Rolling Mill

Ultra-Flexible Rail Mill

Rolling Mill

The existing rolling mill was commissioned in the beginning of 2006 and was built as a completely new facility. The worldwide most modern technologies have been applied to produce solely high value rails (no other rolled products). The experts of voestalpine Schienen have also essentially participated in the conceptual stage of the new mill and have actively accompanied the entire installation in order to ensure the outstanding performance of the facility.

Our philosophy, to focus in all our activities on the creation of customer benefit, has been sustainably implemented also in this large scale investment. The new rolling mill represents the completion of a unique high-performance value added chain from the division-own steel plant up to the just-in-time supply logistics.

The blooms are introduced into a walking beam furnace, where they are heated to rolling temperature. Then the bloom is pre-rolled in a breakdown-mill to a leading pass section depending on the rail section. The remaining conversion to rails happens on the finishing line through a reduction sequence of several steps.

The pass lubrication used in old rolling mills is no longer required, which is beneficial for the environment. As a result of most modern technologies we achieve such a high dimensional precision that otherwise usual section tolerances are substantially under-run. The roll change is also highly automated, allowing to change a section in the shortest time. This is the reason why we call our mill the Ultra-Flexible Rail Mill (UFR).

An automated hot stamping machine is located prior to the cooling bed roller table. This aggregate embosses the mill mark, i.e. the name of the rail, the bar number and the heat number into the web of each rail, at defined intervals.

The new facility for the heat treatment of the rails is located between the rolling table and the walking beam cooling bed. The process of in-line hardening of the rail head was developed in Donawitz and is now known throughout the world as HSH^® (Head Special Hardened) process and protected by patents. With the completely new high-tech unit which was installed 2009 on the basis of our own protected knowhow, voestalpine is expanding its position as the leading producer of heat treated premium rails worldwide – to the lasting benefit of rail infrastructure managers.

Finally the rails are placed on a walking beam cooling bed that is 125 m long and 18 m wide. At the end of the walking beam cooling bed they are transported to a roller table and from there to the roller straightener. This consists of two parts, an eight spindle horizontal roller straightener followed by a seven spindle vertical roller straightener. Using a manipulator, the cooled rail is introduced vertically at its rolled length into the roller straightener and straightened over its entire length in one step.

Our straightening geometry chosen - i.e. the diameter of the rolls and the distance between the leveling rolls - was determined using the experience of decades and assures that the leveled rails are not only straight and even, but also have extremely low residual stresses.

After the roller straightener the finishing area begins, where the rail is prepared for delivery.