were adopted by previous Presidents. New strategies included the reduction of subsidies for consumption and the imposition of several other social cuts. Argentina’s economy has been hit by Brazil’s severe economic crisis and the slowdown in China. Both countries have been Argentina’s top trading partners. In Q3 2016, the country produced only 260kt of long steel products. National GDP dropped 2.3% in 2016, but it is expected to improve 2.5% in 2017 and 2.8% in 2018, according to bank Itaú. Output has already recovered to achieve 404kt in Q2 2017. However, this volume continued far from the maximum of 492kt observed in Q3 2013. The share of long steel in Argentina’s total rolled steel production averaged 34.2% over the analysed period. The maximum value reached 38.6% and the minimum, 27%. The latest figure is 33.8%, slightly lower than the historical pattern. It can be concluded that, in the majority of quarters, long steel production performance followed the

Share (%) - RHS

Source: Argentinian Chamber of Steel, Alacero

general trends for the entire steel industry. During the investigated period, quarterly average imports of long steel in Argentina was equivalent to 64kt. The maximum value reached 100kt in Q1 2012, while the minimum was 18kt in Q1 2017. By the extrapolation of data from April and May, it is calculated that this volume was equivalent to 29kt in Q2 2017. Therefore, imports have been relatively low in the current year. The import ratio, which is measured by imports as a proportion of apparent consumption, has been 14.3% on average. This co-efficient was only 5.4% in Q1 2017 and 7.3% in Q2 2017. Argentina’s long steel quarterly exports, on average, were 42kt. They varied between 15kt and 98kt. The export ratio, which is defined by exports as a proportion of production, achieved 10.2% on average. This market segment is domestically oriented and shows low international trade ratios. Long steel apparent consumption has averaged 441kt per quarter between 2008 and 2017. Long steel demand, as a proportion of the national total, has been fairly stable at around 38.4%, with the

exception of early 2009 when it almost hit 80% (Fig. 2). In Q2 2017, it hovered around 397kt with a 33.4% share. This market has a long way to go before surpassing its previous records, but this data suggests that the worst is over and that Argentina’s long steelmakers, after having survived two crises in less than one decade, are on a recovery trajectory. ArcelorMittal Acindar is leading the way in the examined market, followed by Acerbrag (part of Brazil’s Votorantim Group), Gerdau and Aceros Zapla. Acindar’s five plants’ long rolled combined production capacity is 1.79Mt, of which 880kt is rebar, 610kt wire rod and 300kt sections. In July 2017, ArcelorMittal’s subsidiary expects to produce 1.05Mt of steel products during the year, compared to 962kt in 2016 (implying a 9.1% increase), but way behind the 1.25Mt it achieved in 2015. Acindar had a 76.2% production share in 2016 and it is reasonable to expect similar growth for the market as whole. Moreover, in the first half of 2017, the construction activity index registered a 7.1% year-on-year rise.

* Professor in Economics, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil. E-mail: germano@ufu.br September 2017

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LATIN AMERICA UPDATE

Apparent Consumption (kt) - LHS

Fig 2

2017 Q1

100

2016 Q1

200

2015 Q1

2014 Q1

300

2013 Q1

2012 Q1

400

2011 Q1

2010 Q1

500

2009 Q1

2008 Q1

600

Share (%) - RHS

Source: Argentinian Chamber of Steel, Alacero. Data on 2017Q2 is extrapolated from April and May.

Gerdau’s new meltshop Gerdau entered into Argentina’s steel industry by acquiring full control of Sipsa, a 75kt/yr reroller in Villa Mercedes, Province of San Luis, in 1997. The following year, it purchased 33% of Sipar, and a 160kt/yr reroller in Rosario, Province of Santa Fe. In 2005, Gerdau increased its ownership in Sipar from 38% to 74%. Sipsa’s operations were discontinued and currently Sipar is fully controlled by Gerdau. In September 2008, immediately before

the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Gerdau announced a $524M plan to ‘verticalise’ its Argentinian operations. Phase one was to be commissioned in 2011 and would have consisted of additional 650kt/yr melt shop and a 450kt/yr rolling mill. The second stage, planned for 2016, was to enlarge the melt shop and rolling mill and increase capacity to 1.1Mt/yr. Unsurprisingly the full project was postponed because of the global financial crisis and its severe impact on the steel industry.

Gerdau’s Argentinian melt shop project was resumed in February 2014, on the same scale as previously planned (650kt/ yr) and the 130mm square billets now produced, in low and medium carbon steel, are feeding an existing 260kt/yr long products rolling mill (rebar, merchant bar and mesh), located 6km from the new facility. The total investment was $232M of which $20M related to recycling activities, and $12M was spent on constructing a high voltage line supplying electricity to the new steelworks and, in future, other industrial users in the region. Putting an end to imports Gerdau’s goal for the EAF is to end imports of billets, which cost around $100M annually, but it doesn’t exclude future exports from Argentina. The new equipment will allow the company to increase installed capacity of long steel production in the country by 35%. Gerdau claims that this is the first steel shop constructed in the country in the last 40 years. Perhaps the sun is starting to shine again for Argentina’s long steelmakers. �

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September 2017

12/09/2017 15:32:09

STEEL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES XXXII

And the elephants in the room are… ‘Trump and China dominate the auditorium at the 32nd Steel Survival Strategies in New York and some foreign delegates spoke of the dawn of the age of protectionism on America’s frontiers. By Manik Mehta*

The conference in full swing

FOR the nearly 700 steel industry representatives from the USA and around the world who had descended upon New York’s Marriott Marquis Hotel to attend the Steel Survival Strategies (SSS-XXXII) conference, US President Donald Trump, although not physically present, was ‘very much there in spirit’, as one American delegate said. The event, held from 26-28 June, is the steel industry’s most important conference and platform for the delegates to discuss opportunities, challenges and other developments relevant to their business. US importers and foreign suppliers expressed fears over protectionism raising its ugly head in the US as the Trump administration warned that it would crack down on steel dumping, a charge levelled, mostly, against Chinese suppliers. China was discussed at almost every session of the conference, though other subjects were also discussed such as financial markets,

free trade and market reforms. The US Department of Commerce’s looming wild card of Section 232 which, many fear, will set the stage for an irreversible form of protectionism, as well as the effects of over-capacity in China, was discussed at great length. In early April, the Commerce Department started an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, to determine whether steel imports represent a threat to national security. A couple of weeks later, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Commerce Department to complete the investigation within 50 days rather than the 270 specified in US legislation. Although that deadline passed long ago, many speculate that the administration will opt to slap tariffs, rather than a general ban, on steel imports to curb excess capacity from China. Peter F. Marcus and Philipp Englin, managing partner and CEO respectively of

World Steel Dynamics, fired the warning shots that the steel industry had entered an “age of protectionism”, saying that ‘jawboning protectionism and mercantilism are destabilising global steel consumption and trade patterns’. Indeed, their prediction was that global demand for steel in 2025 would show ‘little change’ from the year 2018. Marcus and Englin spoke of three concepts to ponder on: the surging tide of Chinese obsolete scrap will ‘shred’ the way companies think about the businesses a decade from now; the extent of the decline in Chinese steel demand in the long run; and the steel industry’s ‘Age of Protectionism’ which will not be without its downsides. Two important developments in China Representatives of CISDI, a ‘total solution provider’ of engineering services to the steel industry, based in Chongqing in southwestern China, gave insights into

* USA correspondent September 2017

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STEEL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES XXXII

China’s steel sector. “There are two important developments taking place in China. Firstly, the government is trying to reduce steel capacity by 150Mt in the next five years. In 2016, capacity was around or nearer to one billion tons. Secondly, China is increasingly resorting to what is called ‘smart manufacturing’, using Industry 4.0. The process of automation continues. Indeed, China is using robots and automation machines. The government has said it will compensate workers who lose their jobs. “CISDI’s major markets are in Asia, in regions such as Southeast Asia and East Asia. China supplies small quantities of steel to the US. Demand for steel in the US market is about 150Mt. China’s exports to the US are about one million tons,”

“Steel global trade is decreasing; steel exports as a percentage of production have declined since the year 2000”, Marcegaglia said. “While China’s reduction in exports is the main factor, many regional markets are limiting imports through cases against several different countries,” he said, adding that “trade cases of ‘all against all’ have dramatically grown in recent years”. “Attempts to reach free or privileged trade agreements between regions have failed. Moreover, the USA is seriously studying the application of general limitation of imports for ‘national security reasons’ (section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962). Europe is also thinking about retaliatory action against the US and there was the ‘serious threat’ of a trade war lurking in the background,

