ThyssenKrupp Nirosta GmbH (Krefeld, Germany), has won the âMilestonesâ? award from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the major corporations section of the âNew Technologiesâ? category. The distinction was awarded for the companyâs accomplishments in connection with the stainless steel strip casting technology, which significantly shortens the production route versus conventional continuous casting.
Throughout the history of the steel industry, the dream has always been to develop a process which would allow steel products to be made in a single operation. The new technology casts molten steel between two rollers to produce strip suitable for re-rolling. This vision is being realised on a commercial scale at ThyssenKrupp Nirosta. The conventional stainless steel strip production route comprises several phases: melting, continuous slab casting, annealing to rolling temperature, hot rolling and subsequently cold rolling. The aim of strip casting technology was to develop a new process in which molten steel could be cast directly between two rollers to form hot strip in thicknesses of 1.5 to 4 mm in a single step. By combining the casting and hot rolling operations, the strip casting process provides a shorter route to stainless strip production which is close to being realised on an industrial scale.
The research findings of ThyssenKrupp Stahl and Usinor were combined with those of ThyssenKrupp Acciai Speciali Terni, Voest Alpine Industrieanlagenbau and Centro Sviluppo Materiali in Terni under a European co-operation agreement. The objective was to build Europeâs first industrial-scale strip caster at the Krefeld plant of ThyssenKrupp Nirosta. An international and interdisciplinary team from the French, Italian, Austrian and German partners joined forces to pursue the project under the name Eurostrip.
The new technology not only delivers improved material properties, it will also result in shorter lead times and emission reductions of up to 90%. This technology is set to spread to other steels and flat metallic products.
