SMS Siemag Celebrates Start of ThyssenKrupp Steel Works in Alabama
01/14/2011 - SMS Siemag is celebrating the official opening of the new integrated works complex of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA and ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA in Calvert, Ala.
SMS Siemag is celebrating the official opening last December 10 of the new integrated works complex of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA and ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA in Calvert, Ala. SMS Siemag, Germany, was the main supplier of the plants and equipment for ThyssenKrupp Steel USA.
SMS Siemag’s supply scope included a high-performance hot-strip rolling mill with an annual capacity of 5.3 million tons of steel strip, a combined pickling line and tandem cold rolling mill, continuous pickling line, acid regeneration plant, four hot-dip galvanizing lines with two furnaces, and an offline skinpass mill. SMS Siemag also supplied a hot strip pickling and annealing line for the plant’s stainless steel section.
According to SMS Siemag, the core component of the new plant complex is the high-performance hot-strip rolling mill, which has an annual capacity of 5.3 million tons of strip. The mill produces high-quality steel grades, including multiphase steels and high-strength grades as well as around one million tons of stainless steel strip each year. The mill’s electrical and automation systems were tested and optimized at SMS Siemag under the Plug & Work scheme while the construction phase was underway. Operator training sessions were also started well ahead of commissioning, thus also contributing to a rapid run-up phase.
The pickling line/tandem cold mill supplied by SMS Siemag is currently the most powerful of its kind, with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tons. Cold-rolled strips that are subject to particularly stringent surface-quality demands also are able to run through the offline skin-pass mill.
An additional 1.1 million tons of hot strip can be treated in the continuous pickling line. The acid in both sections of the plant is conditioned by means of an innovatory acid regeneration plant. The hydrothermal conditioning technology developed by SMS Siemag is characterized by reduced emission values, high energy savings and low operating and maintenance costs.
For further processing stages, SMS Siemag supplied four hot-dip galvanizing lines to ThyssenKrupp Steel USA. The lines, which are designed to be highly flexible, include annealing furnaces, coating equipment and temper mills. A very wide range of corrosion-protected strip products with tailor-made properties are manufactured on the lines.
For the stainless steel complex, SMS Siemag supplied a high-output annealing and pickling line for the endless processing of hot-rolled stainless steel strips. On this line, which comprises an annealing furnace, mechanical scale breaker and the pickling section, hot strips of stainless steel grades are pre-treated for further processing in the cold rolling mill.
SMS Siemag AG is a company of the SMS group, which is, under the roof of SMS Holding GmbH, 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 Siemag and SMS Meer. In 2010, some 9000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of EUR 3.1 billion.