World Steel Dynamics’ Peter Marcus

observed Zhichun Hu, vice president of CISDI, in an interview with Steel Times International at the conference venue. Hu said that his company was participating in the SSS-XXXII conference to promote its engineering services and also to seek contacts with American and other companies that were participating in the conference. Protectionism not the answer Antonio Marcegaglia, the chairman and chief executive officer of Italy-based Marcegaglia, an industrial holding in the steel processing sector with a yearly output of 5.6Mt (2016), said that protectionism was not the answer. Marcegaglia, who was speaking in a panel discussion on market regionalisation and protectionism in America, emphasised the importance of global trade as the only answer to the current situation, despite the efforts made by many countries, starting with the USA, to implement protectionist policies. www.steeltimesint.com

conference report.indd 2

he admonished. Consolidation and protectionism seem to be going hand-in -hand. “Protectionism hurts the consumers. Protectionism may serve some short-term purpose but, in the long term, it will not help America and will have dangerous consequences,” he warned. “Truly unfair and subsidised competition need to be fought, aggressively and efficiently. Global trade optimises best the global value chain. It is overall an opportunity for sustainable value creation, rather than a threat to regional players,” he emphasised. Ukraine’s steel production and exports decline Ukraine-based Metinvest Group’s chief executive officer Yury Ryzhenkov explained the situation of the steel industry in his country, which has been in the news since the conflict with Russia. Metinvest is one of the largest steel producers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with a crude steel capacity of 15Mt. The

group has seven iron-ore mining and coking plants in Ukraine, three steelmaking plants in Ukraine, and four re-rolling plants in Italy, the UK and Bulgaria. Metinvest’s production volume in 2016 touched 29.6Mt of iron ore, 2.4Mt of merchant pig iron and semis; 12.3Mt of crude steel, and 10.1Mt of flats, longs and pipes. Ukraine’s production and exports to world markets have declined by 15Mt and 10Mt respectively since 2011. With the idling and seizure of two major mills this year, steel production is expected to record further decline. Raw material production in Ukraine has steadily declined in the past four years; iron-ore production, for example, fell from 70.6Mt in 2013 to 64Mt in 2016 while raw-coking coal production declined from 23.7Mt in 2013 to 9.4Mt in 2016. Obviously, the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine had a major impact on Ukraine’s steel industry, affecting the entire supply chain and hurting the production of several steel plants. Metinvest’s CEO pointed out that three major challenges faced the CIS supplying countries. Persisting global overcapacity and high levels of global exports will be a challenge which Metinvest will try to meet by focusing on quality/product development rather than on volumes; the company will also develop downstream operations, including creating joint ventures/ partnerships close to its customers. The second challenge is rising protectionism to which the Metinvest response is to concentrate on domestic market development, and to develop/ increase downstream operations in target markets. The third challenge is the erosion of the low-cost base in the CIS countries which can be met by securing the supply chain/ logistics, and investing in productivity and high-value added products, and by improving operations. The Internet of Things Tony Barnes, senior manager (metals industry) at Crowe Horwath of Indianapolis, Indiana, highlighted the significance of the technological upgrading of the steel industry. According to surveys conducted in the industry, the percentage of those who considered technology as “very important” for the steel industry had grown from 39% September 2017

12/09/2017 14:20:11

STEEL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES XXXII

to 47%, and the trend will grow further in the future. “Technology in the global metals industry survey suggests that there will be an expanded focus on advanced IT capabilities such as data analytics, business intelligence and the IoT (Internet of Things),” Barnes said during a panel discussion. The IoT, according to Barnes, had contributed to raising profit levels through enhanced productivity. “Companies are profiting from the IoT … 72% report increased productivity, and 69% report increased profitability from application of the IoT to plants and processes, while 65% reported increased profitability from sales of IoT-enabled products such as embedded intelligence,” he said, adding that manufacturing companies could focus on areas such as product quality, increased speed of operations, decreased manufacturing costs and improved maintenance/uptime. Barnes predicted that the pace of change in the industry will accelerate to keep pace with the demand. “The metals industry will have to embrace the latest technology. Everyone is trying to apply the IoT in their business. Technology and software can help the steel industry achieve efficiency. Investment in the metals industry over the last five years has been significantly higher than ever before because companies realise the benefit of software,” he said. Leo W. Gerard, the international president of the United Steelworkers, who has been critical of steel dumping, rejected the views of some of the speakers, including the veiled caution against protectionism administered by Edwin Basson, the directorgeneral of the World Steel Association. Gerard said that China was financing its ambitious Belt-Road-Initiative – the project has so far received a lukewarm response in the US and Western Europe – at the expense of the markets, such as the US, which faced huge trade deficits with China. “It (China) is financing the Belt-Road project with the deficits it has amassed over the years in trade with importing countries,” he said, emphasising that ‘deficits are a transfer of wealth’. “We are merely asking people to follow the rules. That’s not protectionism!” he noted. Ferriola’s ‘eye of the Tiger’ Keynote speaker John Ferriola, chairman/ chief executive officer of Nucor Corp. – who started with stills from the Sylvester September 2017

conference report.indd 3

Philippe Blostein of Air Liquide

Steve Tyndal

Stalone movie Rocky as inspiration for the steel industry to fight back and convey the message “There is no tomorrow!” – said that China’s overcapacity was hurting the US market. The steel industry, like the boxer Rocky, needed the “eye of the tiger” for survival and success. Ferriola pointed out that China’s production had increased from 886Mt in 2015 to 891Mt in 2016. Nucor’s CEO said that there were 700Mt of excessive capacity with more than half of it in China. “China has not addressed this issue. China produced more steel than 40 steel nations combined,” he claimed, adding that none of the excessive capacity was driven by demand. Steel was used as a strategic material. “China does not make cheaper steel. This is simply not true. They (Chinese steel mills) get Chinese Government support,” Ferriola said, comparing the Chinese subsidies to “steroids such as those used by Rocky’s opponent from the Soviet Union”. China’s steel was flooding the world markets. He rejected China’s claims that it wanted to reduce its capacity by 150Mt by 2020, saying that this was not true because the Chinese had offset 45Mt of excessive steel by increasing production. “We need transparency and reliable methods of verification. Transparency is going to be the key and we need co-operation from all the major countries and a commitment from all the governments to get out of steel production. The Commerce Department, the US Trade Representative and the Trade Council have been calling for a level-playing field,” Ferriola said, adding that on the question of Section 232 he anticipated

a ‘yes’ answer from the Commerce Department in regard to imports harming the national security. Chinese cold-rolled steel was being exported out of Vietnam under the ‘Made in Vietnam’ stamp on such products. “We must urge our government to develop tools and hit back with penalties. I am happy to get into the ring for a fair fight,” Ferriola said. He said that the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – NAFTA’s three partners are Canada, Mexico and the USA – was 23 years old and needed to be reviewed to address the concerns of the past two decades. “NAFTA will come out stronger than ever before,” he averred. But the question of Section 232 persisted. Indeed, Earl W. Comstock, director (office of policy and strategic planning) at the US Department of Commerce, had to cautiously navigate as he spoke about Section 232 without providing any clarity as to which path President Trump might take, but merely saying that a “broad solution” might be the answer. The Port of Brownsville Other aspects of the steel industry were discussed at the conference such as shipping and logistics. Some port representatives were at the conference, including Steve Tyndal, the senior director (marketing and business development) of the Port of Brownsville in Brownsville, Texas. In an interview, Tyndal said that Brownsville moves “more steel into Mexico than any other US port”. The port spans 40,000 acres and has full www.steeltimesint.com

12/09/2017 14:20:13

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STEEL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES XXXII

ship directly to steel companies in Mexico where we see great business opportunities,” he said.

Zhichun Hu of CISDI

Vinay Shroff of JSW Steel

Congress authorisation to further deepen its channel to 52 feet; it also has a free trade zone that ranks second nationally in value of exported goods. “We are the only port in the US which offers proximity advantage to Mexico and Central America,” Tyndal said, adding that the port’s steel volumes would remain stable despite anti-dumping duties and changing trade strategies, thanks to its unique transshipment character for shipments to Mexico. Nearly one-quarter of the port’s total volumes comprise steel products. In 2016, the port moved more than 2.15Mt of slabs, plus 260kt of cold-rolled coil, 36kt of hotrolled coil and 117kt of scrap, Tyndal said. Of the steel volume shipped, some 85% comprised recycled material. “We have handled quality scrap coming by naval and commercial ships. Brownsville serves as an inbound port for transshipments from Russia and Argentina bound for Mexico.

We are about 100 miles closer to Monterrey (Mexico) making us more economical and we also have greater capacity to handle shipments to Mexico. We handle about 10Mt of cargo, 25% of which is steel,” Tyndal said. Tyndal declined to comment on the issue of ‘America First’, which is exciting for US steelmakers but has dampened the spirits of importers and foreign suppliers. Tyndal also discussed in detail the port’s deepening from 42 to 52 feet approved by the US Congress in 2016. When completed, the Port of Brownsville will become one of the deepest in the Gulf of Mexico. Tyndal said that the port was bullish about transshipments of steel and other cargo to Mexico. “Our customers have expressed an interest to increase shipments to Mexico. Brownsville port, Tyndal stressed, offered good rail capacity to Mexico. “We

Steel’s brightening horizons Air Liquide, the $18.1 billion French group which supplies industrial gases and related services to a variety of customers including those in large industry, industrial manufacturing, electronics and healthcare marketplaces, saw the horizon brightening for the steel industry. Philippe Blostein, the metal marketing director of Air Liquide, said that his company’s customers were interested in technology and equipment to use oxygen in the glass furnace to reduce coke consumption and inject more pulverized coal or natural gas. This was done to reduce costs. Asked what he thought of the policies of the Trump administration, Blostein replied that it was “too early to speak about the impact of the new policies of the Trump administration”. US needs to change its view During a panel discussion, Li Xinchuang, president of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning & Research Institute, emphasised that China was interested in working with the United States, but asked the latter to “change its picture of China, which is old”. He claimed that the steel industry could benefit from China’s Belt-Road Initiative and spoke of the opportunities inherent in the ‘new markets’. At one time, the US accounted for some 50% of the world’s steel production, but now it was China that holds this share. “The US has to import, otherwise its economy will suffer. Protectionism cannot solve their problem,” Li said, adding that

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STEEL SURVIVAL STRATEGIES XXXII

