Investments in the section rolling mill
The heavy section rolling mill of the HSP has a long tradition at the location in Dortmund, which goes back to the beginning of the last century. The rolling train has an output capacity of 26 thousand tons per month with a 3-shift operation.
In the blooming stand, the ingots heated to a temperature of 1,300°C, are first remoulded into preliminary sections.
The section rolling mill consists of 3 roll stands designed in an open structure, in which the first two stands are coupled by means of one motor. The third stand, which is driven by a motor of equal size, has been employed until now as a finishing stand for the production of the hot rolled end product.
Additional new sections are currently being developed in order to complete the system width of 675 mm for the Z-sections.
On the post-connected cooling bank measuring 42 m in length and 30 m in width, the hot rolled bars are cooled down to below 100°C, in which a newly installed water cooling system is used at times.
In the subsequent cycle, the cold rolled bars pass through the new straightening plant, which was installed in 2000. This plant consists of a large straightening machine (RDS) for sheet pile sections and a small post-connected straightening machine (RDM) for shipbuilding sections.
The new large straightening machine has a maximum straightening axis clearance of 1,800 mm with a mangle roll diameter of 1,150 mm. With a total driving power of 950 kW and a weight of 600 t this aggregate is one of the largest straightening machines of this type worldwide and makes it possible to achieve the very best straightening results due to its stiffness even in the case of heavy sheet pile sections.
After straightening, the sections then go to the commissioning bay of the finishing shop where improved productivity has also been achieved due to extensive automation of the material flow, which was carried out in 2000.
Since 1999, several large investments of approx. 40 million euros have been made in order to further improve the performance and quality of the rolled product.