Siempelkamp to supply 60-MN upsetting and piercing press to Rothe Erde GmbH
ThyssenKrupp Rothe Erde GmbH ordered a new upsetting and piercing press for ring blanks from Siempelkamp Maschinen- und Anlagenbau GmbH, to be installed that the manufacturer's Dortmund Works, in Germany. Siempelkamp indicated the machinery would be delivered to the plant site and installed during summer and fall 2017, with start-up forecast for January 2018.
No value was announced for the project.
Samiron Mondal, Siempelkamp managing director for Metal Forming, commented: “ThyssenKrupp Rothe Erde GmbH has been our ring supplier for many years. Now, … for the first time (it) has become our customer. The high degree of automation of our press concept was one of the convincing aspects in this project.”
Rothe Erde is the world’s largest producer of slewing bearings — the rotating elements installed in large machines like cranes or windmills, to effect slow movement of heavy loads, often in a horizontal plane. The company also is a large-volume producer of seamless rolled rings, turntables, and structural elements.
The highly automated, 6,000-mt (est. 60 MN) press is planned to 4,000-mt press to produce ring blanks weighing 400 kg to 25 mt, in diameters up to 2,500 mm and heights of up to 830 mm. It will supply ring banks a ring-rolling mill already in operation at the Dortmund Works, and the higher press force capability will allow Rothe Erde to produce larger ring blanks in higher-strength materials.
Siempelkamp will be responsible for the entire machine (including all peripherals) and process design. In operation, the slug and the scale will be automatically removed from the ingot, so manual functions of previous process designs (e.g., placing of charcoal and the removal of scale from the lower shifting table) are unnecessary.
The press will feature two swivel arms equipped with hydraulically actuated removal devices. As such, it will be not be necessary to use fluxes (e.g., charcoal), so that there will be no undesired carburization of the pressed parts. Notably, dust emissions at the press will be minimized, too.
Siempelkamp also will supply service cranes for changing the press punch and will integrate a robotic manipulator to the control system. The manipulator will load the ingots into the press.
The cooling and lubrication system for the pre-punching tool are included with the overall supply.
The upsetting and piercing press will be guided by the Siempelkamp-authored Prod-IQ® software, an intelligent control program for both production data management and quality control. Also, a Data Acquisition Handling and Monitoring System (“DAHMOS”) developed by Siempelkamp will be integrated into the new press. This is a database designed to provide targeted process analyses, taking into account all process-relevant parameters and allowing for early and precise detection of production problems.
