Danieli thin slab casters have been first and only ones in the world capable of producing peritectic and API X70 grades for Arctic applications; to produce steels with high silicon content; and to achieve 3.2 Mtpy productivity with two strands. The knowledge from developments and achievements of the 10 and even 12 mpm casting speed on 35-mm-thick slabs have resulted in safe and stable operation at speeds up to 8 mpm on 50 to 70-mm-thick slabs, in full industrial-scale plants.

QSP is the ideal way to produce Thin and Ultra-light gauge strip, as well as thick strip, for pipeline applications up to 3 Mtpy -with lower investment and transformation costs. The mill is linked directly to a high-speed single or two-strand thin slab caster
through a tunnel-type equalizing furnace. Semi-endless rolling is employed to achieve ultra-light gauges.

Installed in hot strip mills, four-high f2CR stands, fitted with dynamic roll crossing and long-stroke shifting allow Flexible Crown Control and Schedule-Free Rolling. The results are improved strip quality in terms of both flatness and crown, as well as extended roll life.

Another advanced technology achievement is the widest caster in the world equipped with the H2 long funnel mold, producing outstanding quality carbon steel slabs of 150 x 3,250 mm. An in-line quenching process is provided to ensure optimum grain formation during the solidification phase. Typically, these casters are directly linked with the plate/Steckel mills.

The Steckel mills enable flexible production of plates (from 5 to 50 mm) and coils (from 2 to 25 mm) according to market demand. Starting from medium thickness slabs, just one Steckel mill stand can produce up to 1.2 Mtpy, for plates up to 3,400 mm wide and coils up to 3,100 mm wide.

Danieli’s modern, thick slab casters set a new standard in the production of prime-quality slabs. Featuring the INMO mold and hydraulic oscillator, together with well-proven dynamic models, they allow the best working conditions and ensure the best surface and internal quality -even for the most crack-sensitive steel grades. DDQ and IF grades for automotive are easily produced.

Plate mills roll thick slabs down to 5-150 mm thick plates in widths ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 mm, with annual production of up to 1 and 1.8 Mtpy, depending on single or roughing plus finishing stand configuration. When equipped with direct in-line quenching and ACC, plate mills can perform thermo-mechanical rolling. Off-line heat treating lines may be installed to perform normalizing, hardening and tempering to give finished products proper mechanical characteristics. Structural, shipbuilding, line pipes up to API X100, high-pressure vessels, and boilers are the typical finished product applications.

On-line grinding of stainless steel slabs at temperatures of up to 1,000 °C, assuring continuous material flow from caster to hot rolling mill. 30% production increase, consistent product quality and substantial cash cost saving, replacing the conventional off-line cold conditioning system. In operation at Outokumpu Tornio, Finland, and Outokumpu Avesta, Sweden.

The Danieli patented MULTIMOTOR (MULTI MOre TORque) driving system is an innovative solution applied to a new-concept high-performance cold leveler for UHS steel plates. The leveling rolls are independently driven to guarantee the possibility of
adjusting speed, as well as the extremely high torque supplied to each single roll, thereby optimizing the leveling process and protecting the mechanical components.

The new Danieli 6-High mill concept allows a superior range of control with an original design for roll bending and shifting. In addition to Intermediate positive bending and WR positive and negative bending, the negative bending of the intermediate rolls is automatically activated when approaching critical rolling conditions. Furthermore, the mill stand is equipped with WR shifting for effective edge-drop control. A favorable distribution of forces optimizes WR wear, resulting in lower production costs and improved plant efficiency.

The high-speed Turboflo™ process at Corus CPL 22 and TISCO represents the latest innovative development in pickling technology. Each pickling tank is subdivided into several 2-m-long cells made up of the tank bottom and a special tank cover.
This makes it possible to increase the dynamic pressure of the pickling medium on the upper and lower surfaces of the strip by using the speed of the strip itself as a pump. This process combines the advantages of an effective and homogeneous pickling operation with high annual production, obtaining the highest pickling quality at ever-increasing pickling speeds.

Single-stand cold reversing and cold reversing/temper mills ensure high productivity and top quality at low investment costs, for exiting strip thicknesses down LATEST TECHNOLOGICAL ACHIEVEMENTS 39 to 0.15 mm, and maximum speeds of 1400 mpm. Main features: long-stroke hydraulic automatic gauge control (HAGC), positive/negative WR bending, closed-loop flatness control, roll thermal profile control, different emulsion equipment for rolling and tempering operations.
In operation at the Vietnam Steel Corporation cold complex, which also includes push pull picking, recoiling, and batch annealing lines.

