The Light Section
Mill
The Light Section Mill was installed and commissioned in 1995.
Built in a building leased from British Steel, for a capital cost
of £10m, it incorporates a high degree of automation. The
complete mill, including electrical and automatic control
equipment was supplied by Danieli & Co SpA. The mill is rated
at 35 t.p.h. and has a maximum finishing speed of 12 m/s.
 Furnace and Billet Handling
Billets of 115, 120 or 140 cross-section - 13m long are loaded
onto a transfer bank, and sheared into 3.25m lengths, and charged
into the 35 t.p.h. Coke Oven Gas fired pusher furnace in two rows
for heating up to a rolling temperature of 1150° C.
Roughing Mill
The Roughing Mill is comprised of a 3 high stand, which
reduces the billet in 7 passes to a 46mm square for entry into
the Continuous Mill.
 Continuous Mill
The 10 stand continuous mill is a horizontal/vertical
configuration, with the last three stands being convertible. All
stands are a housingless cartridge type to enable quicker roll
changing.
Flying shears are installed after the Intermediate Mill and
after the Finishing Mill. A length optimisation facility can be
applied to both shears.
 Cooling Bank
The 48m x 12m walking beam cooling bank is equipped with
hydraulic apron discharge onto the bank and layer forming and
indexing equipment at the exit side of the bank.
Straightener
A 10 roll stop/start multi-strand straightener complete with
entry pinch roll, and guiding equipment is installed prior to the
cold shear to enable angles to be straightened prior to shearing.
 Cold Shear
A 300 tonne reciprocating cold shear with 900mm blade
width enables customer lengths from 4.0mm to 6.2m to be cut prior
to automatic stacking.
Automatic Stacker
The high speed non-magnetic stacker is the first installation
of its type and allows 2t bundles to be produced in all sections
to match mill throughput. Following stacking, the bundles are
wire tied and deposited onto a transfer bank directly into the
CMB Warehouse.
Automation
The high level of automation and control is achieved by the
installation of individual PLC's for the Furnace, Roughing Mill,
Continuous Mill, Shears, Straightener and Stacker. These are then
linked by an Ethenet Network and communication at the MMI is via
PC's installed in the two control pulpits.
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