EuroWire January 2007

corporate news

Order books are bulging at Concast

Concast, Switzerland, has seen the order books bulging recently, picking up a number of contracts worldwide. Zhangjiagang Rongsheng Steelmaking Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the Shagang Group, China, has ordered a five-strand billet caster. The new section sizes to be cast are 150mm-160mm square. The Concast high- speed caster with an 8m radius will be supplied with a CCS-Concast Continuous Straightener, mould and retractable oscillator, as well as secondary cooling. Tunisia’s Elfouladh, Société Tunésienne de Sidérurgie, has ordered a 25 tonne arc furnace, following the successful revamping of the existing ABB-EAF in June 2005. The new furnace, with an annual production of 230,000 tonnes, will be equipped with EBT lip and ConsoTech burner. Commissioning is scheduled for the end of 2007. Mechel Targoviste AG, Romania, a member of the Russian Mechel group, has placed an order to build a continuous caster. With its three strands, the caster will guarantee an annual production of 500,000 tonnes. The section sizes cast will be 140 x 140mm and 150mm x 180mm. The facility will be equipped with a new stopper rod mechanism for both open and submerged casting, and the supply scope includes modern CONVEX® technology and marking machines. Concast is also supplying Pohang Iron & Steel Co, Ltd (POSCO), Korea, with a three-strand continuous bloom caster – increasing the annual capacity at the site to 1.1million tonnes. The section size of the blooms is 400 x 500mm, and the special steel grades to be cast will include cold-heading steels, spring steel, bearing steel, tyre wires and welding wires. The plant, with a 16.5m casting radius and multi-point straightening, is equipped with Concast technology: plate-type moulds with mould stirrer, strand stirrer (rotating), air-mist cooling system, mechanical soft reduction at the pinch roll unit (a total of eleven modules), torch cutter with deburrer as well as bloommarking. Together with the consortium partners POSCO E&C and POSCON, two companies of the POSCO group, Concast bears the overall responsibility for the technological concept and will supply the core

components. The first cast is planned for 31 st December 2007. Zhangjiagang Hongchang Wire Rod Co Ltd, part of the Shagang Group, China, has ordered a minimill from Concast. The commissioning of the minimill, with an annual capacity of 1.15 million tonnes, is planned for the spring of 2007. The scope of supply includes a 110 tonne electric arc furnace with single-bucket charging and supply of hot metal, a ladle furnace with a turret for four different positions as well as a twin-tank vacuum degassing facility. The six-strand caster to be supplied for the 150mm square section size is equipped with CONVEX® technology and accessories.

Kardemir AS with its head office in Karabük, Turkey, has awarded Concast an order for a 90 tonne vacuum degassing facility with mechanical vacuum pumps. The vacuum facility is to be integrated into the existing process chain in order to treat the steel arriving from the 90 tonne BOF. and technical support regarding theproduction of vacuum-treated steel are integral parts of the contract. Commissioning is scheduled for January 2007. Intensive consultancy services

Concast AG – Switzerland Fax : +41 1 204 6511 Email : sales@concast.ch Website : www.concast.net

Wayne Machine and Die Company has designed, built and sold a combination 5-layer yellow jacket laboratory blown and cast film line to the Advanced and Applied Polymer Processing Institute in Danville, Virginia. This system is based upon new Yellow Jacket die technology that is capable of producing 5-layer blown and cast plastic film in A-B-C-B-A and other configurations. The line can process polyolefins such as LDPE, LLDPE, and HDPE, barrier materials such as EVOH, and adhesives for tie layer applications. New extrusion film technology to AAPPI

It rapid development of multi-layer structures for subsequent testing, while using small amounts of raw material, utilising 5-Layer blown film stack type die and a 5-Layer feedblock and cast film die. is ideal for

The line consists of three 1" 24:1 yellow jacket extruders, dies, blown film takeoff, cast film takeoff and torque controlled winder. The new line is capable of up to 12" layflat blown film and 8" wide cast film. ▲

The 5 layer cast film line

Full instrumentation, including digital auto-tune temperature controls and melt pressure indicators are part of each extruder. The line includes a PC-based data acquisition system that interfaces to each extruder control panel and to record process parameters for statistical analysis, create trending plots and perform recipe storage. The Advanced and Applied Polymer Processing Institute is a full-service polymer processing and research centre. AAPPI is an innovation enterprise of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, in partnership with Virginia Tech. The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research is focused on the economic transformation of Southside Virginia. Wayne Machine and Die Company – USA Fax : +1 973 256 1778 Email : jscuralli@waynemachine.com Website : www.waynemachine.com

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EuroWire – January 2007