Bengang Steel Plates Co. Ltd. has contracted Danieli for the supply of a new large bloom caster for quality and special steel grades.

The 800,000 tonne/year 4-strand, 14-meter radius continuous caster will produce 350x470 mm blooms in different demanding steel grades including automotive, gear, engineering, spring and bearing qualities. Individual strand productivity values ranging from 40 up to 60 tonnes/hour are expected, depending on steel grade and ladle sequence index.

Danieli’s scope of supply includes ladle shroud, tundish stopper rod for submerged nozzle and mould powder automatic feeding system, all of which will facilitate complete protection of the liquid steel stream, reduced oxygen pick-up, minimization of the non-metallic inclusion content.

The curved copper plate mould and relevant water cooling system design is based on an advanced concept to ensure a very efficient and consistent heat removal. A Danieli Rotelec mould electromagnetic stirrer will help Bengang to achieve high sub-surface and internal quality of the cast product. Hydraulic mould oscillation will further improve the surface quality of the cast blooms. Mechanical soft reduction at the unbending and straightening rollers will be applied for high carbon steels.

Danieli will also supply complete process control with Level 2 automation, including the finite elements dynamic solidification model, which will help to enhance the application of mechanical soft reduction.

Startup of the new caster is scheduled for the end of 2006.

Bengang Steel Plates is part of Benxi Iron & Steel Group.