The complete automation system for Nucor-Yamato Steel’s three-stand CCS® tandem reversing group for the production of heavy sections was installed in the Mönchengladbach test center as a complex unit for testing and pre-optimization by means of the Plug & Work integration process.

The heavy-section mill of Nucor-Yamato Steel Company is the first ever long-product rolling mill going through an integration test in the EA test center in Mönchengladbach using 3D real-time plant simulation. The SMS group’s proven electrical and automation solutions are summarized under the brand X-Pact®, an acronym standing for Process, Automation, Control and Technology. 

Testing takes place with the original control desks and equipment.
The Mönchengladbach test center of SMS group.

Thanks to their high modularity, the X-­Pact® packages can be flexibly combined – a key factor for successfully implemented plants and systems. X-­Pact® assures that the elements of the customers’ plants are perfectly tuned throughout – from power supply and distribution, via drive technology, instrumentation and automation, up to and including production planning. SMS group develops customized solutions, integrating future-oriented technologies in close cooperation with its customers. This enables full-scale automation and digitalization of the entire production chain.

More than 100 reference projects of SMS group – including both new plant installations and revamps – have shown that the Plug & Work concept helps mill operators to achieve the ROI significantly faster because with Plug & Work commissioning times can be markedly reduced compared to a conventional commissioning process. Apart from this, SMS group provides remote support during commissioning activities. The X-Pact® Service Portal provides a perfect infrastructure for remote commissioning support. During the commissioning of the modernized rolling mill, software experts and technologists from different SMS locations will be available to Nucor-Yamato Steel and ready to remote-support the commissioning team of SMS group Inc. from Pittsburgh, U.S.A. 

Expansion of product mix is goal of modernization

The revamping project at Nucor-Yamato Steel in Blytheville, Arkansas, U.S.A., includes measures to increase the production capacity of the No. 2 H- and I-beam rolling mill. The project is also aimed at expanding the range of rolled steel grades, to include new high-strength grades. 

SMS group supplied the mechanical equipment, including three new CCS®-1500 mill stands arranged in tandem as a replacement of the previous UR, E and EF stands, and the X-Pact® automation system. Equipment assembly has already begun as scheduled and will be completed shortly. On-site commissioning is scheduled to start soon. Digital commissioning with the Plug & Work integration test is already underway. The test results will be used later on in the remote-supported commissioning phase, efficiently supporting the on-site commissioning team.

CCS® mill stands

With technological knowhow, mechanical equipment, electrical and automation systems, and digitalization technology supplied from a single source, SMS group has the expertise to assure the success of plant revamps and optimizations. Here the future-oriented digital solutions from SMS group, including remote support capabilities, have roved as a key success factor, last but not least in projects to be implemented under challenging conditions.

Nucor-Yamato Steel Company operates two rolling mills in total, with a combined annual capacity of 2.4 tons of finished products. Dr. Thomas Maßmann, Executive Vice President Long Products at SMS group: “With this project, which follows the successful modernization of rolling mill No. 1, we have set the cooperation between Nucor-Yamato Steel and SMS group on an even more solid foundation.”