Chinese steel was “very popular worldwide because China provides good quality, good prices and terms”. Apparently taking a dig at the widespread frustration with Chinese steel dumping in the US, he said: “you are happy when you export to China, but you are unhappy when China exports to you”. India arouses interest Conference delegates showed keen interest in India whose steel industry is in fast-development mode. Vinay Shroff, the executive vice president of JSW Steel, described 2016 as an “historic year” with imports touching 15Mt last year. Demand is expected to grow further this year, he said in an interview with Steel Times International. Shroff pointed out that the Indian Government’s budgetary allocation of $60 billion for infrastructure development, with focus on affordable housing, water and gas pipelines, renewable energy and roads, would provide a strong fillip to steel consumption. “(India’s) National Steel Policy 2017 charts out a roadmap to enhance per capita steel consumption to 160kg by

the financial year 2031, up from 61kg in 2015,” he said. India is expected to add an “incremental labour force of 125 million, he said. India’s young labour force would power the modernisation drive, Shroff maintained. “The industrial push by the Indian Government will see higher investment growth in the coming years,” he said, adding that some 20.2Mt of extra demand was expected by 2025. This would also be in line with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make-in-India’ programme. India is committed to achieve 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022; the country’s power sector will generate steel demand of 5.5Mt by 2022. The transportation sector is expected to generate steel demand of 20.2Mt by 2022. In 2016 India had an installed steel capacity of 122Mt, whereas actual production was around 97Mt. JSW Steel’s capacity was 18Mt while its actual production was around 15.8Mt. The company, which has increased its investment in steel-making, will add another 5Mt to its capacity with its Dolvi

plant near Mumbai. The company has a diversified portfolio including GC, TMT, slabs, colour-coated, HRC, billets, HR plates, blooms, CRC and wire rods. According to Shroff, the company was developing new products, aimed at capturing niche markets. Some of its product development endeavours included automotive grade steel with an enhanced focus on cold rolled, galvanised and galvanneal products for automotive applications. Reviewing the situation of the global steel industry, Shroff said that all the regions were becoming ‘inward looking’ – an apparent reference to protectionism – in all the industries. “Of course, you will see competition between the regions and the countries. This will force us to become efficient, productive and innovative, he said. Like elsewhere in the world, India’s steel industry is worried about Chinese dumping, but Shroff said that the Indian Government had put in place “effective measures” – such as introducing dumping and countervailing duties – “if the prices go below a certain level”. �

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An event not to be missed The Future Steel Forum, organised and delivered by Steel Times International, took place on 14-15 June 2017 in Warsaw, Poland. It was attended by more than a 100 delegates from 15 countries and featured an exhibition and two expert panel discussions, as well as twenty-six papers over the two days of the conference. An informal dinner for delegates and speakers on the middle evening completed the programme. Mick Steeper* chaired a session (on Business Models) and took part in the ensuing panel discussion on the same subject. These are his impressions of the event.

Professor Chris Hankin, Imperial College, London

Dr. Dirk Schaefer, University of Liverpool, UK

Professor Harald Peters, VDEh-Betriebsforschungsintitut

DIGITALISATION is having a major impact on industries of all kinds and in every part of the world. Exploiting the potential of the new technology of ‘Industry4.0’ (I4.0) is a challenging proposition, with fastemerging opportunities for competitive advantage, but pitfalls too. The Future Steel Forum (FSF) was conceived with aims of presenting this technological revolution to the steel industry, of providing examples of pioneering innovation, current best practice and future potential, and of inviting the formation of a collaborative business community in the field.

Implicit in such an aim for FSF is a notion that steel needs to be more purposeful in its adoption of I4.0 (or ‘smart manufacturing’ as it’s more usually termed in the US). The event certainly revealed a dichotomy in perception of what I4.0 is for. The steelmakers tended to see it as a way to improve the operational efficiency of existing assets. Most of the technology suppliers, attending in greater numbers, contended that asset and indeed business model reconfiguration is implicit in I4.0. As Harald Peters of BFI put it, “Digitilisation is a pre-requisite of I4.0, but I4.0 is a lot more

than digitalisation”. The reticence of the steelmakers is understandable, of course. They are operating in a saturated market with commensurately low margins, a climate in which any sort of capital development is hard pressed to show a return. Moreover, the most demonstrable successes of I4.0 to date are in businesses that deal in product systems, assembling and integrating them at the nexus of complex supply chains. How can a cost-driven bulk materials sector such as steel benefit from ideas developed for an entirely different business type? As it turned

* Chair of the Iron and Steel Society (steel division) September 2017

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CONFERENCE REPORT: FUTURE STEEL FORUM 2017

in 2018

Dr. Michael Eder, global chief digital officer, voestalpine

Jane Zavalishina, CEO, Yandex Data Factory

Sarajit Jha, chief of digital vale acceleration, Tata Steel

out, the many facets of that question and its answers revealed the real value of FSF. The event got under way with two highquality but sharply contrasting keynotes, representing the two sides of the dichotomy in fact. The first was given by Manish Chawla of IBM, the company’s general manager for global industrial products. He proposed that digitalisation is only the formulation for the change implicit in I4.0, and that cognition is the actual destination. Introducing the idea of cognitive value chains, he invited the audience to consider what will inevitably happen when the best brains in an organisation are combined in a team effort to exploit new technology.

Such a team is bound to recognise that the existing plant and process as well as the existing business model are all capable of improvement. Dr Pinakin Chaubal, general manager for Arcelor Mittal’s Global R+D, countered with scepticism about the “change or die” message of the technology suppliers, and urged a focus on better steel from the conventional assets as the only sound foundation for a sustainable business transition. The following session, entitled Introductory Themes, was chaired by José Favilla of IBM and consisted of six papers. The first two were by steelmakers, Dr Michael Eder supported by Dr Johann

Reisinger representing voestalpine, and Mr Sarajit Jha for Tata Steel. In combination, these two speakers identified twin challenges of improving asset utilisation and embracing higher levels of product and service customisation, and introduced the proposition that I4.0 offers, perhaps uniquely, a prospect of serving both. The session continued with talks on human factors by Dr Rizwan Janjua of worldsteel and Michael Bremicker of KPMG, followed by presentations explaining the technical context of I4.0 by the aforementioned Dr Peters and then Stephane Mouton of CETIC. The remainder of the first day was given over to a Business Models session followed

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CMI Group, two centuries of engineering in the service of the industry Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie: a long history, inextricably linked to that of the industrial revolution… In 1817, the British businessman John Cockerill begins his industrial activity in Wallonia by supplying weaving looms to the wool industry. He rapidly diversiﬁes his activities: blast furnaces, industrial boilers, warships… Passionate about steam machinery, in 1835 Cockerill builds the ﬁrst working steam locomotive to run on the European continent.

Innovative technologies for the metals industry

The tone was set. This thirst for innovation has driven the generations of engineers who, for the past two centuries, have been introducing new processes bearing the Cockerill brand onto the market: engine designed by Rudolf Diesel, guns, boat engines, water tube boilers, locomotives, heat recovery steam generators for electric power plants, rolling mills and steel processing lines, reheating and heat treatment furnaces, boilers for thermo-solar power plants... From the outset, the ‘Cockerill factories’ have been anticipating trends and playing a determining role in worldwide technological advances. John Cockerill also laid the foundations of the international vocation of CMI today. A great industrial explorer, he made many visits abroad, always on the lookout for new technologies and new projects. His conquering spirit has thrived through the decades. Thus, in 1890, the ‘Cockerill company’ was involved in the construction of the ﬁrst major Chinese steelmaking complex, located at Hanyang, designing equipment and assisting the client in raising capital, assembling the installations and training the local workers.

Today, with the beneﬁt of this centuries old understanding of industrial processes, and driven by the conquering and innovative spirit of its founder, the CMI Group continues to design, install, modernize and maintain equipment across the whole world, and to provide its clients and partners with value-added services and its expertise in international project management.

Technological, international, robust This technology driven group places numerous beneficial assets at the disposal of its client industries: a unique combination of engineering and maintenance expertise, a vast geographic and technological scope, and an ability to innovate in accordance with the operational needs of its customers. CMI has never stopped enlarging its geographical reach and its portfolio of technologies. The Group today counts operational units in Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, India, New Caledonia, Russia and the United States. In all, some 4 600 members of staff within the Group constitute a pool of talent commensurate with CMI ambitions. With the benefit of this organization, CMI today serves an ever more diversified client base. Whatever their specific needs, in CMI they find a partner of choice, whether as an EPCM services provider across all technologies, for solutions involving reducing the ecological footprint of industrial processes, for specialized services or for the Group’s dynamism in terms of innovation.

200 YEARS OF FUTURE! The CMI Group proudly celebrates its bicentennial

Cold rolling § Strip processing § Chemical processes Thermal processes § Mechanical equipment Automation § Extractive metallurgy www.cmigroupe.com DE SIG N | ENGINEERING | COMMISS IO NING | TE C H NIC A L A S S IS TA NC E & TR A INING | A F T ER- S A L ES 1 In the 19th century, a team from the ‘Établissements Cockerill’ at Seraing (Belgium) receives Viceroy Hung-Chang from the Chinese province of Zhili.

175421-ann-CMI Metals-200 ans-A3 hor.indd 1

1 In the 21st century, the teams from the CMI Group perpetuate the John Cockerill tradition, sparing no effort to meet the expectations of their clients.

30/03/17 08:43

Innovative technologies for the metals industry

200 YEARS OF FUTURE! The CMI Group proudly celebrates its bicentennial

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1 In the 21st century, the teams from the CMI Group perpetuate the John Cockerill tradition, sparing no effort to meet the expectations of their clients.

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CONFERENCE REPORT: FUTURE STEEL FORUM 2017

New business models panel discussion chaired by PSI’s Raffael Binder (centre)

by a panel discussion on the same subject. Speakers were Stefan Koch of SAP, Jane Zavalishina of Yandex and Prof Dirk Schaefer of the University of Liverpool (latterly Bath). All three of their papers appeared in written form in the event supplement, and it is hoped that these and other papers, or at least extended abstracts, will be available on line soon. The two panel discussions, at the end of Day One and the beginning of Day Two, were chaired by Raffael Binder of PSI and Rizwan Janjua respectively. Both were instructive but the second was definitely the more provocative. That panel was dominated by the plant builders, and Dr Janjua was conspicuously determined to take the discussion beyond a series of plant automation visions. The key question of knowledge ownership was raised – what stops the implementers of I4.0 in one plant taking the now-built-in process and product knowledge straight to the next customer? No protocols for data ownership were forthcoming, and pleas for trust did not appear to convince the audience. Day Two continued with sessions on Business Organisation and IT Infrastructure, including presentations by the plant builders (SMS, Primetals and Danieli) and further sector technology suppliers (Fives, PSI, QuinLogic, Russula and ABB). The final session on Plant Safety and Cyber Security brought in Prof Chris Hankin of Imperial College London and lastly Jorg Hackmann of PSI, before the conference was rounded off by the summary remarks of Matt Moggridge, Editor of Steel Times International. Overall, this was an instructive and timely event. The grounding that it provided for delegates in the concepts and possibilities September 2017

