Steckel mill as a green steel strip and plate production technology

The Steckel mill,a long established solution for the economical production of relatively small volumes of hot rolled strip,has been rejuvenated in recent years by a range of new applications,boosted by the need of improving the energetic efficiency of the rolling process.The traditional advantages of the Steckel mill in terms of flexibility and reduced capital and operational costs are now enhanced by technological developments that have significantly expanded its application range into the combined production of strip and plate and improved the product quality.The increased awareness of the necessity of a sustainable growth in the steel industry has stimulated the development of process solutions with an improved efficiency in the use of natural resources,lower carbon emissions and increased yield.Modern Steckel mills are an adequate response to the trend towards low energy strip and plate production,in particular in their plate-Steckel mill variant.Siemens VAI have played a key role in the innovation and transformation of the Steckel mill concept,with a number of recent installations,presented in this paper from the point of view of their contribution to the development of greener steel rolling technologies.

Precipitation characteristic of high strength steels microalloyed with titanium produced by compact strip production

Transmission electron microscopy （TEM） and physics-chemical phase analysis were employed to investigate the precipitates in high strength steels microalloyed with Ti produced by compact strip production （CSP）. It was seen that precipitates in Ti microalloyed steels mainly included TiN, Ti4C2S2, and TiC. The size of TiN particles varied from 50 to 500 nm, and they could precipitate during or before soaking. The Ti4C2S2 with the size of 40-100 nm might precipitate before rolling, and the TiC particles with the size of 5-50 nm precipitated heterogeneously. High Ti content would lead to the presence of bigger TiC particles that precipitated in austenite, and by contrast, TiC particles that precipitated in ferrite and the transformation of austenite to ferrite was smaller. They were less than 30 nm and mainly responsible for precipitate strengthening. It should be noted that the TiC particles in higher Ti content were generally smaller than those in the steel with a lower Ti content.

Thermodynamic Research on Precipitates in Low Carbon Nb-Microalloyed Steels Produced by Compact Strip Production

Microalloying element Nb in low carbon steels produced by compact strip production （CSP） process plays an important role in inhibiting recrystallization, decreasing the transformation temperature and grain refinement.With decreasing the rolling temperature, dislocations can be pinned by carbonitrides and the strength is increased. Based on the two sublattice model, with metal atom sublattice and interstitial atom sublattice,a thermodynamic model for carbonitride was established to calculate the equilibrium between matrix and carbonitride. In the steel produced by CSP, the calculation results showed that the starting temperature of precipitation of Ti and Nb are 1340℃ and 1040℃, respectively. In the range of 890-950℃, Nb rapidly precipitated. And the maximum of the atomic fraction of Nb in carbonitride was about 0.68. The morphologies and energy spectrum of the precipitates showed that （NbTi） （CN） precipitated near the dislocations. The experiment results show that Nb rapidly precipitated when the temperature was lower than 970℃, and the atomic fraction of Nb in carbonitride was about 60%-80%. The calculation results are in agreement with the experiment data. Therefore the thermodynamic model can be a useful assistant tool in the research on the precipitates in the low carbon steels produced by CSP.

Effect of boron on hot strips of low carbon steel produced by compact strip production

The effect of boron on hot strips of low carbon steel produced by compact strip production （CSP） to reduce the strength to a certain degree was investigated, which is quite different from that of high-strength low alloy steel. The mechanical properties and microstructural evolution of the hot strip were studied using optical microscopy and tensile tests. By means of an electrolytic dissolution technique and Thermo-Cal calculation, the precipitates containing boron were analyzed and detected. From the electron backscattered diffraction analysis, it can be deciphered whether the microstructure has recrystallized or not. Furthermore, the effect of boron segregation on the recrystallization or non-recrystallization conditions can be distinguished. The segregation behavior of boron was investigated in boron-containing steel. The nonequilibrium segregation of boron during processing was discussed on the basis of the forming complexes with vacancies that migrate to the boundaries prior to annihilation, which was confirmed by the subsequent cold rolling with annealing experiments.

Numerical Simulation of Coupled Molten Steel Flow and Temperature Fields in Compact Strip Production Casting

Based on the casting manufacture practice of steel slabs by CSP technology, the flow and the temperature fields of the funnel mould and the secondary cooling segment were simulated using the commercial code, CFX4. Compared with other physical investigations, the correlative data of the present simulation results are in good agreement with them. Therefore, a more comprehensive survey for metallurgy characteristic of the flow and the temperature fields in CSP continuous casting process can be achieved.

