AISTech 2019 — Proceedings of the Iron & Steel Technology Conference

6–9 May 2019, Pittsburgh, Pa., USA

DOI 10.1000.377.199

Endless Casting and Rolling of Long Products: The Competitive Substitute of

Conventional Mini-Mills

Aldo Tellatin1, Andrea De Luca1, Jozi Shuli1

1
Danieli
Via Nazionale 41, Italy, Buttrio, 33042
Phone: +39 0432 195 8373, +39 0432 195 8927, +39 0432 195 8927
Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Keywords: ECR® - Endless Casting and Rolling Process, Energy Saving, Environmental Sustainability, Environmentally
Friendly, TWIN MI.DA, DRB®, FAST CASTTM Technology, ECO Power MouldTM, Fast Cast CubeTM, UFG Process, Smart
Plant, Digitalization.

INTRODUCTION
Today, for Danieli the MI.DA technology is a strategic product and a key point in its vision of the near future.
The MI.DA was initially conceived as a regional plant capable of producing up to 300,000 tpy, equipped with one single co-
rolling line with an hourly productivity of 50 ton max. It was designed to meet the demand of a limited area surrounding the
plant, with more competitive operating costs compared to traditional minimills of greater size.
In the last decade, the MI.DA. technology allowed to write new chapters in the history of minimills and achieve unbeatable
goals which led Danieli to increase and consolidate its technological supremacy in the endless casting and rolling process
starting from 1998 with ABS Luna plant.
Since then, both process and technology have been consolidated and several records were beaten, starting from CMC Arizona
in 2009, passing through the latest startup of the two Egyptian Steel MIDA facilities of IIC and NPSS respectively in 2016
and 2017, and CMC #2 plant early in 2018.
Through the years Danieli has been able to cast steadily at up to 7.0 m/min speed with even higher speed peaks, as well as to
increase the overall process yield up to 99% with 94% plant uptime, which makes the ECR process an essential concept for
the future.
Nowadays, thanks to the latest technological developments, Danieli ECR Endless Casting and Rolling process is a well-
proven real, reliable and cost-efficient way of producing rebar in bars, spooled coils and wirerod and is going to completely
supersede the conventional Minimill concept, mainly thanks to the revolutionary introduction of the twin-strand application
to produce up to 1.5 Mtpy of finished products to match the ever-increasing market demand.
In the last two years Danieli sold six MI.DA plants with production capacity varying from 300,000 tpy up to 1.4 Mtpy, as a
prompt response to an ever-increasing demand for plants with higher productivity, larger product range and higher level of
automation.

TWIN MI.DA CONCEPT

Today, in China – a country of big numbers - the regional concept is being expanded to meet the customers’ demand for
maximized production, while maintaining the consolidated operational advantages of MI.DA.
The acquisition of two important orders in China is symptomatic of the evolution and growth in size of the MI.DA plants
which are gradually replacing the traditional largest minimills, also within the context of an increasing attention towards
energy-saving technologies as a result of a growing concern for the protection of natural resources which are essential to the
future of mankind.

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 1935

 Figure 1. MI.DA size evolution from one single 300,000 tpy co-rolling line into two 1.5 Mtpy twin co-rolling lines
We are referring to the two projects of Guilin Pinggang and Shanxi Jianbang respectively located in the South West and in
the North West of China, which were acquired in summer 2018. These will be the first steelmakers in China to benefit
from the typical MI.DA. concept advantages in terms of CapEx and OpEx, as well as from its maximized energy-saving
and environmentally friendly approach that makes MI.DA. the right and prompt answer to the increasingly demanding
environmental restrictions.
In addition, they will be the first steelmakers to adopt the new Twin MI.DA.® concept: a continuous caster machine with two
high-speed casting strands respectively feeding two independent rolling mills in endless mode to double production up to 1.2
Mtpy of finished products.
Further evolutions of the original Micromill Danieli endless casting-rolling concept that will be applied to these two projects
for the first time are the addition of wirerod products to the original MI.DA.’s straight rebars production mix, and its
significantly increased production capacity that now can reach over 1 Mtpy!
Both plants will be configured on a twin-strand high-speed billet caster with an hourly record productivity of 110 ton/h each,
equipped with a common tundish feeding in continuous two separate rolling lines for straight rebars and/or wirerod,
according to their configuration.

KEY TECHNOLOGIES
Such a high productivity can only be achieved thanks to the application of the latest FAST CASTTM Technology which is
the new generation of continuous casting machines with increasingly competitive transformation costs.
Danieli FAST CAST TM Technology is characterized mainly by two innovative and high-tech systems:
• ECO Power MouldTM
• Fast Cast Cube TM mould oscillation system

ECO Power MouldTM

The consistency of performances and operations achieved with Power Mould has focused our attention on the construction
techniques required to further improve the product cost competitiveness and the result is the Eco Power Mould.
The latest update of this technology considers the enhancement of copper effectiveness by employing a lower thickness tube
and a new design of water cooling channels allowing lower meniscus temperature and lower media consumption in the
mould.

