Jindal South West Steel Ltd. (JSW) has awarded SMS Demag an order for the supply of a continuous caster for the company’s Toranagallu, India, location.

For the contract, SMS Demag will supply a single-strand continuous slab caster, designed for the production of 1.8 million tonnes of slabs per year. At a maximum casting speed of 1.85 meter/minute, the plant will produce slabs with a thickness of 220 mm. If required, it can also be converted to produce 260- and 300-mm thicknesses.

The spring-guided, hydraulically actuated mold is equipped with resonance oscillation. Employing technology from SMS Demag’s Intelligent Slab Casting^® package, the machine will also be capable of remote adjustment of the narrow faces, which allows the casting width to be adapted between 1000 and 2200 mm during operation.

Additional modules will be implemented from the X-Pact^® range of electrical and automation solutions, including mold level control to prevent the level of steel in the mold from fluctuating excessively and ensure that the slab surfaces will be of optimum quality due to the uniform development of a casting-powder lubricating film.

The mold monitoring system continuously records the integral heat flow density of the mold for visualization of the slab surface temperature. The temperature data are transmitted, for example, to the breakout prediction system to enhance the plant availability and productivity with an early-warning system against impending breakouts of the strand shell.

SMS Demag’s scope of supply also includes erection supervision, training of the operating personnel and commissioning.

JSW will use the new equipment to cast micro-alloyed and HSLA steels to satisfy the growing need for automotive grades in India. Commissioning is scheduled for early 2008.

SMS GmbH is the holding for a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering relating to the processing of steel, non-ferrous metals and plastics. The group is divided into SMS metallurgy, which includes the Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer, and into the Business Area SMS Plastics Technology. In the year 2005 some 9,250 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.33 billion.