Correlation of morphological anisotropy and Lankford value of deep drawing sheets hot-rolled by compact strip production

Cold-rolled steel sheets in automotive applications require an excellent deep draw ability, which is characterized by the Lankford value （r-value）. In this study, a correlation was identified between r-value and pancake-shaped grain flatness which is indicated as the ratio of grain diameter in the rolling direction （RD） and normal direction （ND） of sheets （dr/dn）. A mathematical model （ r = e^0.345（dn^1/2-dr^1/2） ） was developed to calculate r-value by the microstructure of steel sheets hot-rolled by compact strip production （CSP）. It is shown that the r-value is higher, if the microstructure of steel sheet is of pancake-shaped grains elongated in the rolling direction. The calculated r-value is confirmed to fit exactly to the measured one from the large-scale production.

Modeling and optimization methods of integrated production planning for steel plate mill with flexible customization

With diversified requirements and varying manufacturing environments, the optimal production planning for a steel mill becomes more flexible and complicated. The flexibility provides operators with auxiliary requirements through an implementable integrated production planning. In this paper, a mixed-integer nonlinear programming(MINLP) model is proposed for the optimal planning that incorporates various manufacturing constraints and flexibility in a steel plate mill. Furthermore, two solution strategies are developed to overcome the weakness in solving the MINLP problem directly. The first one is to transform the original MINLP formulation to an approximate mixed integer linear programming using a classic linearization method. The second one is to decompose the original model using a branch-and-bound based iterative method. Computational experiments on various instances are presented in terms of the effectiveness and applicability. The result shows that the second method performs better in computational efforts and solution accuracy.

Maize-soybean strip intercropping： Achieved a balance between high productivity and sustainability

Intercropping is one of the most vital practice to improve land utilization rate in China that has limited arable land resource. However, the traditional intercropping systems have many disadvantages including illogical field lay-out of crops, low economic value, and labor deficiency, which cannot balance the crop production and agricultural sustainability. In view of this, we developed a novel soybean strip intercropping model using maize as the partner, the regular maize-soybean strip intercropping mainly popularized in northern China and maize-soybean relay-strip intercropping principally extended in southwestern China. Compared to the traditional maize-soybean intercropping systems, the main innovation of field lay-out style in our present intercropping systems is that the distance of two adjacent maize rows are shrunk as a narrow strip, and a strip called wide strip between two adjacent narrow strips is expanded reserving for the growth of two or three rows of soybean plants. The distance between outer rows of maize and soybean strips are expanded enough for light use efficiency improvement and tractors working in the soybean strips. Importantly, optimal cultivar screening and increase of plant density achieved a high yield of both the two crops in the intercropping systems and increased land equivalent ratio as high as 2.2. Annually alternative rotation of the adjacent maize-and soybean-strips increased the grain yield of next seasonal maize, improved the absorption of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potasium of maize, while prevented the continuous cropping obstacles. Extra soybean production was obtained without affecting maize yield in our strip intercropping systems, which balanced the high crop production and agricultural sustainability.

Acid-pickling plates and strips speed control system by microwave heating based on self-adaptive fuzzy PID algorithm

Double self-adaptive fuzzy PID algorithm-based control strategy was proposed to construct quasi-cascade control system to control the speed of the acid-pickling process of titanium plates and strips. It is very useful in overcoming non-linear dynamic behavior, uncertain and time-varying parameters, un-modeled dynamics, and couples between the automatic turbulence control (ATC) and the automatic acid temperature control (AATC) with varying parameters during the operation process. The quasi-cascade control system of inner and outer loop self-adaptive fuzzy PID controller was built, which could effectively control the pickling speed of plates and strips. The simulated results and real application indicate that the plates and strips acid pickling speed control system has good performances of adaptively tracking the parameter variations and anti-disturbances, which ensures the match of acid pickling temperature and turbulence of flowing with acid pickling speed, improving the surface quality of plates and strips acid pickling, and energy efficiency.