1936 © 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.

 Figure 2. Mould design development

Figure 3. Heat Transfer model through the different design moulds

The Eco Power MouldTM is a further development of the Power MouldTM concept with the following improvements:
• New geometry of the cooling channels with higher thermal exchange
• Lower overall Cu thickness
• New coating layer to improve rigidity
• Reduced off-corner cracks resulting in increased sub-surface quality
• Improved cooling system
• Adaptive heat transfer
• Up to 60,000 t service life
• Reduced media consumption
• Easy to install on existing conticasters

Figure 4. ECO Power Mould design

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 1937

Fast Cast Cube TM
The combination of the revolutionary cartridge type Eco Power MouldTM with the latest design of the Fast Cast Cube®
(FCC®) oscillator characterized by high stiffness, low oscillation mass and inertia for higher frequencies in oscillation,
bearing-free suspension system and maintenance-free philosophy, has allowed to reach the unbeatable casting speed
performance of up to 7.2 m/min, which is equivalent to a productivity of 56.6 t/h approx. for 130x130 mm square sections on
a single casting strand and up to 120 t/h for bigger sections.

Figure 5. Hy-Power drive

Figure 6. Fast Cast Cube®

The high frequency in oscillation is achieved through the revolutionary Hy-Power drive which is a hydrostatically actuated
system installed on board of the hydraulic cylinder and fed by just one simple electric cable, replacing the standard hydraulic
system composed of hydraulic unit, accumulators, servo-valves and hydraulic interconnecting piping.
The hydraulic cylinder is equipped with one position transducer to control the oscillating stroke. The stroke and wave form
can be changed automatically during casting according to the technological parameters and RM productivity.

1938 © 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.

 PLANT DESCRIPTION
Pinggang plant is equipped with one co-rolling line to produce 700,000 tpy of ribbed wirerod and a second line to produce
700,000 tpy of rebars.
While at Guilin Pinggang production of both straight rebars and wirerod products will start right from the beginning on the
two endless casting and rolling lines, Shanxi Jianbang plant will initially utilize only one of the two straight rebar lines, while
the second line will be started up in a later phase.

Figure 7. Twin MI.DA Pinggang plant layout configuration

Both MI.DA. plants will be located inside existing steel complexes: at Guilin Pinggang liquid steel will come from a scrap-
based EAF, while at Shanxi Jianbang liquid steel will come from a BF-BOF shop. These aspects highlight the considerable
flexibility in terms of liquid steel sources allowed by the MI.DA. technology. In both projects, the rolling mills are
configured with an upstream induction heater for billet temperature equalization, 20 H/V housingless rolling stands, apron
line and DRB-Direct Rolling & Bundling system, as well as wirerod line, with finishing areas according to their
configurations. Starting from 190-mm square billets cast on the 12-m radius conticasters, Guilin Pingang will produce
straight rebars from 10 to 16 mm with DRB, from 20 to 28 mm with apron line, and ribbed wire rod from 6 to 12 mm.
Shanxi Jianbang will produce straight rebars from 12 to 20 mm with DRB and from 22 to 40 mm with apron line.
Jangbang plant is developed in 2 phases: in the first phase a co-rolling line is planned to produce 700,000 tpy of reinforced
concrete bars, which will be doubled with the implementation of the second line, a copy of the first, during the second phase.
These two customers have been attracted by the twin MI.DA configuration not only as a profitable way of producing finished
products on a large scale, but as the right and proper process with a very high level of efficiency in terms of environmental
sustainability and energy saving to minimize CO2 emissions and also preserve natural resources which are essential to the
future of mankind.
The start-up of both plants is expected by early 2020.

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 1939

 PROCESS
With a dedicated and optimized chemistry, it is possible to minimize and even avoid the use of alloying elements starting
from low-carbon and low-manganese steel through LOW SURFACE TEMPERATURE ROLLING.
This way the low mechanical properties that result from poor chemistry are balanced by the microstructure obtained via the
UFG process (Ultra Fine Grane process).
Both plants will adopt the UFG-Ultra Fine Grain process that promotes a very fine microstructure and enhanced final
mechanical properties, minimizing or even avoiding the need for alloying elements, to comply with the Chinese regulations
for structural steel, i.e. martensitic-free structure products with higher ductility, which can guarantee better performances in
seismic regions.
The Chinese Regulations for structural steel, new GB/T 1499.2 – 2018 “Steel for the Reinforcement of Concrete”, impose
this kind of characteristics for rebars, most likely due to the big number of earthquakes in the Chinese area for which high
energy absorption is required in reinforced concrete bars.

