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Concast to Supply Steelworks to Vallourec & Sumitomo do Brasil

11/07/2008 - Concast will supply steelworks plant and equipment to Vallourec & Sumitomo do Brasil for a secondary metallurgy center and continuous caster for the manufacture of seamless tubes.

Vallourec & Sumitomo do Brasil in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a joint venture between Vallourec, France, and Sumitomo Metal Industries, Japan, has placed an order with Concast, Switzerland, for the supply of steelworks plant and equipment for a secondary metallurgy center and a continuous caster for the manufacture of seamless tubes.
 
Designed to produce 1.1 million tonnes of liquid steel annually, the new works will comprise an electric steel plant with ladle furnace, vacuum degassing facility, and a continuous caster. Concast’s sister company SMS Meer will supply the facility’s seamless-tube rolling mill.
 
The ladle furnace, equipped with a transformer of 26 MVA + 10 %, will achieve a heating rate of approximately 5°C/min. The twin-tank design vacuum degassing facility is equipped with a mechanical pump that delivers an emptying time of less than seven minutes and supports a rapid-casting cycle.
 
With five strands and a casting radius of 12 meters, the continuous caster produces round blooms in the diameters 270, 340 and 406 mm. The casting machine is equipped with electro-mechanical tundish stoppers, electro-magnetic stirrers, a compact hydraulic mold oscillator, a de-burrer and an automatic marking machine linked to a visual product recognition system.
 
In addition to the complete supply of the mechanical and electrical equipment, Concast’s supply scope also includes automation (Levels 1 and 2), supervision of erection and commissioning, and training.
 
The new plant is scheduled to go into production in February 2011.
 
SMS group is, under the holding SMS GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It consists of the two Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer, which jointly form SMS metallurgy. In 2007, some 8000 employees worldwide
generated a turnover of about EUR 3.0 billion.