stahl und eisen -  Fives has just signed off on an annealing and pickling line for hot-rolled stainless steel strips (HAPL) for the steelmaker SWSS (South West Stainless Steel). Fives designed the entire processing line, which combines a wide range of specialties and technologies the Group has developed for the steel sector, including thermal, mechanical and chemical capacities. This is a major reference for Fives in the stainless steel market. The annealing & pickling line has an annual capacity of 700 000 t of hot-rolled stainless steel strips. In order to achieve the required quality level, Fives supplied high-precision equipment designed by its engineers which enables steelmakers to manufacture a finished product that meets their quality and performance objectives.

  With a capacity of 128 t/h, the furnace can heat stainless steel strips (from 2 to 6 mm thick and from 900 to 1 350 mm wide - Austenitics series 200 and 300) to 1 150 °C at process speeds of 80 m/min. It combines a water cooling section with a soft cooling section to secure the cooling control and excellent strip flatness. The technologies in this section optimize and reduce the furnace''s energy consumption.   The pickling section includes a state of the art design that integrated the latest materials and included automatic features to efficiently and effectively remove the sludge from the system while maintaining the optimum concentration of chemicals. This is combined with a system that minimized the water consumption by utilizing the spent water from various subsystems as the feed makeup water in others minimizing the flow sent to the waste water treatment facility. All of this is managed by an elegant control system with an intuitive and user friendly interface.   Fives also supplied the terminal equipment necessary for the smooth continuous strip running all along the Line and in particular, mechanical equipment such as, pay-off reel, tension reel, shear, strip accumulators, scale breaker, as well as the strip centering systems. These equipments stem from Fives’ substantial mechanical know-how and will contribute to the line’s performance in the long run. A partner supplied the electrical section.   The contract to supply the line was signed in October 2011. The project was done over the span of 17 months, from signing the contract to the first coil. The line reached its 500 t annealed and pickled coil in the second week of production. Right now, it is producing more than 2700 coils per month.   Private steelmaker SWSS invested in this new line to increase its production capacity by adding another steel processing line to the HAPL line it already had. Fives won the bid for the engineering excellence of the equipment it provided and the line itself, but also because it has total control of its manufacturing chain. Like most of the mechanical equipment, the heating furnace was made right near the client at the local Fives plants in China.   The line was Fives’ first contract with the Jinguang Group, SWSS''s parent company, which has already chosen to renew its trust in the group by placing an order in December 2011 for two rolling mills for its subsidiary TCSS.