Heavy Plate Mill, TISCO (China)

Discover TISCO's groundbreaking 4.3-meter heavy plate mill by SMS group. With a capacity of 700,000 tons annually and future expansion to 1.2 million tons, this facility sets new industry standards. Key innovations include extreme ingot rolling, near-net-shape production, and top-quality output. Sustainability is prioritized with an integrated exhaust system, while the X-Pact® automation ensures efficient, fully automated processes.

Project Overview

With the new 4.3-meter heavy plate mill from SMS group, Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co. Ltd., or TISCO for short, is continuing to expand its product portfolio, particularly in the stainless steel segment. The recently commissioned heavy plate mill is the most powerful of its kind ever supplied by the renowned SMS group. In this way, TISCO is further pursuing its strategy of establishing itself as a leading global player. On July 24, 2024,TISCO awarded the Final Acceptance Certificate to SMS group. The rolling mill features numerous technological innovations. It not only offers maximum flexibility in terms of the product range, but also makes a decisive contribution to sustainability by significantly reducing emissions. It boasts an annual capacity of 700,000 tons, producing 300,000 tons of stainless steel and 400,000 tons of carbon steel. In addition, the new facility is designed to allow its production capacity to be expanded to 1.2 million tons.

Multiple benefits for TISCO

The benefits of the new plant for TISCO are multidimensional. In this way, the company benefits from numerous advantages that enable it to remain highly competitive and to adapt quickly to new market developments.

• High flexibility
  The new plant will be able to roll both extreme ingot dimensions and small-dimension slabs into plates. This enables flexible and dynamic production while maintaining the tightest geometrical tolerances.
• Near-net-shape plate
  With heavy plates ranging from 1,550 mm to 4,200 mm in width and 6,000 mm to 38,000 mm in length, near-net-shape primary products for large components as well as for components with optimized weight and structure can be manufactured.
• Top quality every time
  Thanks to the innovative rolling technologies, TISCO achieves outstanding performance not only in terms of surface quality but also in terms of thickness, profile and flatness tolerances.
• Wide product portfolio
  A standout feature of the mill is the wide range of materials that can be rolled. This  enables TISCO to serve various target markets, for example the infrastructure sector, the chemical industry, shipbuilding, or offshore and onshore wind farms.
• A role model for sustainability
  Aspects such as environmental compatibility and sustainability in production were also taken into account during the construction of the plant. For example, the stand group is fitted with a newly developed integrated exhaust system, which collects fumes directly at the roll gap during rolling and prevents emissions from being released into the environment. 

High-performance automation

At TISCO, the X-Pact® automation system from SMS group controls the rolling process fully automatically and guarantees a high plant efficiency. Thanks to the holistic X-Pact® Plug & Work integration tests at an early stage and the partnership between SMS and TISCO, the first plate was rolled just one and a half months after the I/O check. As a result, the originally scheduled commissioning time could be reduced by two weeks. The level 1 automation system of the new heavy plate mill is packed with a wide range of X-Pact® solutions. The X-Pact® Vision control concept is just one of its highlights. Latest knowledge about ergonomics was taken into account to develop intuitive controls for the users and thus to optimize process management. All processes are visualized in real-time in the centralized operator station X-Pact® One Pulpit and monitored from there. Highly developed technological process models are integrated into the level 2 process automation, including X-Pact® PSC® (Pass Schedule Calculation) and X-Pact® PFC® (Profile and Flatness Control).