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Siemens Expands EAF Volume, Productivity for Çolakoglu Metalurji A.S.
10/19/2011 - Turkish steel producer Çolakoğlu Metalurji A.S. recently granted Siemens VAI Metals Technologies the final acceptance certificate for its modernization of EAF No. 1 in the Gebze Plant. The upgrade allowed the producer to boost EAF overall productivity by 12% without any change in tapping weight.
Turkish steel producer Çolakoğlu Metalurji A.S. recently granted Siemens VAI Metals Technologies the final acceptance certificate for its modernization of Electric Arc Furnace No. 1 in the Gebze Plant. The acceptance certificate was granted just four days after the first heat.
The newly upgraded EAF has allowed the producer — described by Siemens VAI as one of the most productive electric arc furnaces in the world before modernization — to increase its electrical active power input by 8%, while the electrical energy consumption has been reduced by 6%, without increasing the fossil energy consumption. This has boosted the EAF’s overall productivity by 12% without any change in the tapping weight.
Çolakoğlu produces its steel in a Siemens VAI Simetal Ultimate EAF that has been operating since January 2007. Originally designed for a two-bucket charge operation with a charge volume of 250 tonnes, the furnace has since been operated with a tapping weight of 315 tonnes. The larger tapping weight resulted in increased cycle times due to the need to charge more than two scrap buckets when using lower-density scrap.
The modernization project involved renewing a large part of the EAF’s mechanical equipment, including the lower and upper shells, gantry, lifting columns and furnace cover. These renewals increased the volume of the shell by around 20%, but kept the tapping weight constant. The furnace can now again be charged with just two buckets and produces over 2.5 million tonnes of steel per year.
Siemens also installed new current conducting electrode arms for electrodes of up to 800 millimeters in diameter as part of the EAF upgrade, which allowed the company to increase the electrical active power input by 8% while reducing electrical energy consumption by 6%.
Siemens VAI completed the EAF upgrade project within an unusually short implementation time of only 20 days in July 2011. The first heat took place on August 1 and Çolakoğlu promptly issued the final acceptance certificate on August 5.
Çolakoğlu Metalurji A.S. runs an electric steel plant in Gebze, in the west of Turkey. The plant’s main products are billets, most of which are used for producing reinforcing steel rods, and slabs for further processing in the hot rolling mill. While maintaining billet production at the same level, the modernization of the electric arc furnace now provides enough raw steel for Çolakoğlu to expand its production of flat steel.
The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is a leading international supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly products and solutions for industrial customers. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies.
The Metals Technologies Business Unit (Linz, Austria), part of the Siemens Industry Sector, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of plant construction and engineering in the iron and steel industry as well as in the flat rolling segment of the aluminum industry. The Business Unit offers a comprehensive product and service portfolio for metallurgical plants and equipment as well as integrated automation and environmental solutions covering the entire lifecycle of plants.
