Tata Steel´s Speciality Steels, UK, has successfully commissioned the VIM X-eed® vacuum induction melting furnace supplied by SMS Mevac.
This new tertiary metallurgy facility produces high-purity steels and specialty alloys for the aerospace industry.
The VIM unit at Tata Steel comprises an eight-ton vacuum induction melting crucible and the associated vacuum pumping, material charging and process control equipment. All core components supplied by SMS Mevac have been designed to allow Tata Steel to increase the melt size to 18 tons at a later date. Also ancillary equipment for crucible preheating and lining maintenance was included in the supply scope. The unit incorporates vacuum pouring equipment for both top poured and bottom poured ingots, in single or multiple ingot configurations.
Before the ingots are rolled or forged into products for the aerospace market, they are refined in Tata Steel’s VAR (Vacuum Arc Re-melting) and/or ESR (Electro Slag Re-melting) facilities.
