Chain drives make steel looper tower accumulator ultra reliable

摘要

A steel mill in the Netherlands has improved the long term operational productivity of its annealing line by replacing lifting chains that failed frequently with ones that have proven to have a working life of 10-15 years or longer As part of a steel mill's role of coating sheet steel, a key process is annealing: a heat treatment designed to improve the workability of the metal by heating then cooling the metal to increase ductility and reducing hardness. This is performed as a continuous process, so the individual sheets of steel must be welded together end-to-end to form an endless strip. Production volumes are such that the welding must be performed automatically.