Timken Latrobe Steel has named Friedrich Kocks Gmbh &Co., Hilden, Germany, to carry out the rolling mill modernization it announced last summer. The new equipment will be installed and commissioned in 2004.
Kocks reports the modernization involves installing a four-stand, 500-mm reducing/sizing block, and updating the existing 370-mm and 290-mm three-roll blocks. The latter effort will eliminate the mill's two-high stands from No. 5 to No. 13.
The modernized mill will offer an expanded range of product dimensions. In their redesigned state, the 370 and 290 mm blocks will be capable of rolling 5.6 to 37.3 mm rounds. The new, 500-mm three-roll RSB will roll "pre-round" feedstock for the 370 mm block and finished bar from 40 to 76.2 mm diam.
According to Kocks, "The quality and productivity improvements to the rolling mill will enhance the capabilities of Timken Latrobe Steel of rolling high-alloyed specialty steels and super alloys with very close tolerances."
To complement the new mill equipment a new Kocks CNC-controlled roll turning lathe has also been included in the scope of supply for the mill’s roll shop.