Chinese speciality steel manufacturer Walsin Lihwa Corporation, founded in 1966, has placed an order with Friedrich KOCKS GmbH for a Reducing Block 500++/4.
Walsin employs around 4,000 people and operates 14 manufacturing plants in Taiwan and mainland China, as well as in Malaysia, Indonesia and the USA.
According to KOCKS, the Walsin Lihwa Corporation has a long history with KOCKS, having installed the very first KOCKS Reducing and Sizing Block with one input drive shaft (RSB 370/10) in 1991 in addition to a 500 Intermediate Block.
The new KOCKS Reducing Block with four stand positions will be installed in the roughing train of Walsin’s 300kt/yr wire rod and bar mill in Yenshui, Tainan, southern Taiwan where stainless and speciality steel grades are produced.
The new block will be located between the planetary High Reduction Mill (HRM) and the existing KOCKS 500 Intermediate Block. Limited space meant a detailed investigation and the development of an advanced implementation plan to integrate the block and minimise mill shutdown time.
The new Reducing Block will enable the company to optimise its overall reduction in the HRM according to various material grades.
KOCKS claims that the additional reduction capability on an overall length of roughly 5 metres of the 3-roll Reducing Block means that the rolling process can be harmonised for new and advanced special steel grades.
Larger billets can be used after the revamping, which leads to higher productivity, higher yield and improved mill economy which, claims KOCKS, assures a quick return of investment.