Thermo Electron Corp. has announced that Arcelor Dunkirk, a producer of flat carbon steel, long carbon steel and stainless steel, has chosen Thermo’s ARL 4460 optical emission spectrometer as part of its steelworks modernization program. The program has been launched with the objective of progressively increasing the company’s capacity from 6.7 million tones to 7.2 million tones by 2010. With the ARL SMS-2000 automation system, the ARL 4460 metals analyser provides fully automatic sample preparation and analysis. It allows for increased productivity and shorter response times while keeping steel quality in specification. Arcelor Dunkirk has planned three phases of investment as part of the modernization program. The first phase was concluded at the end of September 2005 with the replacement of the first automatic steel measuring line with an ARL 4460 robotized with SMS-2000 and a vision system linked to an Herzog sample preparation machine. Phase 2, installation of the second steel automatic line with Thermo, is now under way and is scheduled for completion in September 2006.
