Tata Steel’s coil slitter is increasing efficiency

The new £7M coil slitter recently installed in Tata Steel’s Hartlepool Tube and Pipe mill is said to be increasing efficiency and reducing CO₂ emissions across the UK business.

Tata Steel Works Manager, Andrew Ward said: “To produce the hot rolled coil as a substrate for our smaller diameter pipes, we’ve traditionally had to cut the slab in half lengthways in Port Talbot and roll a narrow slab on the hot mill. That impacts speed of work and the mill’s capacity, which was the main reason for the investment here.”

The machine was installed by Tata Steel’s own operatives, who spent time studying the company’s sister facility at Corby, where there are multiple slitting lines.

“There has been some really good sharing and learning: we’ve been there, they have visited here, and we’ve seen real improvements,” added Mr Ward.

“Customers are driving us to demonstrate that we are reducing our CO₂ impact. We’ve designed it to be one of the widest, thickest slitting lines in the UK, so it’s massively important until the Electric Arc Furnace comes online.”