A stainless steel continuous tandem cold mill (TCM) supplied by Primetals Technologies to Beihai Chengde Stainless Steel Co. (Beihai Chengde) has recently produced the first coil at the Beihai plant in the Chinese Guangxi Province. The mill consists of a Power X-HI type, five-stand, continuous tandem cold rolling mill and a heavy laser welder.
Beihai Chengde is active in nickel mining and the production of narrow stainless steel strip. The company intends to use the new cold rolling mill to start producing wide strip. The continuous rolling mill handles hot-rolled, annealed and pickled stainless steel. It is able to achieve exit thicknesses from 0.3 to 3.0 millimeters from entry thicknesses of between 1.0 and 5.0 millimeters. The Primetals Technologies welding machine is of heavy laser type (LW21H) and includes strip centering and strip cutting facilities as well as diagnostic systems.