HENAN JIYUAN IRON & STEEL (GROUP), China

HENAN JIYUAN IRON & STEEL (Group) Co., Ltd. [JYGT], located in Jiyuan, Province Henan / P.R. China, will expand their production facilities with a bar mill for special steel (SBQ) thus increasing their rolled products capacity to more than 3 million tons / year.

This former state-owned company was founded in 1958 and today counts some 5000 employees. JYGT was the first Chinese enterprise of the iron and steel industry that passed into private hands in 2000.

The core of the completely new SBQ mill with a nominal annual production capacity of 600,000 tons is a 3-roll Reducing & Sizing Block [RSB] in "Heavy Duty" design. The order for the design, the supply, the installation and commissioning of the 4-stand RSB 370++ including associated equipment was placed with FRIEDRICH KOCKS based in Hilden / Germany.

The 3-roll "Heavy Duty" RSB will be installed in the new bar mill as finishing block and will roll finished bars in the range from 14 to 42 mm Ø in coils as well as bars from 20 to 90 mm Ø in straight lengths onto the cooling bed. The Reducing & Sizing Block significantly reduces the required number of pre-sections in the upstream mill and thus enables the operation of the complete mill in a simple way with a one pass family. Layout and design of the block including the respective pass design in addition allow for thermo-mechanical rolling, which is state-of-the-art for modern bar mills.

An extended "free-size" range of up to ± 1.5 mm from the nominal size allows rolling of a variety of sizes with tightest tolerances only by adjusting stands and guides via remote control. The optimum adjusting values for motor speed, rolls and guides as well as gear steps depending on the final product are calculated by the Bar Mill Configuration System (BAMICON). The adjustment is done automatically during a billet gap within max. 1 minute.

Whenever the finished dimensions exceed the "free-size" range the quick stand changing system enables to change stands in less than 5 minutes. Therefore, any size can be rolled without any restrictions with regard to availability of the complete mill by using a minimum number of roll sets and stand changes.

The KOCKS 3-roll technology was selected due to the extremely positive results and experiences of worldwide 65 renowned operators. This well proven, mature technology meets the objectives of "free-size" rolling for the production of highly toleranced finished diameters while reducing changing times, thus improving at the same time product quality, mill efficiency and market flexibility as particularly required by the automotive industry.

The start-up of the new KOCKS 3-roll Reducing & Sizing Block in "Heavy Duty" design is scheduled for the second half of 2008.