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of I4.0 will be valuable, but the most useful contribution was probably in raising a debate in key decision areas for business. Three such areas stand out. The first is about who I4.0 will serve best – the established producers seeking ways to improve the efficiency of existing assets, or the disruptors entering the industry with new and flexible business models. The second is the data ownership question left hanging at the end of the second panel discussion: in a commodity industry beset by overcapacity, knowledge is one of the few differentiating factors on which to build and maintain market share. How then can a technology that implicitly captures knowledge be investable? The third major area is more tenuous and discussion of it was more evident in the refreshment breaks than in the platform sessions: I4.0 is challenging us to think about what kind of future industry we want. Some have a fearful and even dystopian perspective: are we becoming an industry where the key skills are not those of metallurgists or engineers but of IT specialists? Can we countenance production facilities with fewer and fewer people? Others foresee opportunities for steel that have almost been forgotten: can I4.0 re-establish differentiation in the industry, and re-create a business climate where margin once again attaches to operational excellence and distinctive service quality? The steel industry is conservative and defensive at heart. There were many examples over the two days of how I4.0 is being used, but most were predictable and long-known (such as virtual test houses and inference-based order reallocation). The industry is meanwhile being gifted a technology that opens up new horizons

IBM’s José Favilla, director, industry solutions

Stefan Koch, global lead for metals, SAP SE

“ IT PROVIDES A VERY OPPORTUNITY WITH A DEFINITELY WORTH ELENA SAMUYLOVA,

Manish Chawla, general manager, IBM

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CONFERENCE REPORT: FUTURE STEEL FORUM 2017

Mick Steeper, chair of Iron and Steel Society (steel division)

Stéphane Mouton of CETIC

Yandex Data Factory’s Jane Zavalishina on a discussion panel

Rizwan Janjua, head of technology, World Steel Association

GOOD NETWORKING HIGH LEVEL AUDIENCE. ATTENDING.” YANDEX DATA FACTORY

in dealing with process complexity and providing customised services. It is hard to believe that the ultimate winners through this new order will be businesses that attempt to use I4.0 to improve process efficiency on a limited product mix, while maintaining high levels of operational standardisation. Steel Times International will repeat the FSF event at the beginning of June 2018. There is clearly unfinished business in I4.0 specifically which might of itself justify a continuation, but it is to be hoped that the title “Future Steel Forum” will be interpreted in a more general light next time, creating a discussion among the various steel value chain experts about where technology in the round is leading our industry. For the second conference of the series, the stage should be given over to more steelmakers and fewer outside IT specialists. Nonetheless the first Future Steel Forum succeeded in bringing together a new and influential technical community, and if the networking is as lively and the principal presentations are as good, then FSF2018 too will be an event that should not be missed. �

Delegates registering for Future Steel Forum 2017

Pinakin Chaubal, general manager, ArcelorMittal Global R&D

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NEXT YEAR’S DATES

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ROLLING

Vision-based strip steering control Demand for high quality steel strip is increasing, especially tighter tolerances for profile and flatness. Plant operators want technological solutions to avoid camber build-up, which is caused by numerous factors including temperature profile and unbalanced thickness profile. Both effects not only influence strip quality, but can also cause process interruption and plant equipment damage. Primetals Technologies might have the solution. By M Tunk1, V Schlecht2, H Hlobil3 and Dr. M Kurz4 PRIMETALS Technologies has developed a strip steering control solution and has tested it with the co-operation of partner thyssenkrupp Steel Europe in Duisburg, Germany. Different control strategies for automatic threading, in-bar control and thread-out have been tested on-site for common and challenging materials. The first plant tests have shown that cobble rate and thickness wedge quality can be improved significantly. Demand for high quality strip has prompted steel manufacturers to rely upon advances in control theory, measurement and machinery equipment to improve production capacity, efficiency and product quality. The main quality parameters of the rolled strip are the mechanical properties of the material, thickness and width tolerance, shape and flatness. Usually the shape (thickness profile) of the rolled material is set from process automation and adjusted in the hot strip mill (HSM). In the downstream process the shape is held and flatness is controlled. A change in the shape over the length of the strip can cause strip-run and flatness issues. It is important, therefore, that the produced strip has constant shape over the length. Plant operators are requesting technological solutions to avoid camber that can arise because of numerous uncontrollable factors, such as temperature profile and unbalanced thickness profile. An uncontrolled camber build-up can be the main issue during the thread in process that

Fig 1. Finishing mill section of HSM[4]

can lead to process interruption and plant equipment damage. The main actuators for controlling the shape in the hot strip mill is levelling and bending the work rolls. Levelling is used to influence the thickness wedge, whereas work roll bending and shifting affects the thickness profile of the strip. However, for the strip not under tension, changing the levelling of the work rolls influences camber build-up. The thickness wedge is the difference of thickness measurements at the edges of the strip. A C40 wedge, for example, is defined

as â&#x2C6;&#x2020;h_C40=h_(OS,40)-h_(DS,40), where the thickness is measured at the operator side (OS) and drive side (DS) 40mm from the edge of the strip. The developed strip steering control solution uses Primetals Technologiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; latest vision-based measurement equipment, together with advanced control technology for automatic threading, in-bar control and thread-out. The main aims of the new control solution are improving the availability of the mill and increasing productivity by reducing the cobble rate. An additional target is to increase the quality

1.Primetals Technologies Germany GmbH Schuhstr. 60, Erlangen, Germany, 91052 Tel: +49 9131 98886 408 Email: mirko.tunk@primetals.com 2. thyssenkrupp Steel Europe Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 100, Duisburg, Germany, 47166 Tel: +49 203 5226251 Email: viktor.schlecht@thyssenkrupp.com 3. Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH Turmstr. 44, Linz, Austria, 4031 Tel: +43 664 88791213 Email: helmut.hlobil@primetals.com 4. Primetals Technologies Germany GmbH Schuhstr. 60, 91052 Erlangen, Deutschland Tel: +49 9131 98886 449 E-Mail: matthias.kurz@primetals.com www.steeltimesint.com

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ROLLING

Fig 3. Sensor Fig 2. ShapeMon

arrangement

sensor

in finishing mill section

of the material in terms of the thickness wedge. Primetals’ strip steering control solution has been developed and tested in cooperation with thyssenkrupp Steel Europe (TKSE) in Duisburg, Germany. TKSE WBW1 Duisburg TKSE’s hot strip mill Bruckhausen (HSM 1) was built in 1955 and produced around 140Mt (metric tons) of high quality hot strip until now. HSM 1 offers flat steel products with a wide variety of material properties – there are over 250 steel grades listed in the actual portfolio, the strip width and thickness are within the range of 6001320mm and 1,5-12,7mm, respectively. Main customers are from the packing, automotive and electrical steel sectors of industry (a high temperature walking beam furnace allows HSM 1 to produce both grain-oriented and non-oriented material). Over the last 62 years HSM 1 was continuously modernised to fulfil the increasing demands of the customers as well as to match the governmental requirements. The last major revamp was done in two stages in 2012 and 2013. During this revamp a significant part of the mill area was modernised or rebuilt by Primetals Technologies (formerly Siemens Metals Technologies). In particular new automation L1 and L2 was installed in the roughing mill and the finishing mill. The capability of the roughing mill was greatly increased by the construction of a new edger at the reversing rolling stand. With an edging force of 7.000 kN the roughing mill can now reduce the slab width by 120mm. The new main drive with a power of 1.500 kW generates a nominal torque of 84 kNm. The main drives of the horizontal rolling September 2017

Rolling primetals.indd 2

Fig 4. comparison classical edge filter (red) with statistical prediction method (blue)

stand were also modified (8.500 kW DC power and a nominal torque of 1650 kNm) to handle the increased pressures. The finishing mill has undergone a complete revamp. With the exception of the rolling stand construction itself, almost all components were replaced with stateof-the-art technology. The installation of long stroke HAGC cylinders, new hydraulic side guides, hydraulic loopers and new interstand equipment had a big impact on increasing product quality after the revamp. Another important field of operation was the construction of a completely new

cooling line. The laminar cooling line with its length of 105m and nominal water flow of over 15.000 m³/h allows an exact control and adjustment of the coiling temperature over the complete strip length. After the revamp, HSM 1 is one of the most technically advanced plants in competition. The implementation of new technologies, like vision-based strip steering control, enables a further improvement of product quality and plant availability. Vision-based measurement A reliable sensor is the bedrock of a reliable

Fig 5. Measurement variance (top: classical edge filter; bottom: statistic prediction method)

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→

made in Germany

→ → → → → → → etc.

ROLLING

General overview of the strip steering control

STC

∆s

STC

∆s

∆h

y ∆F

∆s

STG

∆s

STG y

∆s

STG ∆F

∆s

STG ∆F

∆F

∆s

STG

STG ∆F

∆F

Fig 6. Schematic representation of the strip steering controllers in the finishing mill

control strategy. In the finishing mill section of a hot strip mill the environment is loaded with dust and cooling water. Additionally, unpredictable scale spots as well as temperature variations that mostly affect the head and tail ends as well as the edge regions over the complete length of the strip, affect the surface of the object. It is almost impossible to apply sensors close to the strip in this environment. In order to achieve the targets of the described control task a camber and center line measurement device is needed. The used measurement device is based on an optical measurement technique [5]. It is a combined camber- and centreline measurement device that can also measure the width of the strip. The advantages of this method are the low number of components, the simple arrangement as well as the high distance between strip and sensor [6]. This means a reliable operation with nearly no maintenance. Fig. 2 and Fig.3 show the sensor as well as the arrangement in the mill. Every finishing mill stand is equipped with one device. September 2017

Rolling primetals.indd 3

Fig 7. Coupled strip run simulation, showing the first three sucessive roll stands. A color plot shows von Mises stress of the strip, attaining its maximum (red) in zones of plastic deformation

