URM-Write Up

Introduction:

Universal Rail Mill (URM) of Bhilai steel plant is having the capacity to roll
1.2 MT of rails under the expansion of 7.5 MT. URM has adopted the
world's best technologies to produce the world's longest rolled rails. The
technology providers for URM are:

• Universal rolling mill - SMS MEER Germany

• Reheating furnace - Andritz USA

• Rail welding line -RAIL TECH France

• CNC machine - Hankook (SK)

FURNACE:

URM incorporates the walking beam furnace of capacity 230Ton/hr

with mathematical modelling level-2 system, which has various
advantages over the pusher type furnace like metal sticking, lesser scale
formation, thermal imagine cameras, etc. The defect free quality bloom of
size 335X300mm having a Wt/Mtr of 779Kg and another size of
340X320mm having wt/mtr of 840kg.

The bloom charged to the reheating furnace by crane on to the

charging bed infornt of the reheating furnace from the cold charging bed’s
the bloom transfer to the reheating furnace through roller table. The a
weighing scale is accomidated in the charging roller table. Reheating of
blooms in the furnaces is done to desired temperature by mixed gas.
Blooms are received from SMS-II as per supply program.

DESCALAR:
The furnace discharge roller table will feed the RED HOT BLOOM to a
high-pressure water descaler. The starting material is descaled by means of
high-pressure (water) through the flat jet nozzles made up of stainless steel
with a pressure of 220 Bar. The descaled bloom is fed to the BD-1 by
opening the SWITCH which is present just above the Descaler on the roller
table. Due to this Switch Pipe a lot of cobbles were occurring. So, later on
Switch Pipe was removed to avoid Smooth functioning of tilter.

MILL AREA:
• URM has adopted the universal rolling technology i.e. rolling from all the
four directions simultaneously due to this the advantages are
 URM-Write Up
"Reduction of inner stresses, better adjusting possibilities of the mill
stands with regard to rail section tolerances, Drastic reduction of roll
wear due to the reduced friction between rail and rolls and Good surface
finish".

URM can roll Symmetrical flat bottom rails (45 Kg/M, 52 Kg/M, UIC 60,
45 E-1, 136RE14 (68 kg), 75 Kg/M) and Asymmetrical rails Zu 1-60.

 Salient features of the Mill

o High Mill availability by the provision of quick roll changing
o Inhouse computer aided roll pass design
o Low maintenance and long service life
The Rolling consists of BD-1, BD-2 and Reversing Tandam mill having
UR, Edger and UF each in compact arrangement .

BD-1 and BD-2 is having electromaechanical screwdown of the top

roll and automatic unjamming device for unjamming, over load
protection and Roll force maesurement. Tandam mill with fully
hydraulic screwdown system and hydraulic axial shifting of bottom
roll. SMS- technological system for dynamic control of screw down
system. The metal flow in URM is as follows:
 URM-Write Up
Break Down stand-1
Manipulators in front of and behind BD-1 guide the material to the
roll groove according to the pass schedule. If necessary, the starting
material will be tilted by means of incorporated hook-type tilters. For
UIC60 there are 7 passes in BD-1, the bloom will be tilted in its 3rd, 5th, 7th
pass. The approx. length after 7th pass is 22-23Mts. After final pass, the
material is cross Transferred and fed to BD-2 stand. Changing of rolls shall
be done when the passes are worn out .

Break Down stand-2

Manipulators in front of and behind BD-2 guide the material to the
roll groove according to the pass schedule. If necessary, the starting
material will be tilted by means of Grip-type tilters.
For UIC60, there are 5 passes in BD-2, the bloom will be tilted in its 2nd,
3rdpass. The approx. length after 5th pass is 58-60mts. Behind the crop
saw the material will be transferred to the universal tandem mill (TM=
UR+E+UF). Changing of rolls shall be done when the passes are worn out
TANDEM Mill (UR, EDGER, UF)
The universal rolling will be done in universal stands which will be in
operation simultaneously. Rails will be rolled in universal mode. First
universal mill stand UR operates under reversing conditions, whereby
the second universal mill stand UF is only used for the final pass. Since
two different edging passes are required, the edging grooves of the
horizontal edger in between the two universal mill stands are shifted
after the second run. Universal Edger stand will be shifted To and Fro to
align the centre line with a particular grove. In universal mill stands, the
entire rail section is simultaneously and harmoniously shaped by both
horizontal and vertical rolls. The cantering device in front of UR is
integrated with Descaling nozzles. It descales the material before
entering the UR stand.
For UIC60,
 In first pass material passes through UR+E
 In second pass metal passes through UR
 In third pass metal passes through UR+E+UF, so technically TM
has 6 passes.

