STEEL + TECHNOLOGY 04/2019 EXTRACT

68 | STEEL TECHNOLOGY
Strip processing lines
Advanced mechanical equipment for the
3rd generation AHSS
In the past 50 years, steel grades for automotive applications experienced several revolutions and transformed
from mild steel to the 3rd generation of advanced high strength steel (AHSS). With the development of new
grades, steelmakers and equipment suppliers are facing new issues and must decide about investment either in
a new line or in an actual line revamp. The new design of mechanical equipment enables to achieve necessary
metallurgical requirements (annealing temperature, cooling rate, skin-pass elongation), to thread the line and to
transport the AHSS strip along the processing line without damages.
Figure 1: Fives and Baotou Iron and Steel Group commissioned two complete continuous
galvanizing lines NeoKoil ® (Picture: Fives)
Steelmakers are now at a new breakthrough
point of steel development
with introduction of a grade up to
1,800 MPa for automotive applications to
achieve weight lightening or safety requirements.
To design a processing line, strip
mechanical properties are key input to validate
equipment choice and line configuration.
New steel grades have an impact on
shears and threading capabilities, strip
transportation before and after annealing,
skin-pass and tension leveller characteristics.
Mechanical equipment for advanced
high strength steel with high tensile
strength and high formability should be
designed by using engineering experience
of line design for stainless steel production.
Therefore, a new range of equipment
has been developed in order to satisfy new
requirements and to ensure strip threading,
anticipate bending and tension control,
improve flatness and implement the fine
tuning of mechanical properties. Fives has
designed a NeoKoil ® strip processing line
(figure 1) for carbon steel and integrated
the state-of-the-art solutions based on its
know-how in stainless steel:
• DMS OptiLine, a unique and precise
software tool to anticipate bending and
tension control specificities,
• new threading equipment and a concept
to ensure an entry cycle,
• new design for skin-pass mills and tension
levellers for high elongation on
AHSS,
• new design for side trimmers and scrap
evacuation systems.
Threading equipment
Authors: Conrad Ernst de la Graete, Steve Decroix, Fives DMS, Fives Group,
France – Contact : steve.decroix@fivesgroup.com
The entry section of the strip processing
line for the 3rd generation grades faces an
STEEL + TECHNOLOGY 1 (2019) No. 4