Alexandria Plant

Production Dept.

Project
Objective
Producing Wire Rod Coils and Rebar with the same Billet Grade.

Plan
1. Find a way to keep the coils final temperature as high as possible.
2. Find Billets Grade which is possible to work for both of Wire Rod and Rebar.
3. Control the Cooling Conveyor Speed.
4. Control the Q.T.B water flow.
5. Control The Finishing Rolling Temperature.

Detailed Explain
1- Final Temperature Conservation

(Fig-1)

According to Fig-1, we need to make use of the Core Temperature for longer time as possible,
or in other hand to make the Tempering Stage time longer. So its suggested to make an
insulated Hoods for the Cooling Conveyor to keep that Tempering Temperature and decrease
the Heat exchange between the bar surface and cooling media.

By: Eng. / A.Anwar

 Alexandria Plant
Production Dept.

(Fig-2)
According to the above linear relation, we should at least conserve the Tempering
Temperature as 850 C. This will be a starting design point for the Insulated Hoods, especially
its insulated layer and type.

Structural Material

Insulation Layer

Guiding Pins

By: Eng. / A.Anwar

 Alexandria Plant
Production Dept.

Estimated Hoods Calculations;

According to Heat Transfer Principles;
Let, as practical assumption, the Temperature of inner side of Hood = 500C.
Then,
Amount of Heat Transferred (without insulation) = h * A * (Ts-Th)
=4.5 X 1.25 X 1.5 X (850-500) = 2953 Watt
Where;
h = Convection Heat Transfer Coefficient.
A = Surface Area Exposed to Heat.
Ts = Finishing Rolling Temperature.
Th = Temperature of the Hood surface.
Assume that the added insulation will reduce the amount of Heat Transferred by 70%, and
the outer side of the Hoods - side exposed to the atmosphere Temperature will not exceed
40C. So,
Amount of Heat Transferred (with insulation) = (Th-Ta)/ [ (2*Yins/Kins * A) + (Yst/Kst * A) ]
Select the insulation material as Mineral Wool Blocks or Mineral Fiber Blankets of Thermal
Conductivity 0.07 W/M.C for Temperature range (450-1000) C.
Where;
Ta = Temperature of the outer surface of the insulation.
Yins = The insulation thickness to be calculated.
Kins = Thermal Conductivity of the insulating material.
Yst = Thickness of the Hood.
Kst = Thermal Conductivity of the Hood.
Then,
0.3X 2953 = ( (500-40) X1.25X1.5) /[(2 X Yins / 0.07)+(0.016/33)]
So,,, Yins = 34mm.
Yins = 34 X Fs ------ Where Fs = factor of safety=1.7
So The Insulation layer thickness will be 60 mm.

By: Eng. / A.Anwar

 Alexandria Plant
Production Dept.

2- Billets Grade: -

C Si Mn P S
Billet Grade
% % % % %
3PS 0.14-0.22 0.05-0.15 0.40-0.65 0.055 0.055
3SP 0.14-0.22 0.15-0.30 0.40-0.65 0.055 0.055
4PS 0.18-0.27 0.05-0.15 0.40-0.70 0.055 0.055
4SP 0.18-0.27 0.15-0.30 0.40-0.70 0.055 0.055
5PS 0.28-0.37 0.05-0.15 0.50-0.80 0.055 0.055
5SP 0.28-0.37 0.15-0.30 0.50-0.80 0.055 0.055
5GPS 0.22-0.30 0.15 0.80-1.20 0.055 0.055
Table (1)
According to Table (1), The Grade 4PS can be used for producing both of Wire and Rebar
because its characteristics stand in-between 3PS (used for Wire) and 5PS (used for Rebar).

3- Cooling Conveyor Speed

We can lower the speed as minimum as Jog Mode and this will be as first trial, this will be
intentionally for increasing the residence time of the product. But it also important to keep
Cooling Conveyor speed normal again with the same previous over-speed to not affect the
working inter-billet Gap Time.

4- Control the Q.T.B water flow.

a- Wire rod Case

Must completely close the water flow except a little amount for just cooling the Troughs.
b- Rebar Case
During operation, almost for all sizes, we work on less than 50% of Q.T.B capacity, which
means we still have a wide range for the Grade 4PS.

5- Control The Finishing Rolling Temperature.

The higher Furnace Temperature, The higher Finishing Rolling Temperature. So we can -in
case of wire- increase the Soaking Temperature from 1180 to 1205 C and the Heating from
1020 to 1030 C.

By: Eng. / A.Anwar