Steel Mills

Castrip and EPS Line Slated for Mexican Mini-Mill

January 27, 2016

Mexican steelmaker, TYASA, plans to build the first Castrip® mill outside of Nucor at its mini-mill in Ixtaczoquitlan. The new facility will have the capability to produce 500,000 tons of thin-gauge, high-strength.

The TYASA steel campus in the state of Veracruz, Mexico is designed to be highly efficiently with environmentally-friendly low emissions. The Simetal EAF Quantum electric arc furnace at Ixtaczoquitlan has an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons and will supply the new Castrip-thin strip casting process. The facility will be able to produce 500,000 tons of thin-gauge, high-strength sheet steel for Mexico’s construction and manufacturing industries.

The new twin roll casting and rolling plant will produce UCS coils up to 1,680mm wide, with gauge ranging between 0.8mm – 1.8mm. The process equipment and technical services for the new facility will be supplied through a consortium comprised of Siemens, IHI and Castrip LLC.

TYASA has ordered a two-cell EPS® Coil Line from The Material Works to process the thin-strip product produced by the Castrip mill. The EPS line, which will employ the latest Version 2.2 technology, will descale hot rolled strip up to 1.9 mm (0.075″) thick and 1830 mm (72″) wide in coils up to 33,100 kg (73,000 lbs.).

The new EPS line, built by Red Bud Industries and specially configured for the Castrip line, consists of a Coil Staging/Loading System, Uncoiler, Peeler/Breaker, entry Crop Shear, Stitcher, the EPS Cells, Strip Dryer, Electrostatic Oiler (used for the occasional requests for oiled EPS), exit Crop Shear, Tension Stand, Recoiler and exit coil staging/packaging area.

The TYASA installation will be the second EPS operation in Mexico. Steel Technologies De Mexico has operated a four-cell EPS Coil Line near Monterrey, Mexico since 2013.

About The EPS Process

The EPS process is an environmentally friendly replacement for acid pickling of hot rolled steel strip developed by The Material Works, Ltd. (TMW) of Red Bud, Illinois, USA. This patented process removes the mill scale (oxide) from the surface of hot rolled steel, imparting a very clean, uniform surface. Unlike acid pickling, the EPS process uses no hazardous substances to accomplish its ‘pickling’ – just ordinary water and fine steel grit – which are recirculated for continuous use. The process also leaves the steel inherently rust resistant, so it does not require the oil film that is applied to acid pickled steel to prevent rusting. See www.epsprocess.com for further details.

The EPS trademark is owned by The Material Works, Ltd. and is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and is used by Red Bud Industries, Inc. under license.
Castrip is a registered trademark of Castrip LLC., a joint venture of Nucor Corporation, BlueScope Steel of Australia and IHI Corporation of Japan.

Startup of the Castrip facility and EPS line is projected for early 2017.

(Source: The Material Works and Castrip LLC)