The main task was to achieve measurement results with highest availability even under the worst conditions. The underlying principle is to use redundant information of the image in order to reconstruct missing sections without losing accuracy. Fig. 4 offers two examples that show the results from this developed statistical prediction method (blue) compared with a state-of-the-art edge detection algorithm (red). With this method the targets for the necessary reliability could be achieved. One indication is the significantly reduced variance not only in the filet of the strip, but also in the head and tail end (Fig. 5). This development of new image processing approaches was a challenging but mandatory requirement for a successful control strategy, which is described now. As already discussed, the levelling of the work rolls influences process differently, depending on the strip being under tension or not. Therefore two controllers with different objectives were developed. The components of the strip steering controllers [9] are shown in (Fig. 6). The automatic strip threading control (STC), is active during the thread-in process of the first four stands only. The controller uses strip position measurements from vision-based measurement equipment, placed after a stand, to automatically thread in to the next stand. Strip Guidance Control (STG) is activated when the strip is under tension. It is active until the strip unloads the roll 0.5

Gap

Pos.-Ref

HGC

∆smax

Cyl. OS

Cyl. DS

∆s/∆tSTG

LC: load cell

HGC: Hydraulic gap control

DSL: Drive side OS: Operator side FR: Roll Force cg: Stand modulus y: Strip lateral displacement

FROS,LC

k: Gain factor FRDS,LC

∆s: Levelling value

∆FRLC cg

Fig. 8: Control structure of the strip guidance control

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ROLLING

Fig 9a. Lateral displacement of the strip in successive stands and thickness wedge of the

Fig 9b. Lateral displacement of the strip in successive stands and thickness wedge of the

rolled product without strip steering control

rolled product with active strip steering control

Fig 9. compares data from a strip rolled with (right) and without (left) strip steering control. In the upper parts of the plots, lateral displacement of the strip at each roll stand is shown. Without steering control there is a strong correlation with the evolved thickness wedge after the finishing mill section, outlined at the bottom of the plots. This is not the case if steering control is used (right plot). Even so the strip changes lateral displacement over the length, with the active strip steering control it has no effect on the thickness wedge of the rolled product.

gap of the preceding stand. The main objective of STG is to hold the thickness wedge (∆h) constant over the strip length. The controller also uses strip position measurements from vision-based measurement equipment, placed after the stand. Additionally the differential roll force measured with the help of load cells is used to generate control action. Both controllers are using the levelling of the work rolls (∆s) as an actuator. The presented controllers STC and STG run independently from each other and are active at different periods in time. Strip threading in control • Model Both the model and controller have been developed in co-operation with JohannesKepler-University in Linz, Austria. The non-linear model describes the movement of the point on strip during the threading process [3]. • Control The goal of automatic threading controller is to prevent camber build-up by holding the following constraints: [2]: - Preventing wedge change and reversion over strip length - Respecting the maximal levelling value - Holding strip head position within opening width of the side guides - Invariant performance for all material types, temperatures and thickness ranges Model Predictive Control is a suitable controller strategy to deal with the above requirements. On the one hand it is an optimal controller and on the other it deals explicitly with the boundary conditions for the actuator restrictions. September 2017

Rolling primetals.indd 4

Simulation Before implementation at the real plant, the new control strategy was thoroughly tested by means of numerous simulation studies. For this purpose a new computer simulation model of the overall strip run was developed. It is composed of two coupled sub-models: the so-called Free Strip Model, implemented in the software framework of HOTINT [8], and the Roll Gap Model, implemented in a separate dynamically linked library. The software tool not only allows developers to perform autonomous studies (Fig. 7) of the overall strip motion, but also provides an interface to MATLAB/Simulink, in which the controller is implemented. Strip guidance control (STG) The objective of the controller is to maintain a parallel loaded roll gap and not to generate a wedge even under asymmetric rolling conditions. The ‘classical’ solution is to level the work rolls of the mill stand number of coils with control

25µm

according to the measured differential roll force multiplied by a constant differential stand modulus [7]. If there is no camber control in the roughing mill of the HSM, the shape of the transfer bars are irregular, which can lead to lateral movement in the finishing mill section. Further we want to show the strong correlation of the lateral movement of the strip with its thickness wedge, Fig. 9. The lateral movement of the material is the dominating influencing factor for a thickness wedge. If the strip is rolled off-centre in the roll stand, it undergoes asymmetrical reduction conditions at the roll gap profile, which results from thermal crown and roll wear but also from gap actuators (shifting, bending, pair-cross) including roll grinding. Therefore, the feed forward pathway, including lateral displacement of the strip, was added to the existing closed loop between the differential roll force and the amount of levelling. With feed forward control, the lateral Thickness wedge with control

number of coils without control

Thickness wedge without control

47.93% 20µm

15µm

31.17%

37.69%

31.96% 12.24

10.89

10µm 7.96

11.10

12.68

14.06

15.19 12.87

8.72

-5µm 0µm

11.96

4161

16.31%

6296 1993

2194

-5µm Tin plate

Thin sheet

Carbon steel

Silicon steel

High strength steel

Fig 10. Expected values of thickness wedge [µm] with and without control over material grades

www.steeltimesint.com

12/09/2017 14:23:04

ROLLING

displacement of the strip is measured and accounted for before it has time to affect the system as a disturbance (Fig.8). Results During 2016, the proposed controllers have been implemented and tested in TKSE WBW1 Duisburg. The first tests were performed for common rolled products, followed by tests with special steel grades. As soon as the piloting phase was finished, tests with nearly 18,000 rolled coils have been performed in order to statistically validate the new strip steering control. Each of the rolled strips is statistically described by the absolute mean value µ and the standard deviation of the measured thickness wedge over strip length. The averaged mean values of µ and averaged standard deviation over the strip length σ for all of the 18,000 samples are, according to different material grades, discussed in the following Fig. 10. Note that the absolute mean (dots) of the thickness wedge is not changed, but the standard deviation (tails) of the thickness wedge over strip length could be improved significantly (arrows in Fig. 10). This improvement could be achieved for all rolled products of the mill, independently of their particular material grade. The distribution of the number of coils over material grades is shown in the bottom part. During the performance test there were no cobbles due to strip run failures or during the thread-in process, in contrast to a 0.1% cobble rate that was usual for the mill during the evaluated period. The developed controller and measurement equipment is in regular use at thyssenkrupp Steel Europe’s WBW1 plant in Duisburg, Germany. �

Materials handling solutions for your industry

References 1. D.Simon, Optimal State Estimation: Kalman, H Infinity, and Nonlinear Approaches, Wiley; July 2006 2. A.Galkina, I.Gafur, K.Schlacher, Model Predictive Control with Linear Programming for the Strip Infeed in Hot Rolling Mills, IFAC 2017 World Congress, Toulouse/France; July 2017 3. A.Galkina, K.Schlacher, I.Gafur, Modellprädiktive Regelung für das Bandeinfädeln in der Warmwalzstraße, BHM Berg- und Hüttenmännische Monatshefte, November 2016, Volume 161, Issue 11, pp. 520–525 4. https://www.thyssenkrupp-steel.com/de/newsroom/pressemitteilungen/ pressemitteilung-2505.html 5. H.Hlobil, I.Gafur, D.Ott, M.Hackl; Promising Approach for Extension of Camber Sensor regarding Lengthwise and Crosswise Speed Measurement of Strip between the Hot Strip Finishing Mill Stand and its Benefits for Control Strategy; 10th international rolling conference; Graz/Austria; July 2016 6. A. Lorenz, A. Maierhofer, H. Hlobil; Strip Steering and difference tension control for hot rolling finishing mills; ESTAD; Düsseldorf/Germany; June 2015 7. M. Kurz, B. Schmidt, D. Krautwurst, M. Clark; Functional Enhancements to Improve the Rolling Process within Plate and Steckel Mills; ESTAD; Düsseldorf/Germany; June 2015 8. J. Gerstmayr, A. Dorninger, R. Eder, P. Gruber, D. Reischl, M. Saxinger, M. Schörgenhumer, A. Humer, K. Nachbagauer, A. Pechstein, et al.; HOTINT - a script language based framework for the simulation of multibody dynamics systems; Proceedings of the ASME 2013 IDETC&CIE Conference; Portland, Oregon, USA; August 2013. 9. I. Gafur, V. Schlecht , M. Tunk, H. Hlobil; New vision based strip steering control for HSM; AISTech 2017, Nashville, Tenn. / USA; Mai 2017

• Improved storage utilisation • Safer product handling • Increased productivity • Indoor / Outdoor

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ROLLING

Work roll upgrades for extreme speeds Rolling mill owners are under constant pressure to reduce production costs against the background of a variable global market. A common way to achieve competitive costs is to increase mill productivity, but this can lead to roll or bearing damage at existing mills. By Sorin Tudor* and Konnerth Octavian** HIGHER productivity can be defined as the linear velocity (m/min) of the strip passing through the four-high (4-HI) mill stand (Fig. 1). However, higher mill operating speeds cannot be applied directly in existing mills due to the risk of rapid roll wear or bearing damage. Other restrictions may appear due to drive train (motors, gearboxes and pinion stands) limiting speed. The work roll rotational speed is calculated based on mill line speed and is a function of the roll barrel diameter. At a certain mill line speed, the work roll has a higher rotational speed than the back-up roll because of the smaller barrel diameter. Consequently, the work roll’s higher rotational speed must be carefully evaluated against the mill’s maximum designed performance. Mill owners often require support for a work roll ‘revamp’ at extreme operating speeds. Work roll neck bearings A work roll neck bearing is not initially selected for its rating, as is the case with most bearing applications. Instead, the principal selection parameters (Fig. 2) to consider for a bearing are imposed by the mill builder: • Roll barrel diameter – ØB, (nominal and minimum) • Neck diameter – ØN • Barrel length – L • Screw-down distance – X These considerations dictate the minimum remaining space (envelope) left for the chock and bearing. Bearing application engineers start by looking for existing bearings that meet the envelope

Fig 1. Four-high mill stand

Work rolls

Back up rolls

Line speed (m/min)

criteria. Then, from the list of suitable bearings, the engineer selects those that meet the bearing L10 fatigue life requested by the customer. In addition, the bearing internal geometry is evaluated at the maximum designed load and maximum work roll rotational speed. The bearing internal geometry can be updated or a new bearing designed if there is no existing part number that satisfies the customer’s needs. The loose-fit mounting Quick mounting and removal of the chockbearing system are required due to the necessity of frequent work roll changes. Therefore, a loose fit between the four rows of the tapered roller bearings and the roll neck is standard practice at work roll positions, regardless of rolling speed.

