Cold rolling mills for stainless steel

Compact and robust, this stand comes with superb rigidity. That makes it ideal for rolling even the hardest material grades, e.g. AISI 200 and 300 stainless steel. You can expect reductions of up to 90 percent.

Furthermore, precisely coordinated mechatronic systems with highly developed actuators, together with control systems for thickness and flatness and via filter systems, ensure efficient production and outstanding strip quality.The MonoBlock is the core component of the single-stand reversing cold mill. We manufacture these mills in modular design. 

SplitBlock stands from SMS group are capable of rolling a large product mix of material grades and thicknesses. Split into an upper and a lower half, the stand opens wider to accommodate larger-diameter work rolls. This design provides easy access during roll changing. It also simplifies the threading procedure.

There are various actuators or control elements for roll-gap setting that ensure the SplitBlock stand can process the whole range of strip qualities. Also featured is a thickness and flatness control system. All rolling parameters are preset by SMS group on the basis of a mathematical model and controlled fully automatically during the rolling process. The mill is manufactured in modular design.

Both as a roughing stand for the thickness reduction of hot-rolled black coils and for the precise finish rolling of cold strip (white coil), this stand concept from the SMS group offers the ideal solution. Key components of 18-HS roll sets for RCMs are slim laterally supported work rolls. They come in diameters of between 120 and 160 millimeters, depending on the mill stand size. What they have in common is that they are all capable of high reductions. With this mill type even AISI 200, 300 and 400-grade unpickled material can be rolled into high-quality finished strip.

All 18-HS mills can come with our CVC^® plus technology. Using the special CVC^® plus roll contour means you can correct more severe flatness defects over a wider range than with other approaches. You also benefit from easy, fast work-roll and intermediate-roll changing.

A tailor-made plant concept that is second to none... economical production of high-quality cold-rolled strip on a continuous 18-HS tandem rolling mill. It is the most cost-effective option, if you aim for an annual capacity of more than 400,000 tons. Compared with using individual reversing mills for large production volumes, a tandem mill means lower investment and operating costs.

First in line here is the continuous entry section. It includes these machines: double pay-off reel, crop shear for the strip head end, welder, strip accumulator, and strip cleaning section. Downstream of that, the tandem mill consists of up to five stands in 18-HS design plus a powerful pinch roll unit on the exit side. Also designed for continuous operation, the runout section features a double tension reel.

All 18-HS mills can come with our CVC^® plus technology. Using the special CVC^® plus roll contour means you can correct more severe flatness defects over a wider range than with other approaches. You also benefit from easy, fast work-roll and intermediate-roll changing.

There are substantial advantages to assembling integrated lines that combine the main process steps rolling, annealing and pickling (IRAPL) in a continuous production flow. The essential elements in the entry section are a pay-off-reel unit, a welding machine, and an entry strip accumulator. Next in line is a tandem mill in 6-high or 18-HS design with up to five stands, a strip cleaning section, another strip accumulator, an annealing furnace with cooling section, and a pickling section with strip accumulator. Finally, the exit end features strip finishing equipment such as a skin pass mill, tension leveler, creep looper, inline inspection area, tension reel, coil strapping, and coil weighing machine.

The next stage after cold-rolling and recrystallization is skin-passing the stainless steel strip. This produces high-gloss surfaces and achieves the desired mechanical strip properties such as deep-drawing strength. Skin- passing is mainly performed on 2-high reversing mill stands. What’s evident today is that customers are increasingly choosing 4-high designs. You can also opt for a combined 2-high and 4-high stand solution.

There are two versions to suit various plant configurations: inline skin-pass mills are integrated in the annealing and pickling line and/or the bright annealing line, while offline mills are installed downstream.