ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe, Germany, is investing $121 million to modernize continuous caster 1 in Duisburg-Beeckerwerth to improve slab quality and widen the product range. It is scheduled to go back into operation in just under eight weeks. The work is being carried out in parallel with the reline of blast furnace 2 in order to minimize production losses.
Continuous caster 1 is designed for steel slabs with widths between 1000 and 2150 millimeters and a thickness of up to 257 millimeters. The rebuild of the two-strand bow-type caster includes a new ladle turret and an 80-ton tundish including car, the replacement of the casting machine itself, and the installation of new measuring systems. A key element of the modernization is a new cooling system. Previously slabs were sprayed with water across their full width. A new air-water cooling technology will permit gentler, more accurate cooling of the hot strand.
In the future it will be possible to switch individual nozzles on and off, so allowing targeted cooling of defined zones across the width of the strand. “Thanks to air-water cooling we will have next to no edge defects in slabs anymore,” explains Dr. Arnd Köfler, Head of Crude Steel at ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. “This will significantly improve the surface quality of the steel, particularly the higher-strength grades our customers are increasingly requesting.”
Continuous caster 1 was built in 1974 and has been modernized twice since. The revamp is therefore essential. Alongside this unit there is a second continuous caster in Beeckerwerth and another one in the Bruckhausen plant. The capacity of continuous caster 1 is around 2.3 million tons per year. Since it began operation 40 years ago it has produced more than 80 million tons of steel, enough to build almost 1,100 copies of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The two continuous casters in Beeckerwerth provide work for roughly 170 employees. They produce high-quality slabs for special steels, mainly for the auto industry, as well as tinplate for the packaging industry, high-strength steels, skelp and quarto plate.
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