Outer rings must be positively clamped in the chock and inner rings must be mounted with an axial clearance value between 0.5mm and 1mm relative to the bearing’s inner ring face (Fig. 3). Same linear velocity Given that the roll neck diameter is smaller than the inner ring bore, the bearing inner rings will naturally tend to move circumferentially relative to the roll neck. The roll neck and inner ring bore essentially have the same linear velocity where they are in contact with each other. The inner ring’s rotational speed is slightly less than the rotational speed of the roll neck, as illustrated in Fig. 4, due to the small diameter difference between the roll neck and inner ring bore.

* Principal application engineer ** Service manager www.steeltimesint.com

Rolling TIMKEN.indd 1

September 2017

13/09/2017 08:49:39

ROLLING

Fig 2. Work roll parameters

Retaining ring

(Top – left chock removed to present work

Bearing inner ring

Fillet ring

roll neck diameter)

0.50 to 1.00 mm axial clearance is the correct nut adjustment

Fig 3. Loose fit mounting

Work roll necktrabalho

Contact point v

Sliding surfaces

V (Roll neck) =

Axial induced load

Roll neck diameter

V (Inner ring bore)

Inner ring diameter

Work roll neck

Bearing inner ring

Fig 4. Bearing inner ring-work roll neck relative movement

Fig 5. Direct mounting arrangement

(Clearance of roll neck to bearing inner ring is exaggerated by purpose in this sketch)

Therefore, it is essential that: • The minimum roll neck diameter guidelines are respected to avoid excessive neck wear due to this relative movement. • Axial clearance is provided between the inner rings and abutting faces of the work roll fillet or retaining rings to allow the two inner rings to move freely and minimise face wear. Direct mounting arrangement The most popular type of roll neck bearing is designed around the direct mounting concept (Fig. 5). The inner rings are mounted with a loose fit, ranging from a minimum of 0.050mm to a maximum of 0.600mm according to bore size. The ‘direct mounting’ bearing design requires that the outer rings are clamped in place to withstand the axial load induced by the radial load Fr, within the bearing, and to maintain the built-in lateral setting provided by the outer ring spacer. September 2017

Rolling TIMKEN.indd 2

This ‘direct mounting’ design permits the inner rings to remain unclamped, which is necessary to enable the inner rings to move circumferentially relative to the roll neck. Speed limitations The limitation of such an arrangement is the speed combined with the rolling load. Loose-fitted TQOW assemblies (see Fig. 13 for the TQOW bearing arrangement) have been selected and applied for decades – with satisfactory results – on roll necks of all kinds in mills operating at low to medium speeds. Most of these mills, depending on the loads applied and their environmental conditions, are operating at line speeds up to 800m/min. We also have experience with mills running at or even over 1000m/ min line speeds. However, when operational speeds increase, friction and wear between the bearing inner rings and abutting faces of the work roll fillet or retaining rings can cause severe bearing inner ring face wear

(Fig. 6). Deep pitting corrosion appears here. Heat cracking starts to propagate from the inner ring front face to bore and back face followed by an inner ring fracture. Bearings will be completely damaged if the mill is not stopped and the bearings replaced. Maintenance time and the cost of bearing replacements can be a limiting parameter of mill performance. Revamping work rolls operating at extreme speeds There are several measures Timken suggests in order to prevent excessive wear between bearing inner rings and abutting faces of the work roll fillet or retaining rings at extreme operating speeds. 1. Set an axial gap varying from 0.5mm to 1mm, depending on bearing size, between the inner ring face and the mating component (Fig. 3). This gap prevents face wear of the abutting faces as they creep on www.steeltimesint.com

13/09/2017 08:49:42

ROLLING

Fig 7. Face oil slots on roll neck fillet and retaining rings

Fig 6. Bearing inner ring face wear Roll neck fillet and retaining

Bearing inner ring

rings with oil slot

front faces

Fig 9. Face oil slots on bearing inner ring front face

Fig 8. Typical profile of oil slots found on faces of fillet and retaining rings of old mills

Roll neck fillet and

Bearing inner ring front

retaining rings

faces with oil slot

Fig 10. Profile of oil slots provided by Timken on the bearing inner ring front face

the roll neck. 2. The inner ring backing diameter should be the maximum possible. The outer diameter of the mating components (fillet and retaining rings) should be at the tangency point of the inner ring rib radius. 3. The roll neck fillet and retaining rings in older mills generally contain face oil slot features. In these cases, the bearing double inner rings do not need face oil slots (Fig. 7). The typical profile of the oil slots found on the faces of fillets and retaining rings in older mills is shown in Fig. 8. 4. In new mills, the standard is for the oil slots to be located in the bearing inner ring front faces. This allows for lubrication of the contact between the inner ring and the abutting faces (Fig. 9). Standard oil slots in Timken bearings are in the bearing inner ring front faces, as shown in Fig. 10. The edge between slot and face is well blended to minimise wear with respect to the mating component. 5. The fillet ring and retaining ring should have a minimum hardness of 50 HRC and a preferred hardness of 55 to 58 HRC. 6. The contact surface between the bearing inner ring front face and the roll neck mating components should be lubricated. September 2017

Rolling TIMKEN.indd 3

Case study – existing solutions and problem description This application is performed on work rolls in 4-HI mills. Mill design attributes Mill type: 4-HI mill Work roll nominal barrel diameter: 254mm Work roll minimum barrel diameter: 228.6mm Barrel length: 1612.9mm Roll neck diameter: 139.7mm Roll neck to barrel ratio: 55% Screw-down distance: 2184.4mm The isometric view of the work roll is shown in Fig. 11. Work roll operating conditions Maximum bending load: 167.4 kN (per bearing) Maximum axial load: 60 kN Maximum line speed: 1036 m/min (= 1443 rpm roll speed at min roll diameter) Roll neck fillet ring Neck ring material: Steel Hardness of 58–60 HRC (comparable with bearing hardness)

Lubrication Air-oil system The isometric view of the neck fillet ring is shown in Fig. 12. The current design of the fillet ring has sharp oil slot face corners (radius of 0.5 mm) – see Detail A. Timken bearing Fig. 13 shows the offer drawing of the work roll bearing used in the application – the four-row tapered TQOGW 48680DGW902A3. Envelope: 139.700x200.025x160.340 (ID x OD x width in mm) Timken rating: C90(4) = 240 kN Computer model The computer-modelled application is shown in Fig. 14. The computer model is equivalent to the work roll boundary conditions previously described. L10 life calculations are performed for operating conditions of 75% of maximum load and 75% of maximum speed: Bending load: 0.75 x 167.4 kN = 125.55 kN per bearing Axial load: 0.75 x 60 kN = 45 kN Work roll speed: 0.75 x 1443 rpm = 1082.3 rpm www.steeltimesint.com

13/09/2017 08:49:45

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ROLLING

Sharp oil slot corners

Fig 11. Work roll design – isometric view

Fig 12. Roll neck fillet ring – isometric view

Detail A

Fig 13. Offer drawing of the four-row tapered TQOGW 48680DGW-902A3

Work roll symmetry line

Row 1

125.55kN

Row 4

Ø254mm

139.7Ø4mm

1612.9mm

Half work roll modeled 2184.4mm

Fig 14. Computer-modelled application Adjusted bearing life - L10a

Fig 16. Gross wear on bearing inner ring severe adhesion, heat cracking and pitting.

Fig 15. Adjusted bearing fatigue life

Blended oil corners

Fig 17. The roll neck fillet ring von Mises stress (before revamp)

September 2017

Rolling TIMKEN.indd 4

Detail A

Fig 18. Blended oil slots on the bearing inner ring

www.steeltimesint.com

13/09/2017 08:49:52

ROLLING

New nozzle added

Oil entries

Fillet ring

Fig 19. Addition of new lubrication nozzle Vent and oil level Vent and drain

The adjusted bearing fatigue life L10a of the maximum loaded row (Row 3), presented in Fig. 15, is 8,800 hours. It is calculated for operating conditions of 75% of maximum load and 75% of maximum speed and presented for axial load acting in both directions. Due primarily to the bending of the roll neck, the load sharing and thus life will not be equal across the four rows. Rapid wear on inner ring faces Our customer accelerated the challenge for bearings when they decided to improve mill productivity by increasing line speed by 20%. An increased line speed such as this, without other mill improvements or changes, generates wear on the bearing inner ring faces, as shown in Fig. 16. The customer requested Timken service engineering support. There were no other reported issues with the existing bearing performance. Areas of maximal von Mises stress (Fig. 17) are indicated on the fillet ring contact surface (values above 150 MPa locally). These are calculated under maximum operating conditions (maximum bending load of 167.4 kN per bearing and maximum axial load of 60 kN). Timken work roll upgrade solution A mill upgrade was performed following Timken’s recommended technical improvements: 1. Design oil slots on the bearing inner ring face (Fig. 18). The Timken design of blended edges for the inner ring oil slots (face corner radius of 3 mm) is used to minimise wear with respect to the mating component. Halve the oil slot numbers www.steeltimesint.com

Rolling TIMKEN.indd 5

Oil drainage

Fig 20. The roll neck fillet ring von Mises stress (after revamp)

(eight slots on the bearing inner ring compared to 16 slots on the neck backing ring) to decrease the contact pressure on the abutting faces. The decrease in the oil slot number is based on Timken internal standards. 2. Remove the oil slots from the work roll neck fillet ring face and increase their backing diameter to the maximum possible. 3. Reduce neck fillet ring hardness to 55–58 HRC from 58–60 HRC (below the bearing hardness). 4. Add a new nozzle to lubricate the contact between the inner ring face and the abutting fillet ring (Fig. 19). 5. Increase the oil kinematic viscosity from ISOVG220 to ISOVG320. The maximal von Mises stress after this revamp is around 60 MPa, both on the roll neck fillet ring (Fig. 20) and on the bearing inner ring. It was calculated under the same loadings as Fig. 17. Results of mill work roll upgrade for extreme speeds: 1. Decreased the maximum contact stress between the bearing inner rings and abutting faces of the fillet ring from 150 MPa to 60 MPa – a decrease of 60%. 2. By following Timken recommendations, the bearing inner ring face wear significantly decreased. The customer needed to replace only six bearings the year following the revamp, instead of the 25 replaced the year prior to the revamp. 3. The mill operator succeeded in increasing mill productivity by 20%, as planned. Summary and conclusions Rolling mill owners must stay competitive against the background of a variable

global market and increase their mill line speeds. This increase comes with technical challenges that need to be addressed. The Timken Company has extensive expertise and offers both engineering support for mill design optimisation and bearings with improved features for higher speed. Such measures ensure mill performance under these more demanding operating conditions. Comment The material presented here focuses on face wear between the bearing inner ring and the mating components (fillet and retaining rings). Other aspects, like roll neck wear, should be considered as well when selecting and validating work roll bearings. � Acknowledgments The author would like to thank The Timken Company for permission to publish this study.