Variation analysis of ultimate pullout capacity of shallow horizontal strip anchor plate with 2-layer overlying soil based on nonlinear M-C failure criterion

Based on the nonlinear Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion and an associated flow rule,a kinematic admissible velocity field of failure mechanism of the 2-layer soil above a shallow horizontal strip anchor plate is constructed.The ultimate pull-out force and its corresponding failure mechanism through the upper bound limit analysis according to a variation principle are deduced.When the 2-layer overlying soil is degraded into single-layer soil,the model of ultimate pullout force could also be degraded into the model of single-layer soil.And the comparison between results of single-layer soil variation method and those calculated by rigid limit analysis method proves the correctness of our method.Based on that,the influence of changes of geotechnical parameters on ultimate pullout forces and failure mechanism of a shallow horizontal strip anchor with the 2-layer soil above are analyzed.The results show that the ultimate pull-out force and failure mechanism of a shallow horizontal strip anchor with the 2-layer soil above are affected by the nonlinear geotechnical parameters greatly.Thus,it is very important to obtain the accurate geotechnical parameters of 2-layer soil for the evaluation of the ultimate pullout capacity of the anchor plate.

Comparative study on production,purification of penicillin by Penicillium chrysogenum isolated from soil and citrus samples

Objective:To explore various unexplored locations where Penicillium spp.would be available and study the production of penicillin from the isolated Penicillium spp.in different media with altered carbohydrate source.Methods:The collected soil samples were screened for the isolation of Penicillium chrysogenum(P.chrysogenum) by soil dilution plate.The isolated Penicillium species were further grown in different production media with changes in the carbohydrate source.The extracted penicillin from various isolates was analyzed by HPLC for the efficacy of the product.Further the products were screened with various bacterial species including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA).And the work was extended to find the possible action on MRSA,along with characterization using other pathogens.Results:From the various soil and citrus samples used for analysis,only the soil sample from Government General Hospital of Bangalore,India,and Sanjay Gandhi Hospital,Bangalore,India,showed some potential growth of the desired fungi P.chrysogenum.Different production media showed varied range of growth of PenicilUum.Optimum production of penicillin was obtained in maltose which proved maximum zone of inhibition during assay.Characterization of penicillin on pathogens,like wild Escherichia coli strain,Klebsiella spp.,and MRSA,gave quite interesting results such as no activity on the later strain as it is resistant.HPLC data provided the analytical and confirmation details of the penicillin produced.Accordingly,the penicillin produced from the soil sample of Government General Hospital had the high milli absorbance unit of 441.5 mAu compared with that of the penicillin produced from Sanjay Gandhi Hospital sample,8S.S2 mAu.Therefore,there was a considerable change in quantity of the penicillin produced from both the samples.Conclusions: The Penicillium spp.could be possibly rich in hospital contaminants and its environments.This research focuses on various unexplored sources of medical ailments,and also shows that the growth of penicillin is high in maltose rich media that could possibly enhance the growth.

DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF PLATES DUE TO MOVING VEHICLES USING FINITE STRIP METHOD

Dynamic response of beam-like structures to moving vehicles has been extensively studied. However, the study on dynamic response of plates to moving vehicles has so far received but scant attention. A plate-vehicle strip for simulating the interaction between a rectangular plate and moving vehicles was described. For the portion of strips that are in direct contact with the moving vehicles, the plate-vehicle strips were employed. Conventional plate finite strips were used to model the portion of strips that are not directly under the action of moving vehicles. In the analysis, each moving vehicle is idealized as a one-foot dynamic system with tire unsprung mass and sprund mass interconnected by a spring and a dashpot. The numerical results obtained from the proposed method agree well with available results.

Development of Continuous Coating and Plating Strip Steel

The development trend of coated and plated technology for continuous strip steels,which include hot dip plating,electroplating,organic coating and vacuum plating technology,were summarized.

Excitation and Detection of Shear Horizontal Waves with Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers for Nondestructive Testing of Plates

The fundamental shear horizontal（SH0） wave has several unique features that are attractive for long-range nondestructive testing（NDT）. By a careful design of the geometric configuration, electromagnetic acoustic transducers（EMATs） have the capability to generate a wide range of guided wave modes, such as Lamb waves and shear-horizontal（SH） waves in plates. However, the performance of EMATs is influenced by their parameters. To evaluate the performance of periodic permanent magnet（PPM） EMATs, a distributed-line-source model is developed to calculate the angular acoustic field cross-section in the far-field. Numerical analysis is conducted to investigate the performance of such EMATs with different geometric parameters, such as period and number of magnet arrays, and inner and outer coil widths. Such parameters have a great influence on the directivity of the generated SH0 waves that arises mainly in the amplitude and width of both main and side lobes. According to the numerical analysis, these parameters are optimized to obtain better directivity. Optimized PPM EMATs are designed and used for NDT of strip plates. Experimental results show that the lateral boundary of the strip plate has no perceivable influence on SHO-wave propagation, thus validating their used in NDT. The proposed model predicts the radiation pattern ofPPM EMATs, and can be used for their parameter optimization.

