High-quality bar products for the US market

Nucor Steel Kankakee, Inc., based in Illinois, U.S.A., has chosen SMS group (www.sms-group.com) as the primary technology supplier for its new 500,000 tons per year merchant bar mill. The new facility will be installed at its existing bar mill located in Bourbonnais, Illinois, with production scheduled to commence in 2019.

This plant will be designed to produce a wide range of merchant bar products to complement the existing product portfolio, including equal and unequal angles in a range from 3 to 7 inches, channels from 3 to 10 inches, flats up to 12 inches, rounds up to 3 5/8 inches and rebar from no. 14 to no. 18. The roll pass design developed by SMS group will allow the mill to use a wide variety of starting billet sizes, ranging from 6.25 inches square to 5.5 inches x 11.5 inches.

The new merchant bar mill supplied by SMS group will consist of 16 total stands, including five dual-drive convertible stands, all equipped with quick-changing device. It will also be equipped with three shears along the mill, with provisions for automatic sampling collection, and an automatic sampling area at the cooling bed.

Additional highlights will be a multi-line straightening machine with automatic bar positioning and feeding device and automatic roll changing system, as well as a 700 tons cold shear. Two cold saws will have a capability to use either abrasive or metallic blades. Maximized flexibility will be reached thanks to an 80 foot automatic magnetic stacker with four independent 20 foot sections. The new generation high-precision profile gauge MEERgauge^® with surface defect detection capability allows Nucor Steel Kankakee a contactless precision measurement for optimal bar production processes.