ArcelorMittal Belgium NV has placed an order with Siemens VAI Metals Technologies for the supply of two Simetal Vaicon stoppers. The slag stopper systems will be installed on two 300-ton LD converters at ArcelorMittal’s Gent works. Reducing slag carry-over to a minimum will improve the chemical composition and thus the quality of the steel. The modernization project is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2013.

At the company’s Gent works, ArcelorMittal operates LD (BOF) converters, with a tapping weight of 300 tons. In order to almost completely prevent slag carry-over with the steel towards the end of the tapping procedure, Siemens will equip each of the converters with a Simetal Vaicon slag stopper system. In this solution, the taphole is pneumatically sealed with nitrogen gas. This non-contact technology ensures reliable operation irrespective of possible taphole wear. The slag stopper systems ordered by ArcelorMittal Gent can be operated either in manual or automatic mode and will be able to reduce the slag content in the liquid steel to levels lower than four kg/t, which will result in reduced rephosphorization and resulfurization of the steel.

The integrated production plant of ArcelorMittal Gent belongs to the company’s Flat Carbon Europe Division. The plant has an annual production of roughly 5 million tons of flat rolled steel, e.g. for the automotive and the household appliances industries. On the basis of a previous contract, Siemens is currently modernizing the drives in the finishing train of the hot rolling mill in Gent.