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BMZ Starts up SMS Meer-Supplied Seamless Tube Mill
08/29/2007 - Byelorussian Steel Works celebrates the official opening of a complete SMS Meer seamless tube plant featuring PQF three-roll finishing technology.
Byelorussian Steel Works (BMZ), the largest Byelorussian steel producer, recently celebrated the official opening of a complete seamless tube plant supplied by SMS Meer.
At its plant in Zhlobin, some 200 km south-east of the capital, Minsk, BMZ produces around 1.8 million tonnes of steel per year that is subsequently processed further into a variety of finished products, such as wire rod or bars. The new seamless tube plant will expand the range of finished products by 250,000 tonnes of seamless tubes per year.
The new plant is designed for tubes ranging in diameter from 21.3 to 168.3 mm. Tube lengths will vary between 6 and 15 meters. Production includes tubes for the oil and gas industry (OCTG), ball bearing tubes, boiler tubes and structurals.
SMS Meer supplied all the key equipment for the complete hot section and for the finishing section, as well as electrical equipment, automation, and technology systems. The heart of the plant is the hot section, which is equipped with the latest generation of PQF® (Premium Quality Finishing) mills. SMS Meer’s scope of supply
also included complete supervision of erection and commissioning, as well as training of the operating personnel. The mill at BMZ is the second PQF mill that SMS Meer has commissioned this year.
The PQF concept, which involves the use of three-roll technology, allows the process to overcome the technological limitations of the conventional two-roll MPM process. This advanced development facilitates the rolling of premium-quality products, a high level of production flexibility, and a highly stable rolling process, and hence forms the basis for complete and reliable process automation – both factors for a constant premium quality and a significant reduction in production costs.
SMS Meer is scheduled to put five additional mills of this kind into operation within the next twelve months: one in Russia, two in India, and two in China.
SMS group is, under 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 9000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.8 billion.
