Posted on 20 Feb 2014
RH plant from SMS Mevac in operation at Tubos Reunidos
Tubos Reunidos S.L.U., Spain, has successfully put on stream its new RH
plant (Ruhrstahl Heraeus process) supplied by SMS Mevac, Germany
(www.sms-mevac.com).
The plant, with an annual production of 400,000 tons, produces steel
with extremely low levels of inclusions and hydrogen content for the
manufacturing of seamless steel tube.
With this plant, Tubos Reunidos fulfils the increasing demands on steel
cleanness. Via the LF–RH product route, Tubos Reunidos will produce
alloyed steel with low hydrogen content in its EAF steel plant in
Amurrio, close to Bilbao. A convincing feature is the short cycle time
of the metallurgical treatment, which is executed both in the ladle
furnace and the RH plant, with further treatment for cleanness in a
separate ladle treatment station. With a special arrangement of the
plant components, developed specifically for Tubos Reunidos, a short
treatment cycle time of less than 60 minutes is achieved.
The RH plant is one of two plants recently put into operation that make use of the new RH-RockerType?
ladle lifting device developed by SMS Mevac, and the first to use two
ladle transfer cars. With the new lifting device, the ladle is lifted
out of the ladle car for the vacuum treatment. After the treatment, the
second ladle car receives the ladle and takes it to the caster.
Additional benefits of the ladle lifting concept are the short vacuum
suction line and the direct access to the stationary vacuum vessel.
Within this project, SMS Mevac’s supplies included engineering and
supervision services as well as the delivery of key components such as
the ladle lifting system, vacuum vessel, vessel transfer car, vacuum
pump, TOP-burner lance, electrics, instrumentation, and automation.
Further, Tubos Reunidos will receive comprehensive consultation by SMS
Mevac to achieve significantly improved metallurgical results.
