EuroWire March 2023

Focus on Germany

Precise wire rod Solutions offered by the SMS group for wire rod producers are designed to increase plant efficiency and productivity. The mills are designed for single-strand or double-strand rolling and are able to roll wire rod from 4.5 to 27mm diameter sizes in all steel grades, with production capacities of more than one million tons per year, at stable speeds of up to 120m/s (140m/s as design speed). The lines can operate in low-temperature rolling mode at 750°C and achieve product tolerances of ±0.05 to ±0.09mm (in the range of Ø 5.5 to Ø 27mm) with up to 50 per cent ovality – 1/8 DIN 59110 tolerances achieved using Meerdrive®/Meerdrive Plus rolling/sizing technologies. To ensure a laying pattern is achievable in any speed range, SMS offers CCT® 4.0, the latest in-line/off-line process control systems combined with process models to help plant owners optimise products

and steel grades to increase quality and productivity. The wire rod lines include single or multi-line loop technology (SMS design, know-how and patent) to easily integrate soft/heavy/LTR (low temperature rolling) bar cooling. A new-generation laying head for high-speed coiling solutions ensures the formation and scratch-free coiling of the loops. An LCC® (loop cooling conveyor) with three-fan technology for uniform cooling of the loops increases process capacity and flexibility, while a rotary distributor and coil lowering system ensure proper coil formation and compactness. To facilitate coil transport and handling, either hybrid H/V or vertical and horizontal coil handling systems are being developed to handle coils weights up to five tons (with physical limits in height as free-coil and compacted for transport), with pressing/binding,

A recent wire rod line installation

weighing, labelling/tagging and handling equipment to preserve coil shape. SMS group GmbH www.sms-group.com

Engineering with the rolling ring drive The low-maintenance, efficient and easily controllable rolling ring drive is a serious replacement for drives based on timing belts or threaded spindles. Running on a plain round shaft, it can be used in many applications and is less sensitive to dirt.

“Due to its shape, the plain shaft picks up much less dirt, is easier to seal, and can be cleaned with a simple scraper,” said Mr Weber. This makes the rolling ring drive appropriate for use in damp environments or where there is a high load of particles. To meet increasing requirements in production and installation, Uhing offers customised automation solutions for rolling ring drives, ranging from automatic spool flange detection to the generation of specific winding patterns and continuous adjustment of the motion sequence during operation. Joachim Uhing GmbH & Co KG www.uhing.com

In the international wire and cable industry, the Uhing® rolling ring drive is used in laying a wide variety of materials onto spools. Reliability, availability, flexibility, ease of operation and long service life also make it an interesting option for custom designs. The rolling ring drive shows its strengths wherever a permanent and precise reciprocating movement is required. “The non-positive drive translates the movement of a rotating plain shaft with constant speed and direction of rotation into a stroke movement of the rolling ring drive,” explained Wolfgang Weber, Uhing’s managing director. Without positive-locking threads, users can freely select the pitch values and pitch direction, and so flexibly set the desired speed up to 4.2m/s, as well as the stroke length. An integrated reversing mechanism ensures automatic and dynamic stroke reversal when a pre-set fixed stop has been reached. The possible applications of the rolling ring drive, with shaft diameters between 15 and 80mm, are diverse: coating, inserting or handling in the automotive industry; cleaning, separating, spraying and distributing in the food industry; or opening and closing, positioning, indexing, chaining or winding in the packaging industry. Existing systems can be retrofitted with both analogue and automated rolling ring drives. The Schöpstal company uses Uhing rolling ring drives in its equipment for retrieving drip irrigation hoses, as the system is easy to couple, flexible to use and insensitive to soil and dust.

Uhing’s rolling ring drives have a diverse range of applications

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www.read-eurowire.com

March 2023