VDEh Institute of Industrial Researches (Düsseldorf, Germany):

Wendler B., Dr. Eng., Head of the Project, e-mail: barbara.wendler@bfi.de
Kozariszczuk M., Dr. Eng., Head of Dept. of Technological Resources “Liquid Media”

Deutsche Edelstahlwerke GmbH (Hagen, Germany):
Bange S., Production Manager, Pickling & Heat Treatment

The project has displayed that scale washed out from wire coils can be removed using the system of water pulverization under high pressure. However, this method is unavailable for scale that is strongly coupled with substrate and can be used only in combination with chemical pickling. Production testings have displayed that high pressure water pulverization is mostly efficient for wire processing made of corrosion resistant ferrite or austinite steels. The suggested process has the main advantage that it provides decrease of number of operations of double coil pickling. It also opens new possibilities for flexible removal of softened scale via mechanical method. Further development of this technique will be conducted in the framework of HiJetRod Pilot project, granted by the EU Research fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) since July 2016. It will be aimed on decrease of processing time, water and electric power consumption. Steel grades, wire geometric parameters and pickling programs, providing maximal benefits for pickling process with water pulverization technology under high pressure are already determined.

1. Wendler, В. et al: High pressure water descaling for wire rod (HiJet-Rod), final report RFSR-CT-2010-00014, ISBN: 978-92-79-44075-5, DOI: 10.2777/205148, 2015.
2. Bange, S.: Optimization of the descaling process of stainless steel wire rod, wire 2014, Düsseldorf, 7.–11. April 2014.