Figure 8. Distance - Temperature trend along rolling and cooling steps

Grain-size-controlled grades can ensure high stress ratio and Agt values, thanks to a dedicated controlled temperature rolling
strategy (HV difference between surface and core should be less than 40).
With the UFG process it is possible to obtain a grain size definition from 5 to 1 µm which allows to have a material with
higher ductility (with the conventional quenching process QTB the material is more brittle than with the UFG), because the
lower grain size prevents any potential crack from propagating.

1940 © 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.

 Figure 9. Macro of the material core showing the dimensions of the grain

The UFG process is the most advantageous way of producing structural steel grades in bars and coils for construction
purposes due to the reduction in micro-alloys addition in the Meltshop to avoid martensitic microstructure phase during
rolling.
The average transformation cost savings resulting from the absence of Vanadium micro-alloy addition, have been evaluated
to approx. 120 RMB/ton corresponding to about 17 USD/ton savings.

KEY FACTORS

Energy Saving & Environmental Sustainability

The current production process of structural steel for construction purposes is going to be drastically changed, as is already
happening in the USA, also in most countries like China which are becoming more and more aware of the environmental
impact and are starting to minimize CO2 emissions and preserve natural resources.
In this regard, China is progressively replacing the existing Blast Furnaces with the less polluting EAFs avoiding the use of
RHF for billet reheating from ambient temperature to more than 1100 °C before entering the rolling mill.
The complete absence of RHF in our ECR® process avoids a huge waste of energy and gives net savings in terms of NG
consumption of about 30 Nm3/ton, equivalent to approximately 300 kWh/ton which corresponds to a reduction in CO2
emissions in the order of 100 kg/t.
Twin MI. DA plants can generate a considerable reduction of about 150,000 ton per year in CO2 emissions, corresponding to
75,000 circulating cars.

Industry 4.0 Technologies

The E.C.R.® process has been constantly supported through the years by a growth strategy that can guarantee unbeatable
performances in terms of CapEx and OpEx, also thanks to the large application of digital technologies with the aim of
transforming conventional plants into “Smart Plants”.
A “Smart Plant” constitutes a safe, flexible, efficient and environmentally friendly concept of manufacturing, based on the
extensive digitalization of processes, full integration of cybernetics and strong interconnection between humans and
intelligent artificial systems.
Increased automation complexity requires a different approach to assist operators in realizing the full potential of the Smart
Plant.
In this regard, the 3Q Digital Pulpit is a revolutionary solution providing a full “soft-desk”, totally based on computer screens
through which the operator can both monitor the plant and operate it through an ergonomic and user-friendly approach.
The two TWIN MI.DA plants will also be provided with the latest digital technologies using 3Q Digital Pulpits totally based
on computer screens, together with an extensive use of robots and manipulators aimed at transforming the plant into a smart
plant to fully assist the operators.
A “Smart Plant” also allows to halve the direct manpower and provides a strong and consistent support to operators who can
both monitor the plant and operate it in complete safety and through an ergonomic and user-friendly approach.
In China, one conventional rolling mill requires an overall manpower of about 125 people per shift (4 shifts in total) serving
caster, billet storage, RHF, rebar mill.
45 out of 125 are on duty at the billet storage area, RHF and long cooling bed of the finishing area.

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 1941

The Twin MI.DA configuration combined with a high level of digitalization can guarantee overall manpower savings from
the caster to the two Rolling Mills of 2x40 x 4shifts = 320 people/year, which corresponds to approx. 18 RMB/ton equivalent
to around 2.5 USD/ton savings.

Figure 10. 3Q Digital Pulpit

CONCLUSIONS
The MI.DA plant size and configuration has continuously and steadily evolved over the years. It has taken just a few years
for it to grow from its original small size of 300,000 tpy up to today’s 1.5 Mtpy production capacity through the development
of the TWIN MI.DA configuration.

Figure 11. MI.DA productivity evolution

Thanks to the advanced automation and innovative digital solutions fully integrated and optimized into the MI.DA
ecosystem, not only to support the operators in decision-making with an impressive flow of information but also to replace
them in the most unsafe operations and dusty places, the MI.DA concept combined with the E.C.R.® process is a well-proven,
reliable and highly competitive technology available today in the market to fulfill the demand for high efficiency and energy
savings in the production of long products for construction rebars both straight and in spooled coils, including wirerod.
The strong and consolidated connection between the E.C.R.® process and the advanced digitalization applications has
brought proven benefits not only in terms of lower overall transformation costs, but also of faster full plant utilization just in
few months after hot startup, resulting in a plant much more profitable than a conventional minimill.
The Twin MI.DA plants in China will provide the Customer with total savings in transformation costs of approx. 200
RMB/ton, equivalent to about 30 USD/ton resulting from the use of both E.C.R.® and UFG processes.

1942 © 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.