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Kobe Steel, U. S. Steel Announce Commercial Production Begins at PRO-TEC CAL Joint Venture

05/20/2013 - Kobe Steel and U. S. Steel announced that the continuous annealing line at their joint venture, PRO-TEC Coating, has commenced commercial production of advanced high-strength steel sheet for automobiles.

Kobe Steel, Ltd. and United States Steel Corporation announced that the continuous annealing line at their joint venture, PRO-TEC Coating Company, has commenced commercial production of advanced high-strength steel sheet for automobiles.
Based in Leipsic, Ohio, PRO-TEC commissioned the continuous annealing line on 13 May, marking the start of operations at the new facility, which has an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons.
New car sales in the U.S. have made a strong recovery in recent years, reaching about 14.5 million units in 2012. Car sales are projected to continue rising to over 15 million units in 2013. More stringent CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards are increasing the need for automakers to make lighter cars. Advanced high-strength steel reduces vehicle weight without sacrificing collision safety. These trends are accelerating demand for high-strength steel sheet for automobiles.
Kobe Steel and U.S. Steel’s equal partnership joint venture has been supplying automakers in North America since 1993 with hot-dipped galvanized steel sheet, which contributes to reducing the weight of the car underbody or “platform.” PRO-TEC’s two lines have an annual production capacity of 1 million tons.
The new continuous annealing line has an annual capacity to produce 500,000 tons of advanced high-strength steel sheet. The combined capacity of 1.5 million tons per year makes PRO-TEC one of the world’s largest facilities producing high-end steel sheet products for the automotive industry.
The continuous annealing line is equipped with both advanced water quench equipment and a rapid gas jet cooling system, which enables the new facility to produce a wide range of cold-rolled high-strength steel currently used in the automobile industry. The new line will be able to make next-generation high-strength steel products with outstanding formability. A major product is steel sheet with a tensile strength of 590 MPa.
The line will be capable of producing ultrahigh-strength steel of 780 MPa and 980 MPa and higher.
These steel products also help decrease fuel consumption by reducing the weight of cars and help lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Pictured below: The annealing furnace has a reducing atmosphere where steel is heated to specific temperatures, proceeds through the slow cooling and rapid cooling sections, and is followed by reheat and final cooling.
Pictured below: The temper rolling mill is a single-stand, four-high mill that imparts the required surface roughness and appearance to the steel.
Pictured below: The entry accumulator stores the steel sheet to maintain the continuous process operation while the entry end is stopped to weld the endds of the coils together. The delivery accumulator stores the steel sheet while the coil is being cut and discharged.