Andritz received an order from Swiss Steel AG for the supply and installation of a new walking-beam furnace with an output of 150 tons/hour for heating continuous-cast billets at the company’s Emmenbrücke plant in Switzerland. Start-up is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2019.

Billets of different dimensions and qualities are heated in the walking-beam furnace and then rolled into wire of different gauges in the rolling line. The heating technology was designed such that scaling and surface decarburization are as low as possible; heat consumption is kept to a minimum in spite of the need for high-temperature uniformity; and the NOx and CO emissions are reduced to the maximum possible extent. A complete cooling plant with a heat-recovery system that makes best use of the residual heat from the waste gas will be supplied to cool the transport system in the furnace.

Swiss Steel AG, an affiliate of Schmolz + Bickenbach AG, is a leading supplier of high-grade steel, engineering steel and free-cutting steel grades.