Ebner Industrieofenbau, Austria, recently received an order from Yantai Donghai Steelstrip Co. Ltd. to supply a Hicon/H2^® bell annealer facility for their new cold rolling mill in Yantai, P.R. China.

The complete order is comprised of 10 Hicon/H2 workbases, five gas-fired heating bells, and five cooling bells, plus supplementary equipment. It also includes five stands for final cooling. The annealers will be erected in a new cold rolling mill and used to bright-recrystallize cold-rolled, low-carbon steels in straight hydrogen atmosphere. The total annual throughput amounts to around 210,000 tonnes. Coils have a maximum outer diameter of 1950 mm, and a maximum weight of 26 tonnes. The maximum charge stacking height is 5.8 meters.

All key components, including newest-generation encapsulated Hicon/H2 workbase, atmosphere components, cooling bell blowers and the entire electrical control system, will be supplied from the company headquarters in Austria. The Chinese local supply share will be fabricated at Ebner Industrial Furnaces (Taicang) Co., Ltd.

The facility is scheduled to be handed over in the third quarter of 2005.