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Turkish steel producer Habaş AS has awarded SMS group the order to expand the hot strip mill at its Aliağa site near Izmir. The rolling mill, supplied and commissioned by SMS, has been in operation since 2014. With this project, Habaş intends to boost the mill capacity to 4.5 million tonnes per year. As well as carbon steels, the product range will include HSLA steels, pipe grades and multi-phase steels. The mill will be able to process slabs of up to 225 millimeters thickness, up to 2,100 millimeters width and up to 12 meters length, and produce hot strip between 700 and 2,100 millimeters wide and between 1.2 and 25.4 millimeters thick. Commissioning of the upgraded rolling mill is scheduled for early 2023.
As early as in 2012, when Habaş ordered the mill, the company had decided in favor of the flexible SMS concept which provides for an upgrade in several stages to a high-performance hot strip mill. For the current upgrade, Habaş has ordered a second roughing stand with attached edger E1/R1 and a third downcoiler DC 3. The new edger E1 will be of identical design as the existing one E2. The achievable increase in width reduction will facilitate production planning and make slab inventory more efficient. The hydraulically adjustable roughing stand will be equipped with a high-performance CFR system for camber-free rolling. Identical in design to the existing downcoilers DC1 and DC2, the new downcoiler DC3 will be able to handle the complete range of hot strip grades and sizes, including strips in pipe grades of up to 25.4 millimeters thickness, – thanks to its very robust construction.
SMS group company AMOVA GmbH is going to supply the equipment connecting to the existing pallet transport system and additional transportation equipment. AMOVA’s supply scope for the coil handling area includes the access to the existing pallet conveyor for hot coil removal, a coil strapping machine to be arranged downstream of the new downcoiler and a shiftable inspection table for the existing inspection station.
All the new units will be seamlessly integrated into the existing X-Pact automation system. To this purpose, the existing Level-2 functions will be expanded and adapted to the new configuration. Also the HMI and the visualization system will be enhanced and tailored to the new set-up of the mill. The X-Pact automation package supplied by SMS will also include the necessary Level-1 components, sensors and measuring devices. Thanks to the modular and open structure of the system, the components can be conveniently integrated into the existing system environment.