2012-03 SH Draht Und Stabstahl ArcelorMittal En

THE WORLD’S MOST MODERN WIRE ROD MILL ArcelorMittal Duisburg

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Bernd Webersinke is Managing Director/CEO of

ArcelorMittal in Duisburg. He is responsible for

construction of the new wire rod mill.

What prompted you to build the new plant in Duisburg-Ruhrort?Ruhrort specialises within the ArcelorMittal group in

the production of the highest quality wires and forged

steels. We have steelworks equipped with the corre-

sponding plant and metallurgical facilities. We are

currently operating a 50 year old wire rod mill at a

second location in Duisburg. The mill was due for

modernisation, and building a new plant is an alterna-

tive to that. We decided in favour of the new build,

as we saw in it greater potential for improving quality

and for development, as well as for reducing costs.

Why did you choose SMS Meer for the new wire rod mill?The key criteria for our decision were the technology,

the anticipated operating costs, the potential for

future innovation, and the price. The SMS Meer

package was overall the best we were offered. Of all

the potential suppliers, we saw SMS Meer as the

most innovative.

What does the new plant mean for the market in general?We are using entirely new technology for our wire

rod mill: it is the first line-up in Europe to have a fin-

ishing block that is divided into two parts, namely

one 6-stand and one 4-stand finishing block.

This permits extremely sensitive temperature con-

trol. We have developed this concept in conjunction

with SMS Meer, and it is essential for rolling highest

quality wire rod grades.

The rolling blocks are driven by the MEERdrive® individual drive technology from SMS Meer. What are its benefits?The line is designed for rolling quality wire rod such

as spring steels, cold heading grades and free-cutting

steels – often, our customers only need a small

amount of any given product. The MEERdrive® con-

cept convinced us with high level of flexibility it

affords: it allows us to produce relatively small

batches economically.

What is the competitive advantage of the new plant for ArcelorMittal?Our plant is technically the best equipped in Europe

for high-quality steel grades. The other quality wire

rod mills in Europe are all retrofits. We are building a

new plant, which means that we can benefit from all

the new developments – retrofitting does not make

that possible to the same extent. We are expecting

thermomechanical rolling to produce excellent sur-

face quality and excellent microstructure properties.

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CUSTOMER'S POINT OF VIEWA step ahead of the competition

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The high level of flexibility and low number of per-

sonnel required to operate the line also make it highly

productive. In other words, we also have our sights

set on cost leadership in quality wire rods in Europe.

What part does energy efficiency play?Energy efficiency plays a role particularly in relation to

the furnace, since it is the main consumer of energy

on the wire rod mill. And here too, SMS has offered

us a technical concept that we find very convincing.

What is your assessment of working with SMS Meer?I am on site almost every day and have noticed that

SMS Meer and our own team harmonise with each

other very well. The construction time is relatively

short – that is only possible if the plant operator and

the plant builder work together very intensively.

ABOUT ARCELORMITTAL

ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steel and

mining company with operations in more than

60 countries. Its Duisburg plant specialises in

the highest quality wires and forged steels.

A 50 year old wire rod mill in operation in

Duisburg-Hochfeld is now set to be replaced by

a new line in the city’s Ruhrort district. The

advantage here is that ArcelorMittal also oper-

ates a steel plant and a billet line at the same

location.

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The automotive sector is one of the steel industry’s

most demanding customers. It places the highest

demands on quality and never stands still. European

car manufacturers are in search of ever newer and

better solutions. Suppliers who share the same inno-

vative spirit in their processes and products are at a

clear advantage on the market. One of them is

ArcelorMittal in Duisburg.

INNOVATIONNew standards for process and product quality

FEATURES OF THE WIRE ROD MILL

AT A GLANCE

Excellent surface quality and microstructure

of products, comparable with conventionally

annealed wire

Wire properties comparable to quenched and

tempered steel, but with improved formability

Scale easily removed by mechanical or

chemical means

Little variation in the mechanical parameters

Closer tolerances of 1/4 DIN

High flexibility, also permitting economical

manufacture of small batch sizes

High productivity

Coil weight of up to 3 t

Low operating costs

Innovative and sustainable overall concept

for future requirements

THE WORLD’S MOST MODERN

WIRE ROD MILL

In spring 2012, ArcelorMittal is launching operation of

a completely new wire rod mill in Duisburg-Ruhrort,

equipped to produce 690,000 t of wire rod per year

with a single strand. The line is set to replace the 50

year old plant in Duisburg-Hochfeld and is one of the

most modern in the world. It is designed and equipped

to roll technically demanding and therefore extremely

high-quality grades of wire rod with closest tolerances.

CLOSE PARTNERSHIP –

UNIQUE SOLUTION

ArcelorMittal’s partner for building the plant is SMS

Meer. Together, the two companies have worked

intensively to develop an ultramodern plant concept.

