HI-BENDING^®: Unlocking high grinding efficiency for deformed or bent billets

The conventional grinding system typically allows automatic grinding only for long products such as billets or blooms with a maximum bending tolerance of 50 mm. If any material exceeds this tolerance, it can only be ground manually or in semi-automatic mode, resulting in low productivity, poor surface quality, and inconsistent removal thickness.

However, the latest development of Danieli Centro Maskin, Hi-Bending®, combined with the advanced Grinding Power Control System, HiGrind© enables fully automatic processing with a constant grinding depth, even for materials with irregular surfaces or curved shapes. Now, billets with a bending tolerance of up to 100 mm can be ground in fully automatic mode, matching the speed and tolerance of processing straight billets within a +/- 10% range of material removal. The system not only compensates for height differences on the vertical axis automatically but also adjusts for horizontal variations during grinding. This optimization ensures an optimal number of grinding passes for each face and eliminates the risk of grinding wheel damage.

One remarkable application of the Hi-Bending® technology is the successful implementation of the HGS200EVO, an innovative fully electric billet grinder, at the Cogne Acciai Speciali plant, which has been in operation since the beginning of 2023. The outstanding results achieved with this system are attributed to the pendulum electric drive of the grinder, which enables rapid reaction times and linear speeds up to 2.5 times faster than hydraulic cylinders. This serves as a prime example of how to combine highly productive and efficient equipment with an eco-friendly approach.

The flexibility of Hi-Bending® system allows for the automatic processing of billets with varying levels of bending, eliminating the need for manual selection of billets during the loading process. Moreover, skilled operators are not required to grind bent billets in semi-automatic mode, as the Hi-Bending system precisely follows the material shape even under the most challenging conditions. As a result, material removal is minimized, further enhancing the overall efficiency of the grinding process.