Shougang Jingtang has requested SMS Siemag of Germany to erect two electrolytic tinning lines with soluble anodes for the annual production of altogether 475,500 tonnes of high quality tinplate.

Both lines are to be put into operation at the end of 2013 on Caofedian Island an artificially constructed island off the coast of the Chinese province of Hebei.

The lines have identical equipment and each has two pay off reels in the entry section, followed by a welder and a trimming shear as well as by a vertical strip accumulator. The process section commences with an electrolytic cleaning section, a tension leveller and an electrolytic pickling section. The tin layer is then applied in a total of nine vertical coating cells.

Downstream of the strip dryer is a reflow unit, in which the coating is heated inductively to above the melting point of the tin, thus providing the strip with a shiny surface and forming an alloy layer which enhances the corrosion protection and the adhesion of the tin layer. This is followed by a passivation unit with a dryer. The exit section contains another vertical strip accumulator, an inspection stand, a flying shear and two tension reels.

With an annual production of 237,500 tonnes each, both lines will be used for providing the materials T1 to T5 and DR7 to DR10 with tin coatings between 1.0 and 11.2 gram per square meters. The width of the strips treated here may vary between 700mm and 1,280mm and it is possible to process strip gages of 0.12mm to 0.55 mm.

The strip speed in the process section can reach a maximum of 600 meter per minute and, in the entry and exit sections up to 750 meter per minute.

The material processed in the two electrolytic tinning lines is supplied from a continuous tinplate annealing line with a reduction and skin pass mill and an offline reduction and skin pass mill. The order for the supply of these facilities was already placed with SMS Siemag at the beginning of 2011.