The ‘Iron Man’ moves seamlessly into place

CISDI’s Jiangjin manufacturer in Chongqing has delivered the huge critical upper and lower stands made for a mega 3-roll cross rolling mill.

They will be installed at a Φ720mm tube mill upgrade plant in China.

The mill will have the largest calibre in China, a total weight of around 485 tonnes and a total height of around ten metres.

Its complex equipment, which looks like a giant iron man, is the most important part of the rolling line. It is designed to produce seamless steel tubes with a specification ranging from Φ273mm to Φ508mm, and achieve an annual 300,000-tonne output.

The ‘iron man’ has been created by CISDI Equipment Co’s vast expertise in technology, rivet welding, machining, assembly and quality control, and many hours of labour.

By closely monitoring the manufacturing flows from rivet welding to machining and assembly, the team ensured all schedules and quality targets were met.

Welding and machining procedures were skillfully completed in the face of heatwaves in the Chongqing region and onsite welding preheating temperatures reaching over 150 deg.C.

Other difficulties to overcome included the tilting of huge pieces of equipment and tuning the eccentric gravity centre for manufacturing.    

To smooth the assembly process for the giant equipment, preparations were made a month beforehand. Reliable, precise and safety-conscious solutions were exactingly planned by the product design, HSE and shop teams. This ensured the successful lifting of a 150-tonne upper stand and tilting it by 90 degrees at an elevated position.

The auxiliary facility’s assembly and painting teams kept on-target with every task.

The delivery team made their transportation plans for the two massive stands at the beginning of the project after consulting with multiple carriers to select the correct truck and route, draft a barrier removal plan and apply for transport permits.  

The entire manufacture and delivery at CISDI Equipment Co. was precisely organised and implemented and the giant equipment reached the steel plant safely.

The 3-roll cross mill stands are being installed at a Chinese steel plant. Manufactured by CISDI, they feature the largest calibre of their kind in China.

The lower stand of the 3-roll cross mill, being loaded onto a truck before heading to the steel plant