Siemens increases productivity of electric arc furnace of Çolakoğlu by twelve percent

Final acceptance certificate issued only four days after the first heat.

At the beginning of August, the Turkish steel producer Çolakoğlu Metalurji A.S. gave Siemens VAI Metals Technologies the final acceptance certificate for the modernization of electric arc furnace no. 1 in the Gebze Plant, just four days after the first heat. Being already one of the most productive electric arc furnaces in the world before modernization, its performance has been significantly improved once again. Electrical active power input has been increased by eight percent, while the electrical energy consumption has been reduced by six percent at the same time, without increasing the fossile energy comsumption. This has boosted the overall productivity of the electric arc furnace by twelve percent without any change in the tapping weight.

Çolakoğlu produces its steel in a Siemens VAI Simetal Ultimate electric arc furnace operating since January 2007. The furnace was originally designed for a charge volume of 250 tons with a two bucket charge operation. In the mean time the furnace was operated with a tapping weight of 315 tons which led to an increased cycle time with more than two scrap buckets charge due to higher tap weight and scrap availability with lower density.

The modernization project involved renewing a large part of the mechanical equipment of the electric arc furnace. This included the lower and upper shells, gantry, lifting columns and furnace cover. These measures increased the volume of the shell by around 20 percent, but kept the tapping weight constant. The furnace can now again be charged with just two buckets and produces over 2,5 million tons of steel per year. New current conducting electrode arms for electrodes of up to 800 millimeters in diameter have also been installed. This modernization allowed to increase the electrical active power input by eight percent while reducing electrical energy consumption by six percent.

Another special feature of this project was the unusually short implementation time. The new equipment was installed in only 20 days in July 2011. The first heat took place on August 1 and Çolakoğlu promptly issued the final acceptance certificate on August 5.

Çolakoğlu Metalurji A.S. runs an electric steel plant in Gebze, in the west of Turkey. The main products of the plant are billets, most of which are used for producing reinforcing steel rods, and slabs for further processing in the hot rolling mill. While maintaining billet production at the same level, the modernization of the electric arc furnace now provides enough raw steel for Çolakoğlu to expand its production of flat steel.

Further information about solutions for steel works, rolling mills and processing lines is available at: http://www.siemens.com/metals

A photo supplements this press release. Please see: http://www.siemens.com/mt-picture/IMT201110382

(Çolakoğlu Metalurji A.S. steel works in Gebze, Turkey. Electric arc furnace no. 1, modernized by Siemens, is one of the most productive in the world).

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The Metals Technologies Business Unit (Linz, Austria), part of the Siemens Industry Sector, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of plant construction and engineering in the iron and steel industry as well as in the flat rolling segment of the aluminum industry. The Business Unit offers a comprehensive product and service portfolio for metallurgical plants and equipment as well as integrated automation and environmental solutions covering the entire lifecycle of plants. For more information, visit www.siemens.com/metals

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