SMS Meer is supplying the entire equipment and

undertaking the installation and commissioning. The

6+4-stand wire rod finishing block layout permits

thermomechanical rolling and thereby a level of prod-

uct quality that conventional wire rod mills simply

cannot achieve.

The MEERdrive® individual drive technology makes

the wire rod mill so flexible that even small batch

sizes can be manufactured economically – at low

operating costs. In terms of sustainability, too, the

new plant is setting standards: MEERdrive® makes it

possible to save energy, the walking-beam furnace is

especially designed for low energy consumption, and

special measures have been taken to reduce noise.

The raw material for the wire rod mill is supplied by

the steel plant situated upstream.

Gaining competitive edge on the market by pooling

innovative resources – the example of ArcelorMittal

shows how it’s done.

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TECHNICAL DATA

Charge material: 155 x 155 mm billets – 16.5 m long – 3025 kg

Finished product sizes: Ø 5.5 – 25 mm

Steel grades: low to high-carbon steels, free-cutting steels,

low-alloy steels, spring steels, welding wire,

cold heading steels, ball bearing steels, tool steels

Exit speed: up to 120 m/s

Furnace capacity: 120 t/h

Production: 690 000 t/annum

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9

8 7 6 5

3

2

1

4

1 WALkING BEAM FURNACE

2 HL STAND

3 CL STAND

4 COOLING AND EQUALIzING LINE

5 6-STAND MEERDRIVE® BLOCk

6 4-STAND MEERDRIVE® PLUS BLOCk

7 ROD LAyING HEAD

8 LOOP COOLING CONVEyOR LCC®

WITH 3-FAN TECHNOLOGy

9 COIL HANDLING SySTEM

10 HORIzONTAL COIL COMPACTOR

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The new plant from SMS Meer enables ArcelorMittal

to produce wire rod over the full 5.5 to 25.0 mm size

range by means of temperature-controlled rolling – at

a maximum rolling speed of 120 m/s. This places the

company in a leading position as a supplier of rolled

wire rod for the automotive industry, mechanical

engineering, and for connecting elements.

WALkING-BEAM FURNACE

The walking-beam furnace for heating square billets

is highly productive and extremely energy efficient. It

is equipped with 88 burners and is eco-friendly thanks

to the use of the latest combustion technology such

as Low NOx, Ultra Low NOx, regenerative combustion

systems, and a 3-chamber layout for improved tem-

perature control. As a result, energy consumption is

reduced to between 255 kWh/h and 307 kWh/t

depending on the drawing temperature of the fur-

nace, and NOx emissions to less than 250 mg/Nm3

NOx with 3% O2.

TECHNISCHE HIGHLIGHTSTop quality right down the line

PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS:

Throughput of up to 120 t/h

40 billets per hour, equivalent to 90 seconds per

billet

Billet format: 155 x 155 mm

Billet length: 11.2 to 16.5 m

Billet weight: 2062 to 3025 kg

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HL STANDS

The roughing mill comprises four HL 710-34 type

housingless stands in HV arrangement. The close

rolling tolerances are a special feature of this plant.

Owing to the large ingoing formats and the broad

range of materials, a free run-out was chosen to fol-

low the roughing mill. This helps to reduce roll wear

on the roughing mill stands, as the draw-in speed is

freely variable.

CL STANDS

The intermediate train comprises 14 CL (cantilever)

stands in HV arrangement. The first 10 stands of

type CL 560, CL 450 and CL 355 have a quick-

change system which allows the rolls and guides to

be changed simultaneously and helps to keep down-

time to a minimum. The last four intermediate train

stands are of type CL 200. The rolling modules are

identical to those of the wire rod blocks.

COOLING AND EQUALISING SECTION

The cooling and equalising section in loop arrange-

ment allows the optimal temperature on the inlet

side of the wire rod blocks to be set for every dimen-

sion and every grade of steel. The loop arrangement

makes it possible to achieve a homogeneous tem-

perature distribution even at lower incoming temper-

atures of 750 °C upline of the 4-stand finishing block.

This combined with separation of the previously

common 10-stand finishing block into one 6-stand

and one 4-stand block permits thermomechanical roll-

ing for all finished product sizes. The 4-stand block is

used for finish-rolling on all sizes to prevent an

excessive increase in temperature.

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6-STAND MEERDRIVE® BLOCk

Both wire rod finishing blocks are equipped with the

innovative MEERdrive® individual drive technology.

Here, instead of a common motor driving all roll rings

via a complex gear box system, each pair of roll rings

is driven by its own individual motor.

MEERdrive® permits higher flexibility in roll pass

design. Depending on the demands of the process or

the grade of steel, it is possible to roll different cross-

sectional reductions and in this way respond to dif-

ferent material behaviour. The sizing and the reduction

ratios, which are set individually after commissioning,

can be altered at any time thereafter, e.g. for rolling

newly developed materials.

