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Largest Assel Mill Commissioned at Hubei Xin Yegang

10/27/2009 - Hubei Xin Yegang has rolled the first tube on what is claimed to be the world’s largest Assel mill supplied by SMS Meer, which received the order to supply the mill in July 2007. Erection began in May 2009

Hubei Xin Yegang Special Tube Co. Ltd., China, recently rolled the first tube on what is claimed to be the world’s largest Assel mill supplied by SMS Meer, Mönchengladbach, Germany. SMS Meer received the order to supply the mill in July 2007; erection began in May 2009.
 
The new seamless tube plant was installed on the site of the tube mill owned by the CITiC Group in Huangshi, Hubei Province, where two Assel mills supplied by SMS Meer are already in operation. The mill, with a capacity of 420,000 tonnes per year, is designed for the production of seamless tubes in the 219- to 500-mm diameter range, mainly for structurals. The SMS Meer scope of supply includes a KSW 1500 VL cone-type piercer for piercing billet diameters of up to 460 mm and the core machine, an Assel mill AM 1100.
 
Though the Assel mill—named after its inventor, Walter J. Assel—has in the past been used mainly for rolling ball bearing tubes, further development by SMS Meer now enables the cross-rolling process to be used for a wider range of tube grades, lighter wall thicknesses, and larger tube diameters with minimum wall thickness tolerances, the company claims. Shells of up to 11.5 meters in length and with a maximum weight of 6300 kg can be rolled.
 
The mill also has a hydraulic roll setting system for controlled roll gap adjustment and newly developed, driven and adjustable guide rollers in the inlet and run-out section. The company notes that this feature ensures production with minimum thickness and diameter variations of the rolled stock within a close tolerance range.
 
SMS Meer supplied the key components of the mill equipment as well as the automation system, and it also provided the project management and supervised erection and commissioning, including operator training.
 
SMS Meer GmbH is a company of the SMS group, which is, under the roof of the holding SMS GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It consists of the two business areas SMS Siemag and SMS Meer. In 2008, some 8900 employees worldwide generated a turnover of more than EUR 3.6 billion.