Hot Strip Mill
Where slabs of steel are processed and rolled into coils.
The principal facilities of the half-mile-long hot strip mill include two reheat furnaces and a walking beam furnace now under construction, vertical scalebreaker, two-high roughing stand, four-high reversing rougher with edger, six finishing stands and three downcoilers.
Before entering the hot mill, the slabs are reheated in furnaces. Surface oxide, or scale, is removed from the heated slabs at the scalebreaker. The slabs then enter the roughing mill, where horizontal rolls squeeze the slabs so they becomes thinner and longer. The steel sheet then enters the finishing mill for final reduction. The strip is cooled and coiled. Some coils are shipped directly to customers from the hot strip mill, but most proceed to Severstal Warren finishing facilities for further processing.
Construction of the new $49-million walking beam furnace is the centerpiece of our capital program, with start-up completed in February 2008. The walking beam furnace improves gauge and surface quality while allowing Severstal Warren to expand its custom steel offerings by 60,000 tons annually. The project included the expansion of existing heat retention boxes to accept larger steel slabs, an upgrade of existing shipping cranes and an upgrade to the shipping floor online coil scales.