South Korea’s Poongsan Corporation ordered a HICON/H2® vertical strand annealer from EBNER for its Ulsan facility, which will be used to bright anneal cold-rolled copper and copper-alloy strip. The strip is heated to a maximum of 1742°F in a gas-fired muffle furnace using high convection in a straight hydrogen process atmosphere. The design of this facility and special strip handling equipment allow ultra-thin strips with thicknesses ranging from 0.05-1.0 mm (0.002-0.04 inches) to be processed at the lowest possible strip tension. At a maximum strip width of 660 mm (26 inches), an annual throughput of up to 66,000 tons can be achieved.

EBNER was chosen because of the environmentally friendly design. Pre-cleaning is done simply with hot water and little or no post-rinsing is needed. EBNER’s scope of supply includes the inlet and outlet strip handling components, strip accumulator, a hot-water degreaser for pre-cleaning, the complete furnace section with a jet cooler, a rinse and passivation system, the utility supply and the electrical control center with a process-control system.