Salzgitter’s plate mill starts new treatment technology

Salzgitter’s plate unit, Ilsenburger Grobblech, has begun operation of new heat treatment equipment involving an X-Roll MultiFlex-Quench (MFQ) line supplied by SMS group.

The new line will process more than 200,000 tonnes/year of heavy plate, Kallanish learns from the technology supplier. It is designed to handle plate of 5-175mm thicknesses and widths up to 3,500mm. The equipment will enable the mill to expand its product range to also include particularly demanding grades, SMS claims.

Its proprietary MFQ technology allows to implement any cooling strategies, from extremely slow cooling to fast quenching, with freely selectable cooling-stop temperatures, Kallanish is told by SMS.

A pre-requisite for homogeneous cooling and optimal product properties of the plate is high temperature uniformity during both plate heating and the tempering process that follows quenching, SMS explains. For this purpose, it supplied two state-of-the-art roller hearth furnaces, which both feature energy-efficient heating systems and modern low-NOx burners for low-emission operation.