Overview of the New Finishing Block Mill and Coil Handling Line at the No.7 Wire Rod Mill

摘要

The No.7 Wire Rod Mill has been operating as the main plant for the production of Kobe Steel high-grade wire rod since its startup of operation in 1969. In order to satisfy the increasingly strict customer' demands and to take the lead in the progress of the modernization of wire rod mills, an advanced finishing block mill and coil handling lines at the No.7 Wire Rod mill were commissioned in January 1999. This modernization includes an 8-stand ultra heavy-duty blockmill, a 4-stand ultra heavy-duty reducing sizing mill, a laying head, loop conveyor, a loop collector, and an automated warehouse. The mill is capable of controlled rolling, precision tolerance rolling, intermediate product size rolling, controlled cooling, and optimized coil handling. As a result, a production system, the most advanced in the world was prepared and remarkable improvements in product quality and in customer service became possible. In addition, it also became possible to produce new products at reduced total costs including secondary and tertiary processing costs. In this paper, we will introduce an outline of facilities of the new finishing block mill line and the coil handling line.