References 1. Harris, T. and Kotzalas, M. (2007), “Rolling Bearing Analysis – Advanced Concepts of Bearing Technology” 2. Association of Iron and Steel Engineers (1985), “The Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel,” 10th Edition 3. The Metals Society (1978), “Flat Rolling: A Comparison of Rolling Mill Types” 4. Zygmunt Wusatowski (1969), “Fundamentals of Rolling” 5. ISO 281 (2007), “Rolling Bearings – Dynamic Load Ratings and Rating Life” 6. Timken Engineering Manual – Metals Industry Edition ( 2013) - The Timken Company / Order No. 10688 7. Timken Metals Product Catalog, (2014) The Timken Company / Order No. 10675 September 2017

13/09/2017 08:49:54

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SPECIAL STEELS

Desulphurising liquid steels Researchers at Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) have been using thermodynamic databases and FactSage 6.4 software to optimise the parameters of slag basicity and slag oxygen potential in order to optimise the desulphurisation of liquid steel in the ladle. By Snehangshu Roy, Rajeev Kumar Singh, A. Paul, A. Gupta, N. Banerjee, N. Pradhan and S. Ghosh ONE of the main purposes of the slag in secondary steelmaking is to desulphurise liquid steel in the ladle. Optimisation of parameters with respect to slag basicity, slag oxygen potential and so on, is required to achieve a higher degree of desulphurisation during secondary processing. In this work, thermodynamic databases and FactSage-6.4 software, was used to characterise ladle top slags at different steel plants in SAIL, India, to understand and optimise process parameters. Various thermodynamic properties, such as equilibrium solidification, solidus point, liquidus point, viscosity, and the sulphur partition ratio equilibrium were evaluated using the software package. The impact of various slag parameters including the oxygen potential (FeO+MnO content), Basicity (CaO/SiO2 ratio), CaO/Al2O3 ratio and the effect of the aluminium content of the steel on the desulphurisation ability of the slag were evaluated using thermodynamic simulation. The MgO saturation level of the ladle top slag and its effect on the liquid slag zone was also investigated. Simulation results of FactSage indicate that the CaO/SiO2 ratio and hence the degree of saturation with lime has the greatest impact on the ability of the slag to remove sulphur in contrast to such parameters as

oxygen potential and dissolved aluminium in steel. Thermodynamic simulation results suggested a window of operation under different conditions brought about by different steel deoxidation practices for improving desulphurisation. For fully aluminium killed steels the current parameters of operation are close to the optimal condition resulting in a high equilibrium partition ratio > 1000 for this type of slag. CaO is already close to the saturation line and further increases in lime results in solid CaO which cannot assist in further desulphurisation. For mixed aluminium and silicon deoxidation practice, better desulphurisation can be achieved when the CaO/SiO2 ratio is around 3.0 to 3.5 and the FeO and MnO content of the ladle top slag is minimised to below 1.0% for both FeO and MnO. In industrial practice,

Slag Type

this condition can be achieved by early addition of aluminium in the ladle during tapping the BOS and addition of lime. Implementation of these measures will increase sulphur removal to 60% from the previous 30%. For the case of Silicon-Manganese killed steels the CaO/SiO2 ratio should be around 1.9, assisted by further addition of lime, especially for hydrogen-sensitive steels where hydrogen can be picked up from the slag after vacuum degassing. Deoxidation of the slag should be adopted to decrease slag oxygen potential to improve desulphurisation by the slag. In addition to this, lower levels of sulphur in the steel can be achieved by increasing the slag volume by adding a synthetic slag of the same basicity. ďż˝ For the full article please visit: http://tinyurl.com/y94aq83j

Ladle Top Slag Analysis (Weight %) SiO2 CaO MgO FeO MnO Al2O3

A (Al-killed) Typical Range 5-6 52-54 7-9 <0.5 <0.5 30-32

Average

5.09 54.08 8.86 0.50 0.34 31.10

B (Si-Al killed) Typical Range 18-20 43-46 14-16 3-4 1-2

Average

17-19

18.79 44.38 14.30 3.18 1.46 17.95

C (Si-Mn Killed) Typical Range 27-29 44-47 10-12 ~2.5 ~2.5 8-10

Average

28.50 46.39 11.29 2.23 2.35

9.24

Typical ladle top slag analysis from different deoxidation practices

The authors are with Steel Authority of India Ltd, R&D Centre for Iron and Steel, Ranchi-834002, India e-mail s_roy@sail-rdcis.com www.steeltimesint.com

Kumars thermo.indd 1

September 2017

12/09/2017 14:26:06

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07/09/2017 12:17

SPECIAL AND STAINLESS STEELS

Neutrons point the way With several thousand welds being made on a single car, future work on non-destructive welding techniques and post-spot welding treatments will enable the boron steel components of cars to maintain their hardness and avoid residual stress.

PRESS-HARDENED boron steel is ultra high-strength steel used across a variety of industries, with a particularly important application in the automotive industry. A large proportion of car manufacturers use boron steel for structural components and anti-intrusion systems in automobiles, as it provides high strength and weight-saving potential, allowing for stronger yet lighter cars, with increased passenger safety. In the automotive industry, a major joining method is resistance spot welding, with several thousand welds being made

on a single car. Spot welding exposes the boron steel sheet directly underneath to very high temperatures, causing the metal to exceed melting temperature and then rapidly solidify upon cooling. This results in

a heat-affected zone, where surrounding material contracts and microstructures are altered. It is important to understand the exact effects spot welding has on boron steel, as

Sample clamping stage on hexapod moving platform to enable accurate sample translation through neutron beam. Copyright: University of Warwick/WMG

Boron steel and automotive â&#x20AC;˘ Boron steel has crucial applications in the automotive industry; it is attractive due to the reduced automobile weight and increased passenger safety it provides. â&#x20AC;˘ Understanding the effect spot welding has on residual stress in boron steel is crucial for informing new welding methods that have a less damaging impact on the material and its lifetime, leading to the production of optimised automotive components. â&#x20AC;˘ The correlation between spot welding and residual stress in boron steel was experimentally determined for the first time with neutron diffraction experiments conducted at the Institut LaueLangevin (ILL)

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SPECIAL AND STAINLESS STEELS

the heat-affected zones can exhibit reduced hardness, which can in turn shorten the material’s lifetime. To investigate the correlation between hardness and residual stress, measurements must be taken on the same spot weld. Therefore, a nondestructive method of measuring residual stress must be used so that the weld can be sectioned afterwards for the hardness tests. Non-destructive methods include electron, X-ray and neutron diffraction; the latter was the chosen method as the neutron beam has a cubic gauge volume, which is the most suited for the given sample’s geometry. A recent collaboration between the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), WMG at the University of Warwick, Tata Steel, and the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) conducted a study to investigate the correlation between boron steel hardness and residual stress. Tata Steel provided the boron steel sheets for the experiments, which were carried out by WMG researchers on the ILL’s SALSA (Stress Analyser for Large-Scale

Applications) beamline. Neutron diffraction was chosen for measuring residual stress in this study due to its ability to penetrate heavy materials such as boron steel, and the finer resolution it provides. Hardness distributions were measured on the same welds. This study experimentally determined for the first time a strong correlation between reduced hardness in the heat-affected zones of boron steel spot welds and increased residual stress. The findings have indicated the need to develop new welding methods that do not have the same damaging impact as spot welding. Dr Neill Raath, research fellow at WMG, and principal researcher of this study says: “Our future work will look into two methods that can evade this issue: magnetic pulse welding, which does not use heat and as such does not cause a heat-affected zone, and post-welding heat treatment, which reverses the reduction in hardness caused by spot welding. This will be important to industries that use boron steel, namely the automotive and farming

industries, as well as materials developers who can use the data for modelling and destructive simulations in their own work.” Dr Thilo Pirling, ILL scientist leading the SALSA team, says: “The SALSA beamline is a well-suited instrument for this study, as it specialises in determining residual stresses in a broad range of engineering materials, including steels. It allows larger structures to be placed within the beamline. In this case, the non-destructive nature of the technique allowed the correlation of interest to be analysed effectively, as hardness profiles could be determined on the same weld following the neutron diffraction tests for residual stress.” This study has shown the need for alternative welding methods that lengthen the lifetime of the boron steel to its full potential. Future work on non-destructive welding techniques and post-spot welding treatments will enable the boron steel components of cars to maintain hardness and avoid residual stress, providing top-tier passenger safety in stronger yet lighter vehicles. �

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PERSPECTIVES: PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES

Steel – an essential base material Primetals Technologies is all about focusing on new technologies and maximising the profitability of its customers, says Dr. Hirai Etsuro* 1. How are things going at PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES? We are focusing on new technologies that our customers our particularly interested in. They are aiming to maximise their productivity and profitability while keeping their investment costs at moderate levels. One area where we are making constant technological improvements is that of ‘material flexibility.’ What I mean by this term is that our customers want to be able to choose their input material based on availability and price. Linked casting and rolling, as realised with Arvedi Endless Strip Production, is also very relevant today.

efficient and environmentally friendly production are in high demand these days. 5. Where in the world are you busiest at present? Asia is still our largest market. However, modernisation is necessary everywhere.

