Koch Commissions Rail Finishing Line at EVRAZ ZSMK
12/03/2013 - In September 2013, EVRAZ ZSMK commissioned and issued the final acceptance certificate (FAC) for the new rail finishing line at its works in Novokuznetsk, West Siberia.
The design of the 100-m-long manipulator ensures that the rails suffer no damage.
The new rail finishing line installed in the Novokuznetsk works of the metallurgical combine EVRAZ ZSMK has been successfully commissioned. The line designed for handling rails more than 100 m long was designed and supplied by Koch H&K Industrieanlagen GmbH.
The order comprised all components from the rolling mill exit through to the loading area for the straightened and finished rails. Koch H&K supplied the cooling bed, a buffer bed and a PS 1800 H-type pendulum shear used for sample taking, several sawing machines for cutting the rails to length, the drilling equipment and the complete plant control systems.
Koch H&K also provided the entire transport and handling equipment including the charging and discharging devices and the roller tables. The manipulator for loading the finished rails into intermediate storage devices or directly onto rail wagons was also part of the order scope. The manipulator, which has a span width of 100 m, is designed to securely prevent any damage to the rails.
The weather conditions in the Siberian plant posed the designers with an extraordinary challenge. All equipment had to be designed for temperatures between -20 and +40 °C. For weeks, the equipment installation had to take place at deep freezing temperatures.
Koch H&K supplied the plant on a turnkey basis, including the hydraulics, the media supply equipment and all automation and control systems. The plant can process 100-m-long rails at a cycle time of 120 seconds.
Alone the transport of the plant components, which were up to 30 m long and had a total weight of some 2,600 t, was a highly challenging task. It required a total of 170 railway wagons and, what is more, at the Russian border the freight had to be reloaded onto wagons suitable for the Russian broad-gauge lines.
The cooling bed can handle rails of more than 100 m length.
Koch H&K Industrieanlagen GmbH was established in 2010 by the company’s current Executive Partners who acquired the assets in a management buy-out of the business area “Rolling Mill Technology” from the Danish company FLSmidth. The company has its roots in the two companies Koch Transporttechnik GmbH and Hoestemberghe & Klütsch GmbH, which were both founded more than 60 years ago. Through this background, Koch H&K can build on more than six decades of steel industry experience.
The company develops and provides integrated solutions for rolling mills, from continuous casting through to the finish-rolled section or sheet. It specializes in customized solutions for both new plants and plant modernizations, which are supplied complete with automation, control and network systems and all ancillary equipment.
