The Russian steelmaking company Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has announced that it has commissioned its new 60,000 mt per year electric insulation coating line for transformer steel at its main production site in Lipetsk, which the company says is a further step in designing a process chain for manufacturing a new steel product type in Russia in 2011, i.e., nanostructured high-permeability transformer steel (HPTS).
Accordingly, the capacity of this new facility exceeds that of NLMK's existing electric insulation coating lines by 30 percent. The line's technical parameters allow for the metal heating and cooling rates required for HPTS production.
In addition, by the end of 2010 NLMK also plans to commission its normalization line for hot flats, which is currently under refurbishment, and its new reversing mill with unique process capabilities, the construction of which nears completion. The start-up of these facilities will allow NLMK to produce HPTS at the Lipetsk site, the planned production capacity for which will be around 60,000 mt per year.
HPTS, designed for the electrical industry, has an especially low rate of magnetic loss and complies with the best available technologies (BAT) standards.
Investments in the construction of the electric insulation coating line for transformer steel totaled about Ruble 1.5 billion (approx. $50 million).