STAMPING AND PROFILE MEASUREMENT (TBK)

Heat No. Stamping on rail is done downstream the TM in front of
cross transfer to cooling bed. Cross transfer has the turning device to
turn the rail to upright position for head hardening (used if needed).
Then Rail passes through the contact-free continuous profile gauge
measuring unit
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HOT SAW, HEAD HAREDNING AND COOLING BED

Both the ends of rail are cut by hot saw-2,3 to the required length and
samples are collected(if needed). The rail passes through Head-hardening
& selective cooling system (these can be used if needed) and then enters to
the walking beam cooling bed roller table. Here the rail undergoes Pre-
cambering (bending) process and it is cooled to 60degrees by air blast fans.
After cooling of rail it is shifted to cooling bed exit roller table.

The Temperature of the Bloom at different are as follows:

Temperatures
i. Furnace drop out temperatures approx. 1250 C°
ii. Exit temperatures BD1 approx. 1150 to 1100°C
iii. Exit temperatures BD2 approx. 1050 to 1000°C
iv. Exit temperature Universal Tandem Mill approx. 950 to 900°C
v. Cooling bed approx. 800 to 750°C
Entry side
Approx. 60°C Exit side
vi. Straightening machine max. 60°C

Rail Straightening
From the cooling bed the cooled rail (<60degree temp.) is shifted on
to the cooling bed exit roller table. Cooling bed exit roller table feeds the
rail to the Horizontal straightening machine. The rail manipulator arranged
in front of the horizontal CRS straightener turns up the rail (if necessary)
and feeds the rails reliably into the horizontal straightening machine. The
rail after passing through the horizontal straightening machine passes
through the vertical straightening machine

Test centre-1, 2
After straightening the rail enters the cross transfer area and gets
transferred to the test centre roller tables. The carbide saw (1,3) cuts the
front end of the rail if necessary
1. Carbide saw-1 for test centre-01
2. Carbide saw-3 for test centre-02
In Test centre the rail passes through
 Automated Rail cleaning
 Waviness Testing Device
 Profile gauge measurement system
 Eddy current testing
 Ultra sonic (UT)Testing
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 Marking system
If there are any defects the marking system marks the specific defected
area on the rail. After marking the rail passes through the carbide saw(2,4)
where the tail end of the rail is cut (if necessary)

Visual inspection-1, 2, 3,4,5,6.

Behind the test centre the rail is transported onto one of the six roller
tables for visual inspection. In visual inspection the rail gets marked.
Behind each visual inspection line the carbide saw (carbide saw No. 5 – 10)
located cuts the rail into short length/ finished length as per markings (All
saws have a combined crop end removal system with a steel plate
conveyor). If the entire rail is having defect then the rail is again sent to the
cross transfer area in-front of test center-1,2 through a separate roller table
( rejection roller table)

6.5 Gag press and transfer of rails.

The rail then passes through the gag press where the front and tail end of
the rail gets pressed to achieve the required straightness. All the higher
length rails(26&Above) gets shifted to RWL( with the help of feeding
Telphers ) . The smaller length rails are shifted to the shipping area
through cross transfer bed (it has 2 sawing and drilling machines). In
shipping area the rails are handled with the help of magnetic cranes.

 URM has the headhardning facility and selective cooling system to

increase the rail life.
 URM produces the 130 mts finished rails and Rail wilding line of URM
welds the finished rails from URM and dispatches 260M rails to Indian
Railways.
 There is future scope for expension of RWL to supply 520M rails to
Indian Railways.
 The following are the milestones of URM & RWL
o 25th March 2016 : Reheating Furnace Light up and Hot trial of
Breakdown Mill - 1
o 31st March 2016 : First 260m rake dispatched from Rail
Welding Line, URM
o 2nd July 2016 : Hot trials of Breakdown Mill - 2.
o 9th August 2016 : Hot trials of Tandem Mill.
o 13th August 2016 : Hot trials of Tandem Mils and Rail rolled up
to cooling bed.
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o 29th August 2016 : CNC EDM Template Cutting Machine
inaugurated
o 11th October 2016: First rail straightened URM Rail straightener.
o 19th December 2016: First rail tested in NDT Test Centre - 2 and
inspected by M/s RITES
o 31st October 2017: First rail tested through NDT Test Centre - 1.

The commercial production from URM has started in the

month of Dec'16. Since then till date URM has ramped up the
production to 50% of the rated capacity in spite of all
difficult situations like lack of OEM support & expertise, Mill
breakdowns, issues with spares, etc.