The cold plate leveler will be specifically designed for the high-performance materials made by Outokumpu VDM and equipped with eleven leveler rolls.
 
The new cold plate leveler will be able to process plates between 3 and 30 millimeters in thickness and from 200 to 3,200 millimeters in width. It will mainly level plates made of nickel-based alloys, titanium alloys and special stainless steels. These materials are used when manufacturing highly stressed products for the chemical process industry, oil and gas industry or the aerospace industry.
 
“The new machine helps us to achieve the required flatness for being able to process the cladding grades into composite materials,” said Tobias te Kate, who manages the revamp project at Outokumpu VDM.
 
SMS Siemag’s scope of supply comprises the mechanical equipment, including the roller tables, and the X-Pact® electrical and automation systems. The X-Pact® electrical and automation systems comprise the leveling model (level 2), level-1 automation, the drive engineering, the control desk with HMI (human machine interface) and the safety systems. Commissioning is scheduled for spring 2015.
 
“The new leveler is an important contribution to reducing the cycle times for combinations of sizes and materials that are difficult to level,” stated Hanno Gerich, plant manager in Altena, Siegen, Germany.
 
In addition to the hydraulic main adjusting system, the cold plate leveler is equipped with a separate hydraulic individual-roll adjustment system and an individual-roll drive system to achieve optimum leveling results. A hydraulic bending compensation system smooths out the elastic deformations in the machine during the leveling process. In conjunction with the X-Pact® automation, the correct curvature progression can be adjusted for each plate, thus reducing residual stress.
 
By means of the individual-roll adjustment and drive system, Outokumpu VDM can remove individual leveling rolls from the leveling process. For leveling thicker plates, the machine can thus also be operated with seven leveling rolls. “The machine automatically switches between modes without loss of time from one plate to another,” commented Hermann Schwers, works manager for plate production in Altena.
 
In the Altena plant, Outokumpu VDM mainly processes plates rolled in the Siegen-Geisweid location. In 2013, SMS Siemag supplied a new 2.6-m millstand for that plant.

Pictured above: Cold plate leveler for high-strength plates.