Company Announcement - TimkenSteel produces blooms on “Jumbo” caster designed by SMS group for wide range of steel grades. TimkenSteel has successfully commissioned its vertical continuous caster in Canton, Ohio, U.S.A. The first heat was successfully cast in 2014. TimkenSteel is presently ramping up production to full capacity. The new facility features special equipment for casting high-quality blooms. This vertical-type caster has been designed to process a wide range of steel grades, including plain, low-alloyed and high-strength carbon steels, Mo-, Cr- and Ni-alloyed tool steels as well as high-performance bearing steels.

The caster was designed, manufactured and supplied by SMS Concast. It has an annual production capacity of one million tons of special steel grades. This vertical caster is the heart of a quarter-billion dollar investment by TimkenSteel in its Faircrest Steel Plant. The caster measures 80 meters from the top of the ladle turret down to the foundations in the basement. The “Jumbo” caster is designed to produce for two bloom sizes: 460 x 610 millimeters and 280 x 430 millimeters.

SMS Concast AG is a company of the SMS group which, under the roof of the SMS Holding GmbH, consists of a group of global players in machinery and plant construction in steel and nonferrous metals processing. Its workforce of more than 13,800 employees generates sales worldwide totaling EUR 3.5 billion. “In combination with the new ladle treatment station, the caster will not only boost the production capacity of the Faircrest plant by 25 percent. It will also facilitate the production of a wider range of large-diameter bars,” explains SMS Concast CEO Luis Hernandez. The unique design requirements and the exacting process variables asked for very close collaboration between the international teams of TimkenSteel and SMS Concast throughout the entire project time.

Currently, the engineering teams of TimkenSteel and SMS are preparing hot commissioning of the plant. “We aim to gradually ramp up production to 60 percent over the course of 2015 and to reach full capacity by the middle of 2016,” says Tom Moline, Vice President of Manufacturing at TimkenSteel. “The quality of the blooms produced so far exceeds our expectations. The caster will increase not only our capacity, but also our efficiency.”