Dec 15 2009
Siemens VAI Metals Technologies has brought a new continuous slab caster into operation. It was ordered by Gerdau Açominas, a Brazilian steelmaking company which is a member of the Gerdau Group. The plant has already cast slabs of various sizes and steel grades since production started at the Ouro Branco Works in Brazil. With this new plant, Gerdau Açominas can now produce 1.5 million tonnes of high-quality steels for the flat steel market. The acceptance certificate was issued in the middle of October 2009.
Continuous slab caster from Siemens VAI at the Brazilian steelmaking company Gerdau Açominas
During the same time the continuous slab caster for Gerdau Açominas was constructed, Siemens also supplied an RH (Ruhrstahl-Heraeus) vacuum degassing plant together with the associated electrical and automation equipment. Both plants have been designed so that another degassing vessel and a second casting line can be installed in a later expansion stage. These two projects, which have now been completed, had a total volume of some US$100 million. They are part of an expansion program for the Ouro Branco Steel Works, which is located in the state of Minas Gerais. The project's objectives were to increase steel production in the works by 50 percent from 3 to 4.5 million tonnes per year.
The caster is equipped with technological packages to ensure product quality and reliable production operations. Included are LevCon automatic mold-level control, DynaWidth online slab-width adjustment, MoldExpert automatic breakout prediction and strand-shell friction monitoring in addition to the DynaFlex mold oscillator for flexible adjustment of the oscillation parameters. The strand-guide system is provided with Smart Segments, which allow dynamic soft reduction and fast slab-thickness adjustments to be carried out. This is made possible through the remote adjustment of the roller gaps using the DynaGap SoftReduction technological package. The caster will also be equipped with the Dynacs secondary-cooling system and with the VAIQ Slab quality-control system for quality assurance. Additionally, Siemens will supply the automation and process control systems for the slab caster, allowing all operational parameters to be optimally harmonized with one another throughout the entire production process.
Gerdau is the leading company in the production of long steels in the Americas and one of the major suppliers of specialty long steel in the world. It has industrial plants in 14 countries, with operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia, which, in total, have an installed capacity of more than 20 million tons of steel. It is the largest recycler in Latin America, and reclaims over 16 million tons of scrap worldwide every year. With over 140,000 stockholders, Gerdau's publicly traded companies are listed in the São Paulo (Bovespa: GGBR4, GGBR3, GOAU4, GOAU3 and AVIL3), New York (Nyse: GNA, GGB), Toronto (GNA.TO), Madrid (Latibex: XGGB) and Lima (BVL: SIDERC1) stock exchanges.