Tenova Core has been contracted by Gerdau Ameristeel to design and supply a 140-ton/hour walking-beam reheat furnace. The furnace will be installed at Gerdau’s Calvert City, Ky., facility in 2012. It will replace an existing furnace and will be used to efficiently and uniformly heat billets for processing. The furnace will feature a combustion system equipped with Tenova’s TSX low-NOx recuperative burners for reliable temperature uniformity as well as emissions control.

Tenova Core will also design and supply the Level 1 and Level 2 process control and automation systems for the furnace. This project will mark the first installation on a new furnace of Tenova Core’s Level 2 system that includes an advanced model predictive control engine. The new Level 2 system heats the charge at an “optimum cycle” predetermined for each type of material for the complete range of furnace production rates.