9th ECCC European Continuous Casting Conference – ECCC 2017

Cast-Endless rolling route for deformed bars is establishing as a reliable process for higher and higher productivity at lower operational costs thanks to the energy saving advantages. In IIC-Egyptian Steel Plant it has been started up a new turn-key steel plant designed for the world’s highest productivity of 75 t/h in an endless single line. Design capacity has been already exceeded consistently only after three months of startup. The CCM is designed for a combined production of both rebar in endless mode and billets though additional two strands, allowing max flexibility both for rolled bars and as-cast billets, enlarging the annual designed capacity of the plant up to 800,000tpy for both products. Proven technology and reliability of whole plant are the core for stable high casting speed, fundamental for regular endless rolling. The endless process for rebar originally developed in SQ130mm billet section, now it is extended to bigger sections to enhance productivity and sizing the plant capacity to the market specific need. Increased billet section to SQ165mm at casting speed exceeding 6.0 m/min and application of in-line thermo-mechanical treatment on finished products allow a larger margin for energy saving, further lowering OPEX for the plant. In the present paper there are described studies for high speed casting with SQ165 mm billet, the plant startup and relevant steps in achieving the top performances for the endless production. Key words: Steel, High Speed Casting, Energy Saving, Endless rolling, High Productivity, Induction Heating, OPEX Reduction, In-line Thermo-mechanical Treatment