8. “…any hint of doubt when it comes to predictions of climate doom is evidence of greed, stupidity, moral turpitude or psychological derangement.” This is a quote from Bret Stephens writing in The Wall Street Journal. Do you sympathise with his view? I think that the causalities around the problem of climate change are not fully clear yet. This is a very complex field, and it’s easy to draw overly fast conclusions regarding cause and effect. That said, we are proud to offer state-of-the-art ECO solutions to our customers, and we work hard to support them in reducing their CO2 emissions. Ultimately, the goal of reducing the carbon footprint of steel plants can only be beneficial, and we are investing heavily in the respective R&D work.

2. What is your view on the current state of the global steel industry? I would say that the market is looking up. It is not fully clear yet to what extent, but there are positive indicators: The prices of steel and iron ore have risen, plant availability in key markets has improved, and China has lowered its steel production capacity. Recent developments feel positive. 3. In which sector of the steel industry does PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES mostly conduct its business? Many of our customers are targeting high-quality steels that can be sold to the automotive industry. In order to consistently achieve high-end steel grades, there can be no weak link throughout the entire production chain. We make sure that our customers are optimally covered in all areas. 4. What do you consider the most attractive offering in your portfolio? We have incredibly good technology to offer for every aspect of steel production. However, our solutions for a more energy

and carbon fibre, plastic will also play a role. There will be a balance between these materials. The material used will depend on the type of car. If there is only a very low chance of collision, lighter and weaker materials may be adopted.

6. Where do you stand on the aluminium versus steel debate? For safety reasons alone, I think that aluminium will not be able to replace steel in critical applications. This might change to some degree with self-driving cars, but for now, steel is still much needed. 7. “Within the next 15 years or so there could be a nearly even split between steel, aluminium and carbon fibre content in the average North American produced light vehicle.” So says the Centre for Automotive Research. Thoughts? That sounds right. Besides steel, aluminium,

9. Why is Industry 4.0 so important to the future of steel production? To me, at the heart of the ‘Industry 4.0’ concept is knowledge management. One of the central challenges in metals production has always been that there was just so much know-how at work – too much for any one expert to master. Since even more data is generated today, the value of this information has not fully been digested and transferred from generation to generation. This is where knowledge management comes in, which can make production processes far more reliable and improve the consistency of the end-product quality.

* Chief technology officer, Primetals Technologies www.steeltimesint.com

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12/09/2017 14:28:29

PERSPECTIVES: PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES

10. In your dealings with steel producers, are you finding that they are looking to companies like PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES to offer them digital manufacturing solutions? If by ‘digital’ you mean ‘inspired by the digitalisation concept of Industry 4.0,’ then yes, absolutely. To name a few examples, we have Through-Process Optimisation, which takes an in-depth look at the entire steel-production set-up of a producer, the LiquiRob sample-taking robot, our augmented reality maintenance software, and the cyber-physical systems that we tailor to our customers’ needs. 11. Is the steel industry wellplaced to take advantage of digital manufacturing? Yes, it is. Digital solutions make great sense here as the overall production process is incredibly complex and needs to be properly managed. This is a characteristic quite unique to the steel industry. Some aspects to the production process, for instance within the blast furnace or steel making facility, are still scientifically and phenomenologically unknown, and rely on empirical data. The resulting data-driven application knowledge really lends itself to a digital-manufacturing approach. 12. Where does PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES lead the field in terms of steel production technology? We are a full-line supplier and think of the steel-production process holistically. All manufacturing steps are connected, and we approach individual pieces accordingly. Among the areas where we are particularly strong are those of compact production lines, ecological solutions, and Industry 4.0 equipment. Generally, we excel at improving the efficiency and environmental friendliness of our customers’ plants. 13. How do you view PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES’ development over the short-to-medium term? Finding the right balance between short-, medium-, and long-term targets is crucial for any enterprise. But since Primetals Technologies is a relatively young company, the short term deserves more pronounced attention. Efficiency is a key factor that we are very focused on. Everyone within the steel industry had to adjust to changed September 2017

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market conditions over the last few years, and we are no exception. However, I am happy to say that we have made great progress in this regard. 14. How would you solve the issue of global overcapacity? Whenever overall worldwide capacity in an industry flattens out, it is largely viewed as a purely negative development. What people tend to overlook is that even under difficult circumstances, the underlying technology is pushed forward and huge advancements are made in terms of end-product quality and efficiency. This is not only true for today’s steel industry; it was the same with the oil crises in 1973 when oil production was severely limited and in spite of that challenge very significant improvements were made. Then as now, the only viable

option was to optimise product quality and make the production process more efficient. 15. The Chinese still rely heavily upon Western steel production technology. What is PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES’ experience of the Chinese steel industry? We have tremendous experience with Chinese customers. The predecessor companies of Primetals Technologies had built a strong presence in China. So we have great heritage in the Chinese market, are well-known, and have many references there. On that basis, we can provide steel producers in China with exactly the right equipment and give them valuable advice. 16. Do your recent breakthrough solutions belong in the ‘one size fits

all’ category, or do they consist of a number of different technologies? In general, the more mechanical parts are involved, the more custom-tailoring needs to be done. This is especially the case with modernisation projects, because some of the pre-installed equipment might not have come from us. So then adaptions need to be made. An exception to the rule would be greenfield projects like Arvedi ESP plants, which are of great structural complexity and still belong to the ‘one size fits all’ category. Software-based solutions, however, exhibit characteristics of both. For instance, our Through-Process Optimisation is an optimisation platform that can be put to use in many different production set-ups. 17. Where do you see the most innovation in terms of production

technologies – primary, secondary or more downstream? The upstream area, because this is where the most significant energy savings can be made. We are currently developing solutions for dry slag granulation, hydrogen reduction, gas fermentation, and many others. 18. How optimistic are you for the global steel industry? I am optimistic. Steel is a very fundamental material. Even if aluminium is on the rise in certain areas, steel will stay extremely relevant as a base component – for example for building infrastructure. We certainly have to keep developing new steelmaking technologies, but with that ensured, steel will continue to be an essential base material in many industries. � www.steeltimesint.com

12/09/2017 14:28:31

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HISTORY

Preserved cast iron bridges As road and rail traffic increased in the middle of the 19th century the government became concerned about the safety of cast iron bridges and decided to act. By Harry Hodson* THE first cast iron bridge had been built to span the River Severn at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire in 1779, and since then, cast iron had been put to widespread use until well into the railway age. Some civil engineers had the confidence to use this ‘new material’ as an alternative to stone, but others were more cautious and refused to use it. Thomas Telford, a trained stonemason, switched his attention to cast iron in about 1790 and continued to use it throughout the rest of his career. I K Brunel, however, declared: “The number of cast iron bridges I have are few, and I will avoid its use whenever possible”. Brunel may have had a point here as his bridges had to carry heavy locomotives, whereas Telford’s bridges did not, his career having ended at the beginning of the railway age. However, such was Telford’s confidence in cast iron that he would surely have overcome this problem. This was borne out by a ‘bold and daring plan’ to span the River Thames in 1800 with a single span bridge using 7,000 tons of cast iron. The bridge was designed to carry hundreds of horse-drawn vehicles and pedestrians at any one time, but it remained on the drawing board because the sponsors thought it would be too costly to construct the approach roads. As the rail network began to spread its tentacles in all directions during this period, hundreds of short span bridges had to be erected over ancient pathways and

streams whose landowners were unwilling to alter their way of life. As a result, many branch lines connected to both the East and West coast main lines ran on cinder embankments. It was a cost-effective way for many contractors especially in northern mill towns, thus solving the problems of the mill owners of where to dump the cinders coming from their boilers. A good example of this was an 18-mile stretch of branch line built by the London North Western Railway to reach the Lancashire coalfield. Construction took place between 1861-1864 with no fewer than 80 bridges, 10 stations, and four marshalling yards required for a total cost of £1,000,000. The bridges were quite simple in construction and made from cast or wrought iron resting on blue brick or stone foundations, usually over a stream or pathway with a single span of 20-30 feet. However, it should be borne in mind that although constantly increasing, locomotive weights rarely exceeded 60-70 tons until much later in the century. As we have just seen, cast iron was a cheaper option than brick or stone. While more costly, wrought iron would be used for longer spans. A failed cast iron bridge over the River Dee at Chester in 1847 resulted in two fatalities on a passenger train, but it could have been much worse. Fortunately most of the passengers had alighted at the previous station. In view of this the government acted immediately by

conducting a series of hydraulic tests on cast iron beams that were placed under tensile stress. The findings recommended that the bottom flange of an I shaped beam should be eight times ‘en masse’ to that of the top flange. It became unlawful to use cast iron beams not made to this specification, but this law was occasionally flouted. The availability of cheap steel from 1860 onwards did not entirely put an end to the use of cast iron beams in bridges. Two notable examples still in use today carrying heavy locomotives across the River Severn were actually built when steel may have been available. The Royal Victoria Bridge on the Severn Valley Heritage Line was the longest span cast iron bridge in the world when erected in 1861. An identical bridge was also in use by 1864 at Dawley in Shropshire. Both these bridges have an incredible 200 feet span and were made at the Coalbrookdale Foundry, (now manufacturer of the famous Aga stoves). Thomas Brassey erected the bridges under the supervision of civil engineer John Fowler. The load-bearing arches are made up of bolted sections, and although very shallow, the spans are in compression with the thrust being resisted by the abutments. These two remarkable examples are part of our heritage and remain preserved along with a higher number of road bridges. They are all under scrutiny, of course, but long may they remain. �

Correction: In the last History page, published in STI July/August 2017, we said: ‘Transporting the 70in x 9in x 6in section ribs to the bridge site would have been very difficult and this has led many to believe they were cast iron.” The measurements were incorrect and should have read: 70ft x 9in x 6in. * The author is an iron and steel specialist in the field of the Industrial Revolution September 2017

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www.steeltimesint.com

12/09/2017 14:29:19

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