Aug 17 2009
Siemens VAI (Taicang) Manufacturing Co. (SVMC) and the Chinese steel manufacturer Nanjing Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. (NISCO) have signed a roller refurbishment contract for two continuous slab casters. According to this contract, initially for a period of three years, SVMC will be taking care of refurbishing rolls of the casters CCM1 and CCM2. This is the first order that has been received for the roll refurbishing workshop in Taicang, which was inaugurated in May 2009. Payment is based on the Siemens VAI “cost per ton” model and is orientated to the tonnage produced on the casters. Thus, NISCO can transform fixed maintenance costs into variable costs dependent on production.
Workshop halls of Siemens VAI (Taicang) Manufacturing Co. in China.
The strand-guiding rolls are important components of continuous casters. Being constantly subject to alternating thermal stress and shock loads, thermal fatigue and extreme wear of rolls is a key issue. Regular maintenance of the rolls is therefore necessary to ensure smooth casting and a uniformly high quality of the slabs cast. Siemens VAI is the world market leader in the provision of maintenance services for continuous slab casters and already operates maintenance workshops in Brazil, France, South Africa and the USA. Siemens VAI's scope of services also encompasses local plant maintenance including repair and preventive maintenance, spare parts management and production and also repair and renewal of wear parts such as rolls in its own workshops.
SVMC, which is situated in Taicang, around 40 kilometers to the west of Shanghai, was founded in 2004. In this workshop, equipment for the iron and steel producing industry is manufactured for both the Chinese market and for worldwide use in Siemens VAI products. With the new workshop inaugurated in May 2009, SVMC is extending its range with the maintenance of rolls for continuous casters. Thus, this service offering is now also available to Chinese steel producers in their own country.
The two single-strand continuous slab casters CCM1 and CCM2 of Nanjing Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. were equipped by Siemens and have been in operation since June 2004 and August 2006 respectively. CCM1, which was designed for casting ultra-wide slabs with a thickness of 150 millimeters and with widths between 1600 and 3250 millimeters, has an annual production capacity of around 1.5 million metric tons. On CCM2, around 1.7 million metric tons of slabs with widths between 1600 and 2300 millimeters and thicknesses of 180 to 260 millimeters can be cast per year.