Running a hot strip production facility these days places high demands on the future viability of the equipment. Our hot rolling mills are capable of producing flat steel from thin gauges of 1.2 mm to high-strength steels up to 25.4 mm thick, including stainless steel. Apart from the outstanding technological quality of our plants, which we continuously develop, we are also committed to our long-term technology partnership, so that your production always meets all the requirements of your customers.
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High-capacity hot strip mill
Flagship in hot rolling for capacities of up to 6.0 million tons per year
Main dataIt’s due to their high output capacity and flexibility that hot strip mills (HSM) are key to efficient production of flat products. Once you have decided to put your trust in SMS group’s technological expertise, the hot strip mill will serve you for many decades. Our high-capacity hot strip mill is most capable in terms of output, sustainability, and outstanding hot strip quality. This applies both to the production line as a whole and to each equipment and core component.
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Hot strip mill layout -
Compact hot strip mill
Hot strip production with small footprint but numerous options
Main dataA compact hot strip mill comes with reasonable invest and provides the opportunity to grow flexibly with market needs in terms of capacity, product dimensions, and product mix or quality requirements. From an annual production of around 1.5 million tons of hot strip, a compact hot strip mill can be operated profitably and systematically expanded stepwise to a capacity of around 4 million tons.
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Steckel mill
Hot rolling specialist for sophisticated grades
Main dataOur Steckel mills are characterized by their outstanding flexibility and low conversion costs. That makes them the appropriate solution for smaller capacities of up to 1.8 million tons per year in hot strip production. When it comes to rolling of stainless steel grades and special alloys, they can hardly be exceeded in terms of efficiency.
The single-stand Steckel mill is mostly used to produce small batches in an annual capacity range from 100,000 to 600,000 tons. If a roughing stand is included in the line, the capacity can be increased up to 1 million tons per year.Our Steckel Plate Mill combines Steckel technology and plate rolling to produce plates and hot strip in a single line.
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Twin-stand Steckel mill
Steckel mill technology combined with tandem rolling
Main dataA Steckel mill can also come with two rolling stands as a twin-stand Steckel mill. Similar to the conventional single-stand Steckel mill the twin-stand Steckel mill operates also in reversing mode, but with fewer reversing passes. It provides you with a capacity of 1.0 to 1.2 million tons per year. If a roughing stand is integrated in the production line, capacity can be increased to 1.8 million tons per year.
Apart from the design of the rolling mill, the line concept and the equipment is basically the same as in single-stand Steckel mills.
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Main equipment
Reheating furnace
The walking beam furnace is energy efficient and heats the slab to the exact rolling temperature.
Roughing mill descaler
The slab is descaled to ensure the highest product quality already in the roughing passes.
Slab sizing press
The slab sizing press provides large width reduction in one pass and therefore ensures higher production of the upstream continuous caster.
2-high roughing mill
The modern roughing stand consists of sturdy side guides, an edger, and the roughing mill stand. The roughing mill can be provided in 2-high design and 4-high design. The 4-high design is arranged downstream to the 2-high stand. They produce transfer bar with perfect strip geometries. For this purpose, SMS group uses the Camber Free Rolling technology.
4-high roughing mill
The modern roughing stand consists of sturdy side guides, an edger, and the roughing mill stand. The roughing mill can be provided in 2-high design and 4-high design. The 4-high design is arranged downstream to the 2-high stand. They produce transfer bar with perfect strip geometries. For this purpose, SMS group uses the Camber Free Rolling technology.
Finishing mill entry area
In the mandrel-less coilbox, the transfer bar is formed into a coil. Beside the reduction of temperature losses in the transfer bar, there are many advantages for the entire hot rolling process that come with a coilbox.
Finishing mill entry area
Entry area of the finishing mill featuring a crop shear, either of crank-type or of the drum-type, and a secondary descaler. Beside the drum-type shear, SMS group offers the crank shear as a second type of crop shear. Both shear types are designed for a long service life and efficient operation. The crank-type shear is the optimal solution when it comes to the cutting of a higher portion of high-strength grades and thick transfer bar.
Finishing mill
The 7-stand finishing mill in CVC® plus 4-high design is provided with a number of outstanding rolling technologies.
Finishing mill
CVC® plus work roll shifting in combination with work roll bending plays a major part in providing the hot strip with the highest quality parameters, especially profile and flatness.
Cooling section
In the exit area of the finishing mill, the laminar cooling system, in conjunction with our powerful cooling model, ensures the setting of the strip temperature and thus the mechanical properties before the hot strip is coiled. Based on the metallurgical requirements, various systems are available with which different cooling rates are possible. Our edge masking system minimizes the stress deviations across the strip width and optimizes the strip flatness.
Downcoiler
Up to three downcoilers complete the high-capacity hot strip mill. Our downcoilers ensure the safe winding of hot rolled strip. For the coiling of strips made of high-strength steel grades with a large strip cross-section and low coiling temperatures, the UNI-PLUS coiler as a thick-strip downcoiler completes our product range.
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X-Roll® Guide Concept
Highest stability of the hot rolling process
The stability of the hot strip mill remains a main topic, especially when it comes to the processing of thin and hard materials. Strip steering mainly at the end of rolling and tail out is one reason for unscheduled downtimes. The new X-Roll® guide systems are capable of improving mill stability and product quality.
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X-Roll® Cooling Concept
Solutions for optimal temperature settings and best material properties
Strip cooling is an important process in hot strip mills. To establish flexible cooling strategies and to achieve a wide range of cooling rates, we offer different cooling system modules. We combine these modules to provide you with a money-saving solution geared to any product range.
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Modern laminar cooling system by SMS group -
Superior hot strip quality
Improved product tolerances due to excellent strip profile and flatness
To keep hot strip quality parameters always on a high level, we offer you a number of key technologies, especially with regard to strip profile and flatness. Of course, the best results are to be expected when implementing the entire package. But the modular structure of our technologies also allows individual application with reasonable results.
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Improvement of hot strip surface
Advantageous not only for rolling of silicon steels
In connection with the global climate protection objectives, and their effects on many areas of life, the demand for electric strip is continuously rising. This poses special challenges to the process guidance and control during hot strip production. Our modular technology package ensures that the dreaded edge cracks do not occur at all and prevents the valuable rolling stock being depreciated as a result.
Silicon steels are particularly temperature-sensitive due to their chemical composition. At the same time, the material is very valuable, so that reductions in the strip quality or even re-melting of the material are economically very detrimental. The technical solution offered by SMS group aims at the consistent control of temperature throughout the entire hot rolling process. In particular, at the strip edges, as this prevents temperature losses and thus the risk of cracks. In addition, a highly effective descaling system is used.
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Silicon steel is required for the erection of wind turbines. Benefits
- X-Roll® Interstand equipment
- Efficient fluid system for descaling, provided with the latest piston pump technology with frequency controls and the latest valve technology with optimized flow characteristics and low wear. In addition, a new generation of hot strip mill descalers with pressures up to 380 bar will be soon introduced to the market.
- New generation of top and bottom pinch roll polishers
- X-Roll® Guide Coiler, implemented in the downcoiler area, providing an accurate coiling process and result
- Edge heater in front of the finishing mill
