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SMS Demag to Help Boost Production at Nucor Hickman

07/26/2007 - Nucor awards SMS Demag a contract to modernize the finishing mill at its CSP plant in Hickman, Ark., including replacement of the drive trains on mill stands F1 and F2 and modification of these stands to accommodate larger work rolls.

Nucor Corp. has awarded SMS Demag a contract to modernize the finishing mill at its CSP® (compact strip production) plant in Hickman, Ark. SMS Demag’s scope of supply includes replacement of the drive trains on mill stands F1 and F2, as well as modification of these stands to accommodate larger work rolls.
 
The finishing mill upgrade is part of Nucor's plan to boost overall production, in part by raising slab thickness by around 5 mm. Mill stands F1 and F2 must be modified to provide higher thickness reductions in order to roll the thicker slabs to the required final strip thickness. To accomplish this, the work roll diameters will be increased.
 
The necessary torque increase will be accomplished by changing the gear ratio. In addition to installing new main gear units, SMS Demag will also replace the intermediate couplings, mill pinion gears, and Sieflex® gear spindles in the drive trains.
 
The stand revamp will include all modifications needed to accommodate the larger work rolls as well as the installation of new CVC® blocks with more powerful bending cylinders to optimize the adjustment range for work-roll bending.
 
Modernization of the finishing mill will be completed in the summer of 2008.
 
SMS group, under the holding SMS GmbH, is a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It comprises the two Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer, which jointly form SMS  metallurgy. In 2006, some 9,000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.8 billion.