New mill to deliver consistent quality

As part of a £130M facility investment at the Scunthorpe site, Corus is enhancing its medium Section Mill to deliver a first in steel rolling technology.

The major enhancement will result in the world’s first mill able to roll high-quality rails up to 120m-long in a single pass through a 10-stand finishing mill at speeds of up to 6m a second.

In total, the enhanced mill will roll approximately 700,000t of steel a year, made up of 500,000t of sections and 200,000t of rail products.

David Edwards, Corus Construction and Industrial Director of Engineering said: “Customers will benefit from better customer service and enhanced product quality. The extended mill will be more reliable and help improve our global competitiveness,”

The project also includes the introduction of a walking beam furnace, which is being transfered from the Heavy Section Mill and will be housed in a new extension to the mill building.

Another part of Corus’ investment is the construction of a new Automated Distribution Centre to serve the new enhanced mill. Approximately 40,000 individual pieces of structural steel will be brought together to create the Centre which will benefit the company’s sections customers.

After being cut to length and bundled, more than 300,000t of the mill’s sections production destined for domestic customers will pass through the Centre, stored and retrieved by one of four automated stacking machines.

“All works are going well,” Mr Edwards said. “We anticipate starting up on time.”