Page 34 - Steel Tech India eMagazine Volume April 2022

VOL. 16 • NO. 3 • April 2022

Fig.5: Schematic Diagram for an Arvedi ESP
Due to the highly compact line arrangement with a overall performance till date, cSP is more reliable than
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total length of only 180 – 200 meters combined with the QSP of Danieli or SPcO. however, till now most of
the direct linkage of the casting and rolling processes, the plants use cSP mills for production commercial
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lower investment (cAPeX) and operating costs (OPeX) grade hot rolled steel coils.
will be incurred in comparison with conventional hSM
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or thin-slab-casting and direct-rolling plants. the first cSP Nexus plant is under installation in SDI,
Buffalo plant and it is claimed by the supplier that this
the endless rolling operations allow strip production new variant of cSP can operate in both batch and
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with uniform and repeatable mechanical properties endless modes and can produce strips from 1.0mm to
along the entire strip length and yield losses are reduced
to a minimum because head- and tail-end strip crops 25mm thickness. the production from a single strand
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are virtually eliminated. Another decisive advantage is cSP Nexus can be more than 2.5mtpy while a 2 strand
that with continuous rolling operations, the roll gap and CSP Nexus mill will produce 5.0mtpy of hot rolled coils.
pressure adjustments are constant during the entire Arvedi eSP may be the best option if the maximum
rolling process – resulting in a longer roll lifetime – as plant capacity is decided at the beginning itself. For
compared to the discontinuous and wear-intensive capacity expansion, a second Arvedi eSP line will have
rolling of discrete transfer bars.
to be installed. the capex will be more but it will add
An Arvedi eSP line for 1650mm maximum wide strips more flexibility of operation.
can produce up to 1.5– 2.5million tons of HRC per year
(depending on product mix) and the minimum strip We may infer that, for hRc production the conventional
thickness can be as low as 0.8mm.Production of a hot hSMroute still may be the best option for large
rolled steel coil takes about seven minutes from liquid integrated steel plants. In fact, if we look into last 20
steel in an Arvedi eSP line. years’ mill installations worldwide for hot rolled steel
coil production, we find at least two-thirds of the total
Presently two Arvedi eSP lines are in operation in Italy production comes from the conventional hSM route.
and five in Rizhao Steel, China. Three more lines are
under installation but till date India has no Arvedi eSP But the thin Slab casting & Rolling technologies are
installation. putting up very tough competition depending on the
selected product mix, production capacity and product
OUTLOOK & CONCLUSION applications. tScR process is constantly challenging

considering the number of installations worldwide and the convention HSM to optimize on its Capex and Opex.

32 Steel tech