Thyssenkrupp orders treatment line for electric strip

Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe (TKSE) has placed an order with SMS for an annealing and insulating line for electric strip.

With this investment, thyssenkrupp is going to renew core elements of its production network in order to meet future customer requirements. The focus of activities at the Bochum site will be on e-mobility, Kallanish learns from the plant builder. From 2024 on, the line will turn out more than 200,000 tonnes/year of non-grain-oriented electric strip, which will mainly be used to produce efficient electric motors and generators for electric vehicles.

In the annealing and insulating line, the structure of the cold rolled strip will be recrystallised during the annealing process. Thereafter, the material will be provided with an insulating layer.

The finished material will have a width from 700-1,350mm and a thickness between 0.2-1mm. A feature highlighted by SMS is the line’s resource-saving processes and the high degree of automation and digitalisation. For heat treatment, a resource-saving Drever furnace will be installed, which is able to map an optimised annealing curve.

The new facility will be integrated in an existing hall and arranged over several floors. For layout and plant planning, the 3D model of the line was transferred to a 3D game engine allowing a full 360-degree view. Thus, potential collision hazards can be detected at an early stage, for example.

Christian Koehl Germany