SteelNews.com Article
ThyssenKrupp’s Duisburg-Bruckhausen Meltshop Reaches Production Milestone
Aug. 30, 2010 ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe’s BOF meltshop in Duisburg-Bruckhausen produced on August 25 its 150 millionth tonne of crude steel.
“Our core meltshop equipment dates from 1969, making it 41 years old. But by continuously upgrading, we have kept it state-of-the-art, in particular with regard to meeting environmental standards,” said Heinz Liebig, head of crude steel production at ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe in Duisburg.
Two 380-tonne capacity converters form the basis for steelmaking at Bruckhausen. The meltshop was one of the first to be equipped with converter gas and dust recirculation systems. “Our facility in Bruckhausen is one of the few oxygen steelmaking shops able to produce high-silicon electrical steels as well as the usual carbon steels,” said Liebig. “Per year, more than 3 million tonnes of molten steel are cast into up to 2.6-meter-wide slabs on the continuous caster and then cut to the lengths and widths required by customers.”
The meltshop has also been supplying crude steel to the company’s casting/rolling line for the past 11 years.
The hot metal from the blast furnace is delivered to the Bruckhausen BOF meltshop in torpedo ladles and then processed in several steps to produce steel of the required quality.
Sixty percent of the molten steel is cast into slabs on the continuous casters. These slabs are supplied to customers of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe for processing on their rolling mills. Forty percent of the molten steel is supplied to the casting/rolling line.