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››› CONTINUOUS CASTING
voestalpine to upgrade bloom casting mill in Austria making it compatible with Industry 4.0 voestalpine Group has decided to invest more than EUR 100 million in future-oriented projects at its Donawitz site in Austria. One of the projects is to set up a new continuous casting line for producing extremely pure steels as a sophisticated pre-material for premium rails, quality rolled wire, and high-tech seamless tubes. The highly automated production line with an annual capacity of up to 950,000 t is scheduled to start up operation in 2019. The voestalpine Group’s Metal Engineering Division is headquartered in Donawitz, Austria. With its innovative steel solutions, it is one of the world’s leading providers of special rails for the railway infrastructure, quality rolled wire especially for automobile manufacturers, and high-tech seamless tubes for the oil and gas industry. “This major investment in a continuous casting line will enable us to produce even higher quality pre-material for our products and further expand our technology leadership in our key customer segments. This investment will
voestalpine AG and Head of the Metal Engineering Division. The new line, which will be set up parallel to the existing line and will replace it in future, features fully digitized process control and is state of the art with respect to Industry 4.0.
New continuous bloom caster to be supplied by Primetals Technologies
voestalpine has awarded Primetals Technologies the order to supply a four-strand continuous bloom caster for its Leoben steel works. The “CC4” plant will replace the existing “CC2” continuous bloom caster at the Leoben steel works. In four-strand operation, it is designed to produce 950,000 t of highest quality blooms per annum. A fifth strand can be added to increase the production capacity if needed at a The new four-strand continuous bloom caster will replace a later date. The new similar, but timeworn plant at the same site plant is scheduled to be brought into also serve to secure the Group’s Dona- operation at the end of 2019, when it witz site,” comments Franz Kainersdorf- will become the world’s most modern er, Member of the Management Board of caster of its type. The plant is also Industry 4.0 compatible. Primetals Technologies is responsible for the basic and detailed engiPrimetals Technologies, Ltd. – a joint neering, the supply and construction venture of Siemens, Mitsubishi Heavy of the plant, and will supervise the Industries and Partners, London, UK commissioning. The continuous castContact: www.primetals.com er will produce round blooms with a E-mail: rainer.schulze@primetals.com diameter of 230 mm and rectangular MPT International 2 / 2018
blooms with a cross-section of 270 mm x 360 mm, and it is designed so that it can also produce a format of 440 mm x 330 mm. The range of products comprises rail steels, case-hardening steels, machining steels, steels for seamless tubes, heat-treated steels, spring steels, cold headed and cold extrusion steels, tire cord steels, cold work steels, bearing steels and welding electrode steels. The continuous bloom caster will be equipped with the DynaFlex hydraulic mold oscillator and the LevCon mold level control. The combination of the Dynacs 3D secondary cooling system and the fully automated casting clearance DynaGap 3D with dynamic soft reduction in the strand-guiding system ensure cast blooms of a consistently high quality. The plant also has an online traversing strand stirrer, with a traversing range controlled by Dynacs 3D. For loading and unloading the heat retaining boxes, a fully automatic crane is planned with a connection to a production planning system for stockkeeping. The scope of delivery also includes special mechatronic packages and an integrated automation solution.
Conclusion At its Donawitz steel works in Austria, voestalpine is focusing on the production of producing blooms with perfect soundness as a pre-material for premium rails, qualiy wire rod and special seamless tubes. The new continuous bloom caster for four-strand operation is designed to produce 950,000 t per annum with the option to add a fifth strand to further expand production. The new state-of-the-art casting plant is Industry 4.0 compatible.