Hot-strip contract for Siemens

Metals Technologies, a division of Siemens’ I&S group, has received an order from the China’s Chengde Iron and Steel Group to supply the automation system for a new hot-strip mill in Chengde.

The €9m order includes all of the basic and process automation as well as the visualisation system. Additionally, the 1700mm hot-strip rolling mill is to be equipped with the new strip-cooling model from Siemens. Commissioning of the new rolling mill is scheduled for April 2008 and the first strip is to be rolled in June 2008.

The Chengde Iron and Steel Group operates a factory complex for the production of steel in Chendge, which lies in Hebei province and is around 220km to the northeast of Beijing. The production site includes a beam rolling mill and a medium-wide-strip mill. The new hot-rolling mill to be installed is designed for the production of high-quality steel strip in widths up to 1700mm and will produce more than four million metric tons of hot strip per year upon completion. Due to the vanadium deposits in the Chengde area, the ratio of high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels will be relatively high.

Siemens is supplying the basic and process automation for the reversing roughing stand with hydraulic edger, a coil box, the 7-stand finishing mill with work-roll shifting and bending systems, the laminar-flow cooling line, two coilers and the coil conveyor. The technological control systems as well as the process models for the individual sections of the rolling mill are also part of the scope of supply.

A central feature of the automation solution is the new strip-cooling model from Siemens, which is based on a physical description of the thermodynamic processes during cooling. The temperature curves and phase components along the whole strip are calculated in real time. The current data is passed on to a model-predicted cooling-section-control system, allowing the strip-cooling process to be controlled precisely along the line. According to Siemens, this ensures uniform quality of the entire metal strip. Also, the required metallurgical properties of the steel can also be reliably achieved within narrow tolerances. This enables the efficient production of high-quality steel grades.

All of the components and systems to be used are part of the Siroll HM solution for hot-rolling mills. The automation system is characterised by a high degree of standardisation. This will ensure rapid production start-up and high plant availability. Siemens is also responsible for supervision of the work involved in installation of the supplied systems as well as for commissioning. The mechanical equipment and the drive systems of the hot-rolling mill will be provided by Chinese companies, whereby Siemens components will be primarily used.