On July 20, Austria-based giant engineering and plantmaking company Siemens VAI Metals Technologies (Siemens VAI) announced the startup and the commissioning of Chinese steel giant Baosteel's vertical slab caster, which is capable of casting the highest alloyed-steel grades for special product applications.
In the spring of 2009, Siemens VAI started up and commissioned a new vertical slab caster at Baosteel's Special Steel Branch in Shanghai, China. This solution enables a wide range of highly critical steel grades to be continuously cast, which would otherwise not be possible to produce in a conventional bow-type caster.
Due to the special design features of the machine and the installation of a full array of technological packages, slabs are produced with the highest surface and internal quality. Steel production in the existing ingot casting route could also be partially substituted with the new caster.
The scope of Siemens VAI's supply was rounded off by advisory service for co-manufacturing, erection, startup and commissioning in addition to personnel training. This caster is the first vertical slab caster commissioned by Siemens VAI.
The new single-strand vertical slab caster installed at Baosteel's Special Steel Branch is capable of producing up to approximately 270,000 mt per year of a wide range of high- and ultra-high-alloyed carbon, special and stainless steel grades. These include medium- to high-carbon, alloyed and high-alloyed steel grades (e.g., up to 80 percent alloying elements comprising nickel, chromium, manganese, molybdenum and aluminum) and stainless steel grades of the 300 and 400 series.