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SMS Demag Starts up Two New Casters at Masteel

08/03/2007 - SMS Demag AG recently started up two twin-strand continuous slab casters designed for joint production of 5.7 million tonnes of flat products per year at Maanshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. (Masteel), China.

SMS Demag AG recently took two twin-strand continuous slab casters into operation at Maanshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. (Masteel), China.
 
Masteel’s new casters are designed for the joint production of 5.7 million tonnes of flat products per year. With a casting speed of up to 2.2 meters/minute, they cast slabs ranging from 950 to 2,150 mm in width and from 230 to 250 mm in thickness. Except for the horizontal section, the casters have an identical design and differ only in respect of their machine length.
 
SMS Demag’s scope of supply comprised the engineering, mechanical equipment, and the X-Pact® electrical and automation systems, including metallurgical process models (Level 2). SMS Demag also provided erection, erection schedule supervision, and commissioning.
 
The Intelligent Slab Casting® package from SMS Demag includes several quality- and production-boosting technological features that have been integrated into Masteel’s facilities, including CYBERLINK® segments that facilitate Dynamic Soft Reduction. Dynamic Soft Reduction helps to ensure high internal slab quality by minimizing center segregations and suppressing central porosity.
 
By interacting with the hydraulic resonance oscillation, the caster’s highly dynamic mold-level control system achieves a continuously good surface quality.
 
The caster also incorporates an integrated production quality system IPQS® to safeguard slab quality by monitoring all relevant measured data. A mold monitoring system with breakout prediction and width adjustment of the mold during casting help to ensure high plant availability and minimal non-productive times.
 
SMS Demag will utilize its “Plug & Work” concept to significantly shorten the commissioning phase. For this, the entire automation system was set up in the SMS Demag test center long before commissioning, then tested and pre-configured under near-real conditions by means of plant-specific simulation software. For commissioning, only fine adjustments had to be performed locally.
 
With its new casters, Masteel casts sophisticated grades for the automotive and construction industries, for bridge-building, power plants, and tube and pipe production.
 
SMS group is, under the roof of the holding SMS GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It essentially consists of the two Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer, which jointly form SMS metallurgy. In 2006, some 9,000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.8 billion.