Carbon Diffusion in Hot Strips of Low Carbon Steel Produced by CSP Line under Different Thermal Histories

Two experiments were carried out on the same compact strip production (CSP) line, which differs in that one of them experienced γ→α→γ thermal history. The differences in microstructure, precipitation, misorientation etc between two experiments were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) and positron annihilation technique (PAT). The carbon concentration in matrix is more inhomogeneous in the experiment than that with γ→α→γ7 thermal history. The specific precipitation characteristic in the experiment without γ→α→γ thermal history is discussed on the basis of different carbon diffusion behavior and interaction between dislocation and excess carbon.

Stream Surface Strip Element Method and Simulation of Three-Dimensional Deformation of Continuous Hot Rolled Strip

A new method,the stream surface strip element method,for simulating the three-dimensional deformation of plate and strip rolling process was proposed.The rolling deformation zone was divided into a number of stream surface(curved surface)strip elements along metal flow traces,and the stream surface strip elements were mapped into the corresponding plane strip elements for analysis and computation.The longitudinal distributions of the lateral displacement and the altitudinal displacement of metal were respectively constructed to be a quartic curve and a quadratic curve,of which the lateral distributions were expressed as the third-power spline function,and the altitudinal distributions were fitted in the quadratic curve.From the flow theory of plastic mechanics,the mathematical models of the three-dimensional deformations and stresses of the deformation zone were constructed.Compared with the streamline strip element method proposed by the first author of this paper,the stream surface strip element method takes into account the uneven distributions of stresses and deformations along altitudinal direction,and realizes the precise three-dimensional analysis and computation.The simulation example of continuous hot rolled strip indicates that the method and the model accord with facts and provide a new reliable engineering-computation method for the three-dimensional mechanics simulation of plate and strip rolling process.

Improvement of material properties and cladded flat product productivity with roll-bonding technology

Taking advantage of the progress of roll-bonding technology, the integrity of the material technology, and the development of the production and examination facilities of all the main carbon steels, stainless steels and specialty alloys in Baosteel, the cladded flat new products, which combined both properties of base material and clad material ,have been developed and produced in large quantities. The product categories includes heavy plates with high alloy content and homogeneous distribution in thickness and carbon steel plates cladded with all kinds of stainless steels ,nickel alloys ,and titanium alloys. The double-sided and single-sided cladding hot roiled strips and cold rolled sheets were also commercially produced. Due to the combined properties of both the cladding material and backing material, all products show obvious improvement in properties when compared with solid material. The comparability with the existing production process and equipment laid a very solid foundation for high productivity.

Research on Producing Al-Pb Alloy Plate by Liquid Dynamic Compacting

Possibility of making Al-Pb alloy plate with Pb dispersed uniformly by LDC (Liquid Dynamic Compact) technology has been studied in the present paper. The relationship among the distance between nozzle and cooled base plate and the atomization pressure as well as the density of the Al-Pb alloy slab is measured. The relative density of the LDC Al-Pb alloy slab can reach 90% under condition of the present experiment. Microstructure of the slab consist of equal axial grains with 15 approximately 25 μm in diameter and Pb dispersed uniformly in them. After cold or hot rolling of the slab with reduction of 50 approximately 60%, the microstructure can be densified. The rolled Al-Pb alloy plate can be compacted together with pure Al plate very well.

DETECTION OF DELAMINATION IN A COMPOSITE PLATE BY SEM

A numerical method of integration of Green's functions of strip element method (SEM) is proposed The response of ultrasonic source generated by a transducer on the surface of a multi ply composite plate containing a delamination is analyzed by the use of SEM The numerical results show that the scanning features of the ultrasonic waves may be used to identify the delamination inside the composite plate.

Effects of Ti addition on low carbon hot strips produced by CSP process

Large quantity of fine Ti（C,N） particles, 15-30 nm in size, were observed in low carbon hot strips added to a small amount of Ti and produced by CSP process. The results showed that the precipitation of Ti（C,N） mostly took place during soaking and hot rolling, which is significantly different from that in the conventional production. These fine Ti carbonitride particles could be very effective on the austenite grain refinement by hindering grain growth of recrystallized austenite. Their precipitation behavior was discussed and compared with that of the steels produced in the conventional production.