Abstract:
The global steel market has undergone several changes over the last ten years, evolving from massive production in the 2010-2015 period, to a sectorized production based on quality products in the years that have followed, allowing producers to carve out new market niches. Throughout these years, SMS has redefined and modernized its machinery and process portfolio to ensure the possibility of obtaining state-of-the-art equipment from a mechanical and electrical point of view for the market, using automation as the core of its process and following the guidelines of Industry 4.0. The SMS group has been focusing its attention on several fronts, with particular regard to the MEERdrive® finishing blocks, taking care of the rolling process, rapid production changeovers divided by product families and treated steels, and introducing the MEERdrive®PLUS high-speed finishing/sizing block. This has been integrated into the multiloop process, where low temperature rolling takes place following thermo-mechanical treatment of the wire rod with the latest generation Meerbox® cooling boxes. Particular emphasis has been placed on the high-efficiency cooling elements thanks to the low water consumption, the latest generation of laying heads, for a perfect coil formation with reduced wear on the laying pipes and the absence of vibrations in the pipe itself. Furthermore, the SMS group has also focused on the LCC® cooling conveyor, where the 3-fan 3-dimensional air-conveyor system has become a key element for in-line heat treatments on wire rods, together with the rotary distributor with combined lowering device and shear in the forming pit that provide additional solutions for customers, by ensuring compact wire formation, customizing the coil weight in endless and/or traditional rolling, as well as finishing systems on hooks, on trestles or into an H/V hybrid solution.
To ensure the completeness of the process, the SMS group also worked on the final roll compacting and tying equipment, which has been converted from hydraulic to electric, involving Level 1 and 2 automation and control, further implemented with Level 3 and 4 for the utmost automatic and repeatable management of different work situations, on new plants but more so on existing ones. The evolution has been evident with a continuous and growing interest in the integrated CCT® 4.0 system, where technology, process and automation have been incorporated into a single software that is able to ensure multiple types of heat treatments on the wire rod and hence help operators to optimize consumptions, pre-loaded equipment and output recipes capable of working both in-line and off-line. This has allowed a drastic reduction in the costs of improper manual handling, associated with errors accidentally caused by operators when checking the acceptable temperatures and treatments on quality and special steels.
