PRODUCT DESIGN : Steel

Steel is a compound of iron (Fe) and Carbon (C), which often also added the element chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni), Vanadium (V), Molybdaen (Mo) and others to get certain properties desired on the application in the field, such as anti-corrosion properties, heat resistance, high temperature resistant. Compared to other types of metals (eg Aluminium, Copper, etc.) then the iron / steel is the material most widely produced in the world today. Statistics show that 92% of the world is the use of metallic iron / steel. In 1998, production Rohstahl / raw steel (raw steel) amounting to 750 million tonnes. Because of the large market share of this steel, the advanced countries in the steel industry are competing to create a new engineering-engineering in the production process. The goal is to get good quality steel with a relatively cheap price. One of the important intermediate product is steel plate (strip, plate, sheet) with a wide variety of thicknesses. Steel plates are widely used as a raw material for production of car body of a car, train, to kitchen utensils. Conventional process of manufacturing steel plates are usually as follows: The first time, liquid steel cast by the method Strangguss / continuous casting. From here the obtained results in the form of steel bars (slabs) with a thickness of 150 to 320 mm. The next process is the thinning of the thickness with a rolling mill in order to obtain a thin slab 2 to 20 mm. One way of simplification of production is to create a continuous casting installation capable of producing steel with a thickness below 150-320 mm. Since 1980, has successfully cast steel bar with a thickness below 25 mm (eg CPR method). Thus could be savings in the process of rolling. Since these fifteen years the Institute for metal forming (IBF), RWTH Aachen University of Technology, Germany in cooperation with Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG (TKS) tried to do a new breakthrough in the production of strips (thin steel plates). This new breakthrough has actually only dream of long ago by Sir Henry Bessemer in 1891. Experts from the British steel has even patented the design and installation of thin steel-making process known as "double-roller process." In this principle, liquid steel cast in between two rollers (cylinders) water-cooled, rotating in opposite directions. The thickness of steel plates produced depends on setting a gap between the two cylinders. Another factor affecting the geometry of the product is spread pressure (pressure) between the slit and also the spread of temperature in the cylinder. The next stage, steel plates passed on cooling (water), then through the cold rolling, and finally rolled up (coiling). With this method, have been successfully cast in steel plates with thickness below 3-4 mm, so only with the process of rolling one step can be obtained steel with thickness as the finished product. The principle of this new double-roller process can be realized in the late 20th century along with the progress of computerization in the field of control and measurement technology. In this world, according to one researcher from TKS AG, this method was developed in Italy, Australia, Japan, and Germany. While the USA would prefer to buy the works from Australia. Until now, each competing with each other, and each other to hide the results have been achieved. TKS AG itself has created an installation in thin strip casting (casting thin steel plates) with a double roller method in one of its factories in the town of Krefeld, Germany. On December 10, 1999 has done a test installation first time, with the result of thick steel plates 3 mm, width 1100 mm, weight 36 ton. The material is cast steel of the type of stainless-steel. Later, Krefeld will produce strip with a thickness of 1.5 to 4.5 mm, width 1050 up to 1350 mm, with a speed of 100 meters per minute