core sector communique

Order for SMS Siemag AG from China

Yichang Three Gorges orders two continuous annealing lines for processing ultra-thin sheets

Yichang Three Gorges (Yichang Three Gorges Quantong Colored and Galvanized Plate Co., Ltd.), China, has placed an order with SMS Siemag, Germany, for the supply of two continuous annealing lines. Both lines will process ultra-thin sheet, which will then be elec­troplated and used as packaging material. The annealing process and the subsequent post-treatment enable the strain hardening caused by the rolling operation to be removed from the material and the mechanical properties and surface quality to be set exactly as required. The commissioning of the first line is envisaged already for May 2011. The second line will follow a month later.

The SMS Siemag supply scope includes the design and the manu­facturing of the mechanical equipment as well as erection and com­missioning. The two annealing furnaces supplied by Drever Inter­national will not be powered by gas as is customary but with elec­tricity. A newly developed technological highlight are the pre-heating zones which will be operated by heat recovered from the gas-cooling zones and will therefore save an essential amount of energy. 

The lines are designed for strips with a gage of 0.14 to 0.4 mm and widths ranging from 1,000 to 1,250 mm. The process speed in each furnace is 600 m/min, although 720 m/min can be reached in the entry section and 750 m/min in the exit section. The lines each have a capacity of 350,000 t/a. The ultra-thin sheet processed is in the grades CQ, T3, T4 and T5. 

 Both lines contain two uncoilers, laser-welding machine, cleaning section, entry accumulator, Drever furnace, intermediate loop tower, two skin-pass mill stands (for dry or wet operating mode), exit strip accumulator, inspection stand, flying shear and two recoilers. A tension leveler is additionally situated in one of the lines, downstream of the skin-pass mill stands.

 Yichang Three Gorges is erecting a complete steel plant in the vicinity of the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province in the central part of south China. The works will process hot strip into coated ultra-thin sheet for the packaging industry.