Hot stuff: Wire sawing in the furnace
Modernising the ladle was the task for EDT EURODIMA machines.
Already for decades, the VOEST Alpine in Linz is the leader in the steel industry. The Linz-Donawitz-process (L.D.-process) is an oxygen steelmaking process, for producing steel by converting high-carbon pig iron into low-carbon steel.
In simple terms, the L.D. converter is charged with liquid pig iron and a cooling agent, and oxygen is blown into the iron melt with a movable water-cooled lance for about 10 to 20 minutes. This ignites the carbon dissolved in the steel and burns it to form carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, so that it exhausts or can be adhered by added lime in the liquid slag. Then, the chalybeate bath is parted off with a temperature of more than 1,600 °C, and the slag is poured off over the converter seam. The chalybeate bath or steel is further processed according to the needs.
For modernisation of the system, the VOEST Alpine had to remove the foundations of the funace’s ladle 7. New foundations and a new ladle had to be set up. This modernisation of the LD-3 steel mill part was done by dint of EDT EURODIMA wire saws. The project’s tight time planning forced the wire saw works to be done in the time frame of 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. of the following day.
The subcontractor DIMAS Linz had used three newest models of the wire saw machines S12, featuring the advantageous pneumatic units. With the wire saws, two cuts with 10.2 m² and 2,808.73 cm² steel were done between 9.30 p.m. and 6.00 a.m. Then, two cuts with 6.9 m² and 1,919.56 cm² were conducted within 5:30 hours, from 9.30 p.m. to 3.00 a.m. Again, the EDT EURODIMA diamond wire DS40FBLUE delivered high-performance cuts!
Such a fast realisation was facilitated by the wire saws’ expedient features. The low component weight makes the saw’s setting-up and repositioning very easy. As the latest model was used, the new, maintenance-free pneumatic unit with strap deflexion system provided the perfect wire tensioning – so, the diamond wire is treated with care. The potential speed range can be set variably from 2 to 30 m/sec, and the diamond wire storage for 12 plus 4 m can handle such comprehensive tasks well and swiftly.
The customer was highly satisfied with the performance and the flexibility of the wire saws.
