Newest Technologies for Economical Sections Production

摘要

At the end of the 1980s little had changed with respect to the processes and technologies employed for sections production. Heavy sections were primarily produced by integrated steel mills in the 1980s. With the introduction of beam-blank casting, the technology became available to allow heavy sections production to be incorporated into the minimill concept. As a result, minimills like Nucor-Yamato Steel and TXI Chaparral Steel that are capable of producing heavy sections were built in the last 10 years. Today's global markets, combined with the rising speeds of change and information exchange, require ever-increasing efforts to remain competitive. Thus, reducing conversion costs is an increasingly critical task. In recent years, equipment and processes have been developed that produce medium and heavy sections such as beams, channels, rails and sheet piling at substantially lower conversion costs with improved dimensional accuracy and mechanical properties using a high degree of automation.