WCA November 2007

Industry news

SMS modernisation of Tata mill in India

Tata Iron and Steel, India, has awarded SMS Demag a contract for the modernisation of its hot strip mill in Jamshedpur. For the roughing mill the contract includes the replacement of the drive trains, the installation of new hydraulic adjusting systems, as well as a new Level 1 automation system with gauge and width control. For the finishing mill SMS Demag will supply new drive trains for mill stands F1 to F5. The SMS-designed and built compact hot strip mill went in operation in 1993, producing around 3.1 million tons of hot strip per year. Production after the revamp can be raised to more than 3.5 million tons per year. An important signing commemorating the 300 th CV line ordered took place between Maillefer SA and Energya Industries during the Interbuild show in Cairo, Egypt, in June. Hesham H El Sewedy, CEO of Energya Industries, and Pentti Hätälä, CEO of Maillefer SA, took up the pen for the event and a handshake between the two men sealed the deal. The order represents the 300 th complete CV line sold in the history of Maillefer. Manufacturing is underway on the equipment, which is scheduled to ship from the company’s Finnish facility during the latter part of this year. Energya Industries has earmarked the new Continuous Vulcanization (CV) line for its Jeddah Cable plant in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Building preparations and tower construction are underway to accommodate the line, which measures around 115m high. The CV line ordered is a vertical tower model destined to the production of high-voltage and extra high-voltage insulated cables of up to 500 kV and a cross-section of 3,000mm 2 . It incorporates unique technology for quality production, which is characterised by cable roundness and homogeneity across all insulation and semi-conductor layers. Maillefer CV lines are designed as best in class for manufacturing energy cables that offer long-term reliability in the field.

The rise in production will be accomplished by increasing the drive power in the roughing stand and finishing mill. An important factor is the 25% rise of power level in the roughing stand, which allows the number of passes to be reduced and makes the design of pass schedules easier. To be able to transmit the higher torques, new drive spindles, larger work rolls and Morgoil ® bearings with higher load-bearing capacity as well as modified roll chocks will be installed. In the finishing mill the power of the motors will be increased by around 10%. SMS Demag will replace the main gear units of F1 to F4 and the pinion gear units of F1 to F5 or their

gear wheel sets. On F1 and F2, new Sieflex ® gear spindles will be installed. A detailed concept was developed together with Tata Steel in order to minimise the times of production stoppages that are needed for the revamping job. The roughing stand area will be modernised in the autumn of 2008 as part of an 18-day shutdown and work in the area of the finishing mill has been scheduled for the summer of 2009 during continuous shutdown periods.

SMS Group – Germany Fax : +49 211 881 4386

Email : info@sms-group.com Website : www.sms-group.com

300 th CV line for Maillefer

Pentti Hätälä, of Maillefer, left, and Hesham H El Sewedy, of Energya, on the right, signed the agreement for the CV line m

An option was signed to deliver an identical line to the Energya Cables operations in Egypt where major expansions are underway to increase capacity and expand the product range of Energy Cables. Maillefer has been a privileged partner to Energya Industries and, in particular, Jeddah Cable Company for more than 20 years. JCC is a leading manufacturer of a complete range of cable products in

the ME&A region with the most recent and most modern manufacturing processes in the region. A large majority of cable manufacturing equipment installed originates from Maillefer. The 300 th CV line once again confirms the high level of confidence that both partners place in each other. Maillefer SA – Switzerland Fax : +41 21 691 2143 Email : info@maillefer.net Website : www.mailleferextrusion.com

Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2007