From STEEL GRIPS online Asia / Oceania Steel Authority of India orders four long-product casters May 28, 2009 A bird’s eye view of Bhilai Steel Plant SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited) is to install four long-product casters at its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP). The project includes basic and detail engineering as well as the equipment for two new 6-strand billet casters, one new 6-strand billet/bloom combi-caster and one new 3-strand beam-blank caster. SAIL, with an annual crude steel production output exceeding 13 million t, is the largest steel producer in India. The company has five integrated iron and steel plants at Bhilai, Durgapur, Bokaro, Burnpur and Rourkela, and four other plants at Bhadravati, Chandrapur, Durgapur and Salem which produce special steels, alloyed steels and also ferro-alloys. The new casters are part of a modernization and 7.0 million t/a steel-capacity expansion project underway at SAIL´s Bhilai Steel Plant. The two billet casters, designed for open and submerged casting, will cast section sizes of 105x105 mm² and 150x150 mm² for the production of rebars and high-quality steels. These will be comprised of forging quality, high-carbon, cold-heading, spring-steel, electrode-quality and alloyed construction-steel grades. The billet/bloom combi-caster with a billet section size of 150x150 mm² and a bloom section size of 335x300 mm² will cast carbon steel, alloyed-steel grades and especially rail grades. The hot billets will be transported by means of a hot-charging roller table to a reheating furnace followed by rolling. The beam-blank caster will produce sections with sizes of 405x285x90 mm, 620x440x100 mm and 1024x390x90 mm. The cast beam blanks will be directly charged in the hot condition to the rolling mill. Energy costs will be considerably reduced with hot-charging. Caster equipment includes ladle turrets, tundish cars, nozzle-changing devices for open-stream casting and stopper rods for submerged casting. Furthermore, hydraulic oscillators, high-speed tube molds, advanced electromagnetic mold-stirring systems (EMS), cassette-type withdrawal and straightening units, torch-cutting machines, an automatic deburrer, a marking machine and several cooling beds will be supplied. Finally, level 1 and level 2 automation, electrical equipment, the complete coolant and hydraulics systems in addition to advisory services for erection, commissioning as well as training for all four casters will be provided. The order volume is in the three-digit-million-euro range. The project is scheduled for completion in the last quarter of 2011. © Copyright 2007 by GRIPS media