March 2007 — Tata Steel Ltd., India, has contracted SMS Demag, Germany, to supply an oxygen steelworks and a twin-strand continuous slab caster for the Kalinganagar location in the federal state of Orissa. The order marks the largest converters and the most powerful slab caster in India as well as the world’s largest primary dust-collecting system for a steelworks.

With this project, Tata Steel is targeting an annual production of 3 million tonnes of steel in the first phase, with plans to increase the production by a further 3 million tonnes in a second construction stage.

In the first construction stage, the oxygen steelworks will be equipped with two converters, each capable of producing a heat weight of 310 tonnes. SMS Demag’s scope of supply comprise the core components for the two converters, including the flux supply and handling system, oxygen lance system, bottom stirring equipment, lamella suspension system and the converter gearing with four frequency-controlled drive motors. This gearing will be fabricated in SMS Demag’s own workshops in Hilchenbach, Germany.

The supply scope for the oxygen steelworks also includes basic automation, the user-friendly visualization system and the process model with fully automated blow control for the converter process. The oxygen steelworks will also be equipped with a 340-tonne hot-metal desulphurization plant, a 310-tonne RH-TOP vacuum degassing facility, and a 310-tonne CAS-OB facility consisting of a treatment stand.

The world’s largest primary dust-collecting system for a steelworks has an extraction capacity of more than 0.5 million cubic meters of process gas per hour and converter. SMS Demag will install the proven “Baumco CO system” for the cleaning and recovery of process gases, which has already been successfully implemented in over 200 facilities throughout the world. The entire steelworks concept will exceed current environmental requirements.

Designed for 230-mm thick slabs with slab widths of 1000 to 2000 mm, the twin-strand continuous slab caster attains a casting speed of 1.9 meters per minute. SMS Demag’s supply scope includes detail engineering, the mechanical and hydraulic equipment, and the complete X-Pact^® electrical and automation systems inclusive of the process models.

The mold, with resonance oscillator, is equipped with remote adjustment for the narrow faces, which enables the casting width to be adapted while the caster is in operation. The oscillator, with variable oscillation frequency, stroke length and curve shape, guarantees continuously high quality of the slab surfaces. The facility is equipped with the SMS Demag-patented Dynamic Soft Reduction^® (DSR) and hydraulically adjusted CyberLink^® segments.

The complete automation system for the continuous slab caster will be set up, tested, and optimized in the SMS Demag test center before commissioning using plant-specific simulation software operating under near-real conditions. This will allow “Plug & Work” operations to be performed on the plant and the commissioning time to be reduced.

Commissioning of the first construction stage at is scheduled for mid-2009.

Tata Steel is the largest private steel producer in India.

SMS GmbH is the holding for a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering relating to the processing of steel, non-ferrous metals and plastics. The group is divided into the Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer under SMS metallurgy and, on the other hand, into the Business Area SMS Plastics Technology. In the year 2005 some 9250 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.33 billion.