Austria-based giant engineering and plantmaking company Siemens VAI Metals Technologies (Siemens VAI) has announced that it has upgraded a slab caster for Indian steel producer JSW Steel.
In a project to improve the quality of slabs for the production of special steel grades as well as to enable more efficient and rapid adjustments of slab thickness, Siemens VAI has upgraded the existing segments of a slab caster at JSW Steel Ltd to so-called "Smart Segments with DynaGap Soft Reduction". With this solution, automatic strand-taper/thickness control can now be carried out to achieve optimum slab-centerline quality, as required for the production of pipeline grades used in the petroleum industry.
The single-strand slab caster was originally supplied by Siemens VAI and commenced production in November 2006. The caster is capable of producing approximately 1.5 million mt of steel per year, comprising low to high carbon steels, including micro and low alloy grades. For the production of high quality line pipe grades such as API (American Petroleum Institute) X70 grades and other micro alloy steels, the existing strand-guiding system was upgraded by Siemens VAI.
In addition, the caster project in question is the latest in a series of orders received by Siemens VAI from JSW Steel. Other orders include the supply of two Corex iron-making plants and a new continuous caster, as well as the upgrading of a hot strip mill currently in progress aimed at increasing productivity and improving strip quality.
Most recently, Siemens VAI also started up a new blast furnace at the Toranagallu site of JSW Steel, which is the largest in operation in India.