TPT November 2024

TUBE MILLS & ROLLFORMING LINES

Kocks three-roll RSB to enhance Baoshan Iron & Steel’s long product production

Kocks RSB ® for Baoshan Iron & Steel Co

capacity of 34.9 million tons, Baoshan stands as the second-largest iron and steel conglomerate in China and the fifth largest worldwide. The Baowu Group, with a total annual production of approximately 130 million tons, is recognised as the largest steel producer in China, reinforcing its leading position in the global market. The joint projects with Kocks, manifested in nine RSB ® installations in the Baowu Group, follow a shared vision of excellence in special steel production, propelling the Chinese steel producer into a future of sustainable growth. In Baoshan’s new rolling mill, the advanced Kocks 3-roll RSB ® 370++/4

will serve as a finishing block, following 20 stands in H/V arrangement in a 620,000t/a SBQ mill. This setup will enable the production of straight bars with finished sizes ranging from Ø20 to 100mm, achieving the highest dimensional tolerances. The scope of supply also includes the remote control for stand and guide adjustments, roll shop equipment and Kocks software solutions, allowing for optimal rolling results. The commissioning of the RSB ® 370++/4 is scheduled for mid-2025.

BAOSHAN Iron & Steel Co Ltd, an international steel producer, has signed an order for a state-of-the-art Reducing & Sizing Block from Friedrich Kocks GmbH & Co KG as part of a greenfield project. The reliable 3-roll technology of the RSB ® 370++/4 in 5.0 design, will be the heart of Baoshan’s new rolling mill, dedicated to producing high quality long products. The investment aligns with Baoshan’s plans to relocate its Shanghai production facility, replacing the existing RSB ® installed in 2003. As a subsidiary of the Baowu Group, Baoshan Iron & Steel commands an important presence in the global steel industry. With an annual production

Friedrich Kocks GmbH & Co KG www.kocks.de

Adding inspecting and measuring to a tube mill

check for quality issues related to the scarfing process. This article discusses defects, scarf depth and scarf defect. The scarf width measurement is taken after the scarfing tool and measures the size of the flat portion of the tube where the scarf has occurred. Sometimes, the scarf width can grow larger than desired if the scarf tool has been set to remove too much material, or the scarf tool has picked up too much dirt. For example, the support rollers used to hold the tube can get dirty with metal chips from the scarfing material and cause the tube to lift when debris gets caught between the roller and the tube. When this occurs too much material is removed. An alternative to measuring the width of the scarf cut is to measure the depth of the scarfed surface as it can sometimes be below the desired surface of the edges of the parent material.

THE Xiris WI-2200/3000 weld inspection system is a weld bead and tube geometry measurement solution that is used to monitor key parameters that relate to process stability and tube or pipe quality. Adding a Xiris WI system to a mill provides real-time monitoring for multiple defect conditions, enabling incremental improvements of mill quality. The many measurements that the weld inspection system can provide are based on the differences between the actual laser profile line seen by the camera and the ideal mathematical profile. The diameter of the tube determines the length of the ideal profile line to be fit over the actual profile line. By knowing the position of the actual laser profile, the ideal profile, and the size of the pixels in the image, the WI-2200/3000 can calculate the various profile defects. While most mill operators will use the weld inspection system directly after the weld box, some choose to place the inspection system after scarfing to

Xiris Automation Inc www.xiris.com

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NOVEMBER 2024