Close co-operation between Italian plant builder Danieli and Masteel has resulted in the Chinese steelmaker being lauded as the first to produce BB7 beam-blank section measuring 1,300mm wide with 510mm tall flanges and 140mm web,weighing almost 2.7 ton/m

The steel mill, in Anhui province was out of action for two months because of the COVID-19 pandemic and restarted in December 2019 when the caster reached maximum productivity of 97 tons/hr per strand during the first cast, claims Danieli.

Plant startup was supported by Danieli personnel operating on-site and from Danieli's technological offices using remote connections and advanced tools such as Q-SPACE.

The new, two-strand 12-m-radius continuous casting machine can also produce BB5 beam blanks measuring 900mm x 510mm x130 mm; 1,030mm x 440mm x130mm BB6 beam blanks, and a small slab 550mm x 280 mm in twin-mould configuration.

According to Danieli, the twin-mould configuration permits production of a lighter mini-slab section without loss of productivity, casting four slabs simultaneously on two strands, which maintains a compact machine design reducing CapEx and OpEx.

Several steel grades already have been produced, including micro-alloyed and fine-grain steels, obtaining good product quality and meeting the strict dimensional design tolerances since the first heat, Danieli claims.