Major investments at the NLMK Clabecq mill have boosted output and quality
Major technological developments and process improvements throughout the mill are paving the way for the new Quard 500 wear material and the Quend 960 structural steel. The very hard Quard 500 wear resistant steel features a nominal hardness of 500 Brinell and is aimed at applications in mining and quarrying where components are exposed to high abrasion. NLMK Clabecq will deliver this steel in thicknesses ranging from 4-40mm. With minimum yield strength of 960 MPa, the Quend 960 material is a very high quality steel grade suited to duties in the telescopic booms of mobile cranes or telehandlers.
The NLMK Clabecq abrasion resistant steels and high yield strength steels are said to have successfully passed all the cutting, bending, machining and welding tests. The company claims the steels feature superior surface finish, tight thickness tolerances, excellent flatness and consistent homogeneity. These benefits have all been helped by the layout of the NLMK Clabecq rolling line with its four-high rolling mill and a four-stand continuous finishing mill, as well as the new quenching and tempering (Q&T) unit. The Q&T line of NLMK Clabecq is the result of a €100 million investment and was commissioned in 2011. This is equipped with the latest heat treatment and levelling technologies, with optimised control of key parameters ibncluding processing temperature and type of cooling. The quenching and the tempering of rolled plates are performed to modify the internal structure of steel, giving the mechanical properties required in function of the application such as; hardness, yield strength, tensile strength, elongation. Using two separate levelers, NLMK Clabecq says it is able to supply flat steels with to the highest standards and hopes to produce up to 100,000tonnes of Q&T steel plates in 2013.
