Immediately after the completion of a new HPH bell type annealing plant, the Chinese company Liuzhou Iron & Steel Co has awarded a contract for an extension of the plant to LOI Thermprocess GmbH a company of LOI Italimpianti Tenova.

In phase II, a further six bases and three heating hoods are to be supplied to Liuzhou. The furnaces will be designed for annealing stacks weighing up to 120 tonnes with heights up to 5,400 mm and coil outer diameters of 2,050 mm. Steel qualities from CO to DDQ are to be treated, as well as micro-alloyed steels.

The heating hoods are to be gas-fired and equipped with on-off control and process firing systems. LOI Italimpianti Tenova scope of supplies includes also the Siemens S7-300 PLC control system and an advanced ProView control computer system.

Installation work on the new HPH bell-type annealing plant is to be completed by mid-2010.