Minimills for long products

Minimills are part of our DNA. We pioneered the idea of an integrated plant consisting of an electric arc furnace and associated rolling mill – and turned it into reality. Today, SMS minimills consistently deliver the highest performance and shortest downtimes. You’ll always receive innovative, integrated automation solutions designed to boost productivity and reduce your manpower. All this ensures you reap a fast return on your investment.

SMS group offers you complete tailor-made minimill solutions including the latest technological solutions, comprehensive support, integration into existing mills, logistics, electrical, digital, and auxiliaries – everything with cutting-edge technology.

CMT^® technology
Green rebar production becomes reality

Sustainability and lowest carbon footprint with high productivity are the current and future challenges in the steel industry for the production of long products. The CMT^® (Continuous Minimill Technology) process developed by SMS group is an inline endless casting and rolling process designed to reach these goals.
Benefits

Lowest CAPEX: Up to 15% savings, due to its compact design. Flexibility in material charging with scrap, pig iron, HBI/DRI, depending on regional material availability

Lowest OPEX: Up to 55 Euro/t savings thanks to increased material yield due to no-scale formation, minimized crop ends and reheating by Elotherm induction furnace (IHF) before rolling

High yield: 99% total plant yield compared to a conventional rolling technology (up to 97% considering primary/secondary scale losses, crop ends and short bars)

Digitalization: Up to level 4 automation system for planning, control and coordination of the production plant areas. Advanced system connected to human-machine cooperation and sustainability

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Allcharge
Continous charging without preheating

ALLCHARGE is our electric arc furnace designed for the continuous charging of scrap without preheating. This technology addresses current and future environmental limits without compromising productivity and safety.

By avoiding scrap preheating, it helps to limit dioxins, VOC, and CO emissions, while the flat bath operation ensures lower NOx emissions and a reduced impact on the power grid. By decoupling the scrap conveyor from off-gas suction, the ALLCHARGE design enables the charging of 100% DRI from the roof.

Benefits
Billet caster
Custom solutions for all steel grades
Main data

SMS Concast designs highly versatile billet casters, providing greater flexibility in production so that plant operators can react to changing market demands extremely quickly. Together with the development of secondary metallurgy, SMS Concast has sparked a revolution in its advancement of near-net-shape casting technology and paved the way for the further development of many plants in terms of the quality and quantity of their products.

Continuous casting for billets covers both small and medium round sections as well as same-sized rectangular and square sections, the typical size range of billets is 85–200 mm.

Induction heating TMbaR^® thermomechanical rolling for rebars VCC^® Vertical Compact Coiler High-speed delivery system (HSD^®) MEERdrive^® and MEERdrive^®PLUS

Induction heating

The induction heater is positioned before the mill to provide supplementary heating or temperature equalization when required. The induction furnace EloLong is an eco-friendly inductive heating with zero NOx emissions and limited scale formation.
Benefits

Zero NOx emissions and limited scale formation

High power density, fast heating and low scale amount

Selective rolling temperature from bar to bar

Lower furnace temperature: Less gas consumption resulting into longer refractory and burners lifetime. High power density up to 2 MW per coil

Continuous digital control of all modules function

Temperature monitoring for all water-cooled devices, extensive monitoring and diagnostic possibilities

Independent module power-control
TMbaR^® thermomechanical rolling for rebars
Produce cost-effective, high-strength ‘martensite-free’ deformed bars

SMS group has been a pioneer and promoter of the thermomechanical rolling process for decades. Today, a new chapter is being written with the application of this concept to the production of rebars. Thermomechanical rolling of reinforcing bars – known as ‘TMbaR^®’ – offers the advantage of producing fine-grained structural products while reducing the manganese content in the rolled material. The exceptional ductility properties of seismic grades (e.g. HRBF400E) can only be optimized at this level by thermomechanical rolling.
Benefits

Improved weld ability, increase of ductility, and better material homogeneity

Reduction of manganese content to 0.7-0.9 % depending on grade and size (reference HRB 400 grade)

Improvement of yield strength by up to 20 % and tensile strength by up to 15 %

The outlet temperature of the reheating furnace can be reduced to 950 °C for energy saving
VCC^® Vertical Compact Coiler
Torsion-free wounded bar production

The compact coil is a decisive step towards improving the packaging quality of the final product. These coils have preselected dimensions that, thanks to VCC^®, remain the same for all products processed on the same line. At the same time, the compact coil format is ideal for storage, transport, and handling. This is particularly advantageous when the coils are reworked near construction sites where rebar stirrups and other reinforcement structures accumulate, especially in metropolitan areas where space is at a premium.

The compact design of the VCC^® makes it equally suitable for rebuilds and new installations. The outstanding feature is that you can change rolls and roll guides simultaneously within 20 minutes.
Benefits

Torsion-free coils for subsequent cutting and bending lines

Up to 70 % savings in storage and logistics (based on a 2-ton coil weight)

High coil density: 80 % steel, 20 % air

Very compact and good coil shape for a significantly reduced storage space. From 15–17 t/m2 vs traditional wire rod coil 2–2.5 t/m2

Smooth and easy de-coiling operation
High-speed delivery system (HSD^®)

The easiest way to produce deformed bars at high speed. In more than 50 years we raised the bars to cover the distance from Earth to Jupiter…and now on the way back.
Benefits

From 6 to 13 Euro/t savings according to bar size.

Operating speed (8 mm rebar @ 52.5 m/s). Exceeding the 60 m/s speed with VHSD® will be the next step.

From 6.0 mm to 43 mm dia. without any equipment change.

Always one bar per notch (better counting operations).

8,000,000 ton per line (2 drums) without the need for spares due to wear!

Up to 2% increase in material yield by reducing the number of short bars in case of multistrand bar rolling.

5-month fast learning curve for 100% production capacity
MEERdrive^® and MEERdrive^®PLUS
Zero compromises in terms of quality, product tolerances, and flexibility

The MEERdrive^® technology is designed for highest performance and maximum flexibility. The advanced electric and automation concept ensures a reliable and stable synchronization of the individual drives and motors for speeds higher than 120 m/s. The heart of the unique system is the control logic, which is integrated in a standardized, highly dynamic, and modular processing unit. The MEERdrive^® synchronizer is already used in various other industrial sectors and forms the logical control interface between motor and frequency converter. The MEERdrive^® system is modular and can be applied to any block or combination of blocks, regardless of the number of stands.
Benefits

60 % less roll ring inventory if compared to a conventional block

Reliable of rolling wire rod from 4.5 to 27 mm diameter at a constant speed of 120 m/s (design 140 m/s), entry temperature of 750 °C, product tolerances up to ±0.10 on Ø 5.5 mm and up to 60 % ovality

From 2 to 10 stand-design depending on rolling technology and finished size, total flexibility in roll pass design

The individual drive concept results in lower energy consumption and in a decrease of operating costs of saving approximately 30 % of energy