United States producer Keystone Steel and Wire Co. placed an order with Siemens Metals Technologies to upgrade the cooling conveyors of a two-strand wire rod mill in its Bartonville, Illinois, production facility. The project includes new blowers, auxiliary systems as well as electric and automation equipment. This will enable Keystone to produce steel grades with higher tensile strengths with improved and more uniform quality, extending their product range. The new equipment is expected to be commissioned in late 2014.
Siemens has also provided high-speed shears and water boxes to Keystone in a multi-phased upgrade. Siemens´ contract scope for the current upgrade includes five large blowers with Optimesh control system on each strand of the rolling mill, together with plenums, as well as close-coupled switch disconnect, transformer, switch panel, drives and a new automation cabinet.
The project upgrades a mill built previously and modernised by the former Morgan Construction Company in the late 1980s.The upgrade is part of an ongoing modernisation project undertaken by Keystone to expand into markets for higher value-added products.