On a conventional block, the roll rings must always

be redressed uniformly in order to maintain the

reduction ratios and tension conditions. That is no

longer necessary with MEERdrive®: the separate roll

ring pairs can simply be replaced, as the required roll-

ing conditions can be restored by altering the corre-

sponding motor rpm. Because for the finishing

groove only a low level of roll wear is acceptable in

relation to the other roll ring pairs, on conventional

blocks the operator must also redress unwear roll

rings or have to prepare additional roll rings. This is

precisely where the new system makes a major

reduction in roll ring consumption and considerably

sim plifies roll ring management.

The absence of the large distributor gearbox and line

shafts also helps to cut energy consumption by

reducing the required no-load power.

Overall, MEERdrive® technology cuts operating costs

by around 30 %.

€/t

8 + 4 FRS®

Conventional Block8 + 4

Meerdrive®

- 31 %

∆ Roll Ring Management

∆ Electric Energy

Maintenance

Redressing

Roll rings in operation

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4-STAND MEERDRIVE® PLUS BLOCk

The second MEERdrive® block performs finish-rolling

of all finished sizes between Ø 5.5 mm and 25 mm.

As it processes different cross-sectional reductions,

a complex gear box configuration with up to 256 gear

ratio combinations was previously necessary to

achieve the required reduction ratios. The advantage

of the new block is that the upline rolling mill requires

only a single pass series, which is known as one-

family rolling.

The MEERdrive® technology dispenses with the

need for a complex gear system. The optimal set-

tings for the reduction ratios can be made via the

groove form and the motor rpms. As this takes place

at a rolling speed of up to 120 m/s, a simple speed-

shift gearbox is required per stand to cover the

speed range of the rolled finished sizes of between

10 m/s and 120 m/s.

ROD LAyING HEAD

One of the main features of the fourth generation

loop laying head from SMS Meer is its drastically

reduced vibration levels. At the same time, the criti-

cal speed at which vibrations peak has been

increased to 130 m/s.

The difference between this and earlier generations

lies in the ability to process the widest variety of

steel grades with ease, including those rolled at low

temperatures to improve their metallurgical proper-

ties. Service life is particularly high, and wear parts

such as the laying tubes take very little time to

replace, which raises the cost effectiveness of the

plant as a whole.

SMS Meer subjects every loop laying head to several

days of trials prior to delivery, measuring vibrations

and imbalance in extensive test cycles. This ensures

that only flawless loop laying heads which meet SMS

Meer’s high quality standards leave the factory.

The benefit to the customer: fast and successful

commissioning and smooth operation.

A MEERdrive® test run

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6

5

4

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2

1

0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160Rolling speed (m/s)

Vib

rati

on

s (

mm

/s) 1. Generation

2. Generation3. Generation4. Generation

Vibration reduction by the 4th generation loop laying head

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LCC® LOOP COOLING CONVEyOR

WITH 3-FAN TECHNOLOGy

The 104.6 m long LCC® Loop Cooling Conveyor is

equipped with 3-fan technology. Three individually

controllable fans blow the optimal amount of air onto

the loops of finish-rolled wire rod. This technology is

used especially in “forced cooling”. In this operating

mode, the covers of the LCC® are opened and air is

blown through them from below by the fans for cool-

ing. This method ensures that the material is cooled

as quickly and evenly as possible to form a fine lami-

nar pearlite microstructure.

The benefit of the 3-fan technology in this respect is

that the available quantity of air can be distributed

and varied optimally for the loops lying on the LCC®.

This ensures that the closely overlapped loops at the

edge, for example, also receive optimal cooling, and

that a more uniform microstructure is formed over

the length of the wire rod.

In “retarded cooling”, the covers are closed so that

the material cools as slowly as possible to form a

pearlitic/ferritic microstructure. No additional cooling

is used here in order to prevent bainite/martensite in

the microstructure.

A combination of “retarded” and “forced” cooling is

used for materials such as ball bearing steels.

The versatility of the LCC® means that it offers the

best possible conditions for achieving the optimal

material properties in the high-quality steel grades

rolled at ArcelorMittal Ruhrort

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COIL HANDLING

The coil handling system is a combination of a verti-

cal and a horizontal system. Standard components

are used for both systems, which permitted the

entire coil handling to be tailored to the space condi-

tions prevailing on site.

Particular attention was paid to achieving extremely

gentle handling of the finished material.

HORIzONTAL COIL COMPACTOR

The special feature of this machine is its extremely

high level of availability combined with flexibility.

The horizontal coil compactor straps the finished

coils in order to prevent surface damage.

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SMS Meer GmbH

Product Unit Long Products

Ohlerkirchweg 66

41069 Mönchengladbach

Germany

Tel.:+49 (0) 2161 350-1724

Fax:+49 (0) 2161 350-1753

[email protected]

www.sms-meer.comMeeting your Expectations

The information provided in this brochure contains a general description of the performance characteristics of our products. The actual products may not always have the characteristics described, as these may change as a result of further developments of the products. The provision of this information is not intended to have and will not have legal effect. Any obligation to deliver products having particular characteristics shall only exist if expressly agreed in the terms of the contract.

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