steel news

LaVa-X and RAYLASE: technology partnership for increased productivity and reduced resource consumption with laser welding in vacuum.

Fuel cells are considered a key technology in the energy transition. Due to the expanding electromobility, the demand for bipolar plates for fuel cells is also increasing. It is therefore increasingly important to weld the plates quickly and with as little effort as possible. The highest quality requirements must be met at all times. For optimized welding processes, LaVa-X, a solution provider for laser beam welding in a vacuum, is cooperating with RAYLASE, a provider of components for rapid deflection and modulation of laser beams.

For the expansion of its steel plant in Danapur, Indian steel producer BMM Ispat awarded Danieli Corus a contract for a complete, 0.88-Mtpy blast furnace complex. The plant will be installed in an iron ore-rich area in India’s Karnataka state, where BMM Ispat currently produces pellets, sponge iron and a variety of long products.

High complexity in logistics for steel production

The supply chain still faces huge challenges after more than two years of pandemic: Chain disruptions, labor shortages, high costs and unconnected and barely digital systems all affect operations. Speed and scalability are among the two biggest requirements retailers and warehouse operators have for supply chain innovation today. One way to increase supply chain efficiency quickly and easily is through the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

SMS group has been chosen by Jindal Stainless Limited to build a new blast furnace at their Kalinganagar unit in India. The blast furnace will have a production capacity of two million tons of hot metal per year. The plant will serve both existing downstream steelmaking facilities, as well as future ones.

The contract for the equipment, to be designated Blast Furnace Number 1, was signed between SMS group company Paul Wurth and Jindal Stainless Limited (JSL) in November 2021. The scope of agreed work includes the blast furnace, hot blast stoves, a dry gas cleaning plant, a pulverized coal injection and an INBA® slag granulation plant, to be supplied on an Engineering and Procurement basis.

• Record-breaking melting unit in operation at steelmaker Acciaieria Arvedi in Italy, with a furnace tapping size of 300 metric tons
• Tenova's Consteel® EAF continuous scrap charging system is complemented by Consteerrer®, an innovative ArcSave®-based electromagnetic stirring technology jointly developed by ABB and Tenova for continuously charging EAF systems
• Application of electromagnetic stirring results in 5 percent productivity increase and 3.6 percent reduction in electrical energy consumption
• Additional improvements include increased flexibility in the operation of the furnace and in the use of the raw materials mix with significant improvement of the metallic charge yield

• First ever 3-strand slab casting concept for achieving higher capacity while keeping the same space used for casting at the steel plant
• Investment will significantly increase production capacity

Recently, Chinese steel producer Tangshan Donghua Iron and Steel Enterprise Group placed an order with Primetals Technologies to supply a new 3-strand continuous slab caster for its plant in Tangshan, Hebei province, China. The machine will supply slabs to a recently installed hot rolled rolling mill. Startup is expected for December 2022.

The world of metals has a special event in store for the coming year. The trade fair quartet of GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS and NEWCAST 2023 – known as The Bright World of Metals – will bring together companies and equipment providers of the international steel and aluminium industry, foundries and metal working companies under the roof of Messe Düsseldorf from 12 to 16 June 2023.

Wuppermann commissioned a new photovoltaic system at its production site in Altmünster in mid-March 2022. The annual energy production of the plant, which was erected on the roof of the hall of Wuppermann Metalltechnik GmbH (WMT), amounts to around 492 MWh.