Nucor Corporation has placed an order with Concast AG for a new Mini Mill at its plant in Jewett, Texas, USA. The order comprises an AC electric arc furnace, a twin-station ladle furnace and a 4/5 strand continuous casting machine to produce 900,000 metric tons of billets and light blooms per year. The new facility will produce a wide range of section sizes and steel grades, and the caster will incorporate the main provisions for special bar quality steel grades, should Nucor choose to add these grades. The 82-ton Concast high-shell electric arc furnace will use ConsoTech oxygen injection. This melting unit is designed to operate with tap-to-tap times of less than 40 minutes. This rapid melting cycle is achieved in part by charging the furnace with a single, large scrap bucket. The ladle furnace is designed to perform full refining activities within the limited time frame imposed by the rapid melting cycle of the EAF. Thus, a twin ladle furnace design has been selected, reducing ladle-handling time. The four-strand Nucor-Jewett CCM, expandable to five strands, features Concast’s Convex Technology©. A total of seven different section sizes are foreseen. The caster’s output of 130 metric tons per hour matches the performance of the meltshop furnaces. The caster also features a compact hydraulic oscillation system. This system enables remote, on-the-fly tuning of the oscillation stroke, frequency and curve shape for optimal surface quality.