Two-stand cold reversing rolling mills ensure top quality with 90% max total reduction, and strip speeds up to 1400 mpm. Such high reductions make the strip material particularly suitable for the subsequent draw & redraw process technology – state-of-the-art in tin plate production. The mill is in operation at the Mobarakeh Steel Complex, which also features an electrolytic cleaning line, a batch annealing line, a DCR temper mill, and an electrolytic tinning line. The production of the complex covers the grades from T50 to T70 and from DR8 to DR10.

Backed by the experience gained with the installation at Jenn An, Sidmar, Ilva, and other more recent requests that indicate market trends, we have developed an innovative solution that allows flexible production of low-carbon and high-strength low-alloy steels, as well as the new automotive grades known as advanced high-strength steels, such Dual Phase, TRIP, Multi-Phase steels. This achievement is the result of a new stand design capable of converting from 4-high configuration with long stroke shifting to 6-high configuration with small-dia idle work rolls.

The innovative RAP 5 line at Outokumpu, Finland, incorporates the formerly-independent annealing-pickling, cold rolling, final annealing-pickling, and skin-pass rolling processes into one continuous line. The benefits of the new integrated line are: better
flatness and surface quality for No. 1 finish thanks to rolling the hot band before annealing-pickling and following skin-passing; 20% reduced production cost for the 2B quality by reprocessing No. 1 finish coils in the same line; yield increase (from 96% of conventional process) up to 98%; reduced storage areas and coil handling; faster order delivery (20 min vs. 5 days).

The substantial advantages of this combined line are low investment costs, high process flexibility (producing galvanized only, or galvanized and color-coated, or color-coated only), and low operating costs (less handling, packaging, degreasing, manpower). The hot dip galvanizing line with in-line painting section at A.G. Galva-Color S.A. (Spain) produces CQ, DQ, DDQ, FH and HSLA materials with surface quality suitable for the white goods market.

The new generation of Hot Dip Galvanizing Lines include degreasing, DFF, or all radiant-tube vertical furnaces with rapid cooling, dual pots with automatic ingot-charging equipment, nitrogen wiping system with closed-loop control, skin-pass mills with two different work roll diameters, tension levelers, chemical treatment sections and turrettype side trimmers. These features make it possible for the line to process all automotive grades from EDDQ to AHSS, like Dual Phase and TRIP.

Due to the absence of toxic components in the electrolyte, Ecolyte (Danieli patent) is the most environmental-friendly plating technology in the world. This more effective -and 20% cheaper- chemistry offers improved coating quality and uniformity, and performance capabilities. Ecolyte also can be applied successfully to existing lines.
For example, converting Ferrostan to Ecolyte can be accomplished without stopping the line or reusing a previous solution.

Especially in the automotive industry, lightweight construction remains an overriding consideration in order to reduce secondary costs, such as fuel consumption.
The world’s first industrial implementation of “Flexible rolling” in a cold mill for steel successfully produces tailored rolled blanks, providing material thickness and thus stability, where it is needed -whereas the remaining portion of the blank is as thin as possible. Weight reduction of up to 40% at certain finished parts can be achieved. Additional production steps like welding can be prevented and the rolled material can be used directly in downstream processes.

Continuous operation and long strip lengths call for the best possible -and repeatablecutting results. Great value is attached not only to the strip-width tolerances, but also the strip-edge quality (burr) over the complete strip length. The Super Slitter is the right answer to these requirements, already tested in several applications for both ferrous and non-ferrous applications. Through a reduced bearing distance and an optimized whole bearing system, the new slitting head features a 44% deflection reduction and a knife-shaft rigidity that’s increased by more than 130% compared to conventional systems.

The two-stage spiral pipe manufacturing technology developed by Danieli W+K has shown remarkable advantages compared with the conventional processes in terms of investment and operation costs, and of product quality, and are now used without restriction in all highly-stressed gas and oil pipelines. In this process, the spiral pipes are initially formed into a pipe body and provisionally welded at high speed in the pipe forming and tack-welding machine. In a second process stage the pipes are final-welded, with the inside and outside seams simultaneously welded by means of multi-wire submerged arc welding.