• Four-strand casting line is designed to produce 950,000 metric tons per annum
• It is the most modern caster of its type in the world and is designed for digitalization
• The first fully automatic casting has already been carried out

voestalpine is an international technology corporation producing industrial goods. A four-strand continuous bloom caster supplied by Primetals Technologies went into operation at its Leoben steel production plant in July. The new caster is the most modern of its type in the world and has been designed for digitalization. Fully automatic casting was possible right from the very start. The CC4 plant replaces the previous CC2 caster. In four-strand operation, it is designed to produce 950,000 metric tons per annum of the highest quality blooms.

Primetals Technologies was responsible for the basic and detailed engineering, supply and construction of the equipment, and also supervised the commissioning. The continuous caster produces round blooms with a diameter of 230 millimeters as well as rectangular blooms with a cross-section of 270 x 360 millimeters; it has also been designed so that it can produce a 440 x 330 millimeter format. The plant processes rail steels, case-hardening steels, free-cutting steels, steels for seamless tubes, heat-treated steels, spring steels, cold headed and cold extrusion steels, tire cord steels, cold work steels, bearing steels and welding electrode steels.

The continuous bloom caster is equipped with the DynaFlex hydraulic mold oscillator and LevCon mold level control. The combination of the Dynacs 3D secondary cooling system and the fully automated DynaGap 3D roll-gap control with Dynamic Soft Reduction in the strand-guiding system ensures blooms are cast with consistently high quality. The plant also has an online traversing strand stirrer with a traversing range controlled by Dynacs 3D. For loading and unloading the heat retaining boxes, a fully automatic crane has been planned with a connection to a production planning system for stock keeping. The scope of delivery also included special mechatronic packages and an integrated automation solution.
voestalpine steel Donawitz GmbH is a subsidiary of the voestalpine corporation. It currently runs the world's most modern compact LD steel works in Leoben.