SMS Concast AG has been awarded – jointly with SMS Concast America Inc. Pittsburgh, Pa. – a major contract from The Timken Company. As per the agreement, SMS Concast will supply a three (four)-strand UHQ (Ultra High Quality) vertical bloom casting facility for Timken’s Faircrest steel plant in Canton.
The new vertical bloom caster will have highly specialized equipment for the production of highest-quality cast blooms. SMS Concast will provide all main equipment for the vertical bloom casting facility including ladle turret, tundish cars, molds and hydraulic oscillation, mold and final stirring (M-EMS & F-EMS), topfed dummy bar system, pinch roll units, dynamic MSR/MHR units, containment and strand guiding, secondary cooling, in-line quenching, and all discharge equipment.
In addition, the complete electrical equipment and automation package including level-2 process control will be supplied by SMS Concast.
“We conducted a thorough evaluation of a limited number of quality equipment vendors, and SMS Concast’s caster best met our needs,” said Tom Moline, Vice President of steel manufacturing for Timken. “We continue to see growing demand for Timken® specialty alloy steel bars, and the addition of this caster will bring greater differentiation and expanded capacity of high-quality product to our customers.”
Moline added that the large-bloom continuous caster is central to productivity gains projected by Timken once its recently announced USD 225 million investment at the Faircrest facility is complete in 2014. The new caster, along with a new ladle refiner, is expected to increase the Faircrest operation’s shippable capacity by 25%, and enable production of a broader range of large diameter bars.