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ThyssenKrupp Celebrates Milestone on Duisburg-Bruckhausen CRM
07/13/2011 - ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG’s casting-rolling mill (CRM) in Duisburg-Bruckhausen recently produced its 20 millionth tonne of hot strip.
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG’s casting-rolling mill (CRM) in Duisburg-Bruckhausen recently produced its 20 millionth tonne of hot strip.
The CRM combines the normally separate production steps of casting and rolling in one continuous process. Material from the CRM has a more homogeneous microstructure than conventionally produced hot strip, resulting in more consistent mechanical properties such as strength and elongation. The connected rolling mill also provides for particularly close production tolerances and lower thicknesses on CRM hot strip.
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe started production on the CRM in 1999. At the time, it was regarded as a technological leap in flat steel production and at the time was the first line of its kind to be installed in an integrated iron and steel mill. Today ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe plays a leading role in casting-rolling technology.
According to the company, the 600-million-deutschmark line produces hot strip faster, more energy efficiently and in excellent quality. “Today we could process far more orders than the annual capacity of two million tonnes permits,” said Dr. Helmut Osterburg, Casting-Rolling Mill Team Coordinator at ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe.
Today the casting-rolling mill at ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe produces more than 50 different steel grades for customers in the automotive, appliance, construction and electrical sectors among others. These include grades that are regarded as difficult to produce due among other things to the higher casting speeds on CRMs. Examples include non-oriented electrical steel (a soft-magnetic grade used in electric motors) and manganese-boron steels for hot stamping.
The CRM has also enabled ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe to develop two new product lines – SCALUR® and microalloyed steels with cold performance. After hot rolling, both products already possess a microstructure and dimensions with a level of uniformity and precision otherwise only attained through additional cold rolling.
Processed into hot-dip galvanized sheet, the Duisburg-Bruckhausen CRM’s 20 millionth tonne was supplied as part of a 21-tonne coil to ventilation specialists Lindab AB, who will use it to build air conditioning systems.
