Austria-based giant engineering and plantmaking company Siemens VAI Metals Technologies has announced the receipt of an order from Austrian steel producer Voestalpine Stahl GmbH for the supply of a new single-strand slab caster.
The new continuous slab casting machine will be capable of casting annually a nominal 1.4 million mt of slabs with thicknesses of 225, 285 and 335 mm and in widths from 740 to 2,200 mm. The casting-bow radius will be 10 m and the metallurgical length approximately 35 m. About 70 percent of the cast slabs will be rolled into plates.
The deal, which is worth a two-digit million euro figure, includes Siemens' assembly engineering and supervision, Level 1 automation and Level 2 process optimization, in addition to a wide range of technological packages. Moreover, for the first time in a European steel mill, two LiquiRob casting platform robots will be used on the casting platform, improving considerably the safety of the operating personnel.
The new slab caster with a straight mold is scheduled for start-up in September 2010.
The order is in line with Voestalpine Stahl's ongoing expansion campaign to increase its annual steel output to about six million mt.
This will be the second slab-caster project to be implemented for Voestalpine Stahl. The first upgraded ultra-thick-slab caster, capable of casting 355 mm thick slabs, was restarted in summer 2007 and currently produces the world's thickest slabs cast on a bow-type caster with a straight mold.