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Siemens Automation Logs Orders for Hot Mill Equipment in China

07/23/2007 - Metals Technologies (MT), a division of the Siemens (I&S) Group, recently received orders from two Chinese steel producers to supply automation systems for their new hot-strip mills.

Metals Technologies (MT), a division of the Siemens (I&S) Group, recently received orders from two Chinese steel producers to supply automation systems for their new hot-strip mills.
 
Siemens will supply the basic and process automation for both of these plants, from the furnace exit side to the roughing and finishing mills, to the laminar-flow-cooling sections and up to the coilers and the coil conveyors. Integrated HMI systems with easy-to-use process and plant diagnostic functions will facilitate operation of the plants.
 
Central components for the automation solutions include the process models for automatic presetting of the roughing and finishing mills; models and control systems for determining and adhering to the strip width; the integrated profile and flatness model of the finishing mill; and the “Microstructure Target Cooling” strip-cooling model. All components, systems, controllers, and models are part of the integrated Siroll HM concept for hot-rolling mills. The system will feature highly standardized equipment and a high degree of automation to enable fully automatic operation of the plants with fewer personnel. This will also help to ensure rapid production start-up and high plant availability while minimizing maintenance.
 
One steel producer, the Xin Yu Iron and Steel Group in Jiangxi province, operates a production complex including wire rod mills, beam-rolling mill, and plate-rolling mills. The new hot rolling mill was designed to produce high-quality hot-rolled strip ranging in width from 750 to 1430 millimeters and thicknesses from 1.2 to 16 mm. The facility will produce a total of three million tonnes of hot strip per year, with a range of products including carbon steel, HSLA steel, silicon steels, and modern multiphase steels.
 
The other steel producer, located on the Chinese East coast, is now building a hot-strip mill which, in the first phase of expansion, is to supply 2.5 million tonnes of wide hot strip per year and, in the final stage, five million tonnes per year. The plant has been designed for hot strip with widths ranging from 1200 to 2000 millimeters and thicknesses from 1.5 to 25.4 millimeters. The maximum weight of each coil is 43 tonnes with coil diameters of 1000 to 2500 millimeters. The product spectrum ranges from simple carbon steel and low-alloy steels to high-quality carbon steels; it also includes application steels for bridges, pipes, pressure vessels, automotive manufacturing, shipbuilding and welding steel grades.
 
For this hot-rolling mill, Siemens will also supply the Sinamics SM 150-fed main drives. This part of the contract will be handled by Siemens Ltd. China.
 
For both projects, Siemens will supervise installation of the supplied systems as well as commissioning. Mechanical equipment will be provided by Chinese companies.
 
The new rolling mills are scheduled to start operating as early as the middle and the end of 2008, respectively. The two projects increase the number of orders for automation solutions for Chinese hot-rolling mills to a total of five in the current fiscal year.
 
Metals Technologies (MT), a division of the Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) Group, is one of the world's leading engineering and plant-building companies for the iron and steel industry as well as for the flat-rolling sector of the aluminum industry and for open-cast mining. MT, which was created from the integration of Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau, Austria, plus the electrical engineering product business and automation solutions of Siemens, provides a comprehensive range of supplies and services for all related technological processes and integrated automation solutions for the entire life-cycle of metallurgical plants.
 
The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) is the integrator of systems and solutions for industrial and infrastructure facilities and global service provider for the plant and projects business covering planning, installation, operation and the entire life cycle. I&S uses its own products and systems and process technologies in order to enhance productivity and improve competitiveness of companies in the sectors of metallurgy, water treatment, pulp and paper, oil and gas, marine engineering, open-cast mining, airport logistics, postal automation, intelligent traffic systems and industrial services. In fiscal 2006 (to September 30) I&S employed a total of 36,200 people worldwide and achieved total sales of EUR 8.819 billion, according to U.S. GAAP.