Method and apparatus for producing cut to length bars in a steel mill
AssigneeDavid Teng Pong
InventorDavid Teng Pong
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Abstract
A method of producing steel bars that are cut to length in response to a customer order. The method includes producing a continuous length of steel bar from a rolling mill, cutting said continuous length of steel bar into lengths equal to the length of the bar of the customer order while maintaining the production of the continuous length of steel bar produced by the rolling mill, and bundling bars of the length of the customer order for discharge from the mill using one of two bundling stations arranged to receive and bundle cut bars.
Claims12
A method of producing steel bars that are cut to length in response to a customer order, said method comprising the steps of:
- producing a continuous length of steel bar from a rolling mill in an endless bar rolling process, comprising:
- flash welding the tail end of a hot billet to the front end of the next billet, in-line as they exit from a reheating furnace to enable rolling of the continuous length of steel bar without any end,
- cutting said continuous length of steel bar into lengths equal to the length of the bar of the customer order while the length of bar is in motion and while maintaining the production of the continuous length of steel bar produced by the rolling, mill;
- and
- bundling bars of the length of the customer order for discharge from the mill by simultaneous operation of a plurality of bundling stations arranged to receive and bundle cut bars, wherein at least one of said bundling stations has a plurality of bundling machines, and wherein the bundling machine nearest the end of the bundling station at which the bars of the length of the customer order are input for bundling remains axially stationary independently of the length of the bars of the customer order, and further wherein at least one of the other bundling machines of the bundling station is axially moveable.
A method as claimed in chum 1, wherein the bars of the length of the customer order are fed to the first and second bundling stations by respective first and second conveying, means, or removed from the first and second bundling machines by respective first and second conveying means, or both.
Apparatus for producing steel bars that are cut to length in response to a customer order, said apparatus comprising:
- a rolling mill for producing a continuous length of steel bar in an endless bar rolling process by flash welding the tail end of a hot billet to the front end of the next billet, in-line as they exit from a reheating furnace to enable rolling of the continuous length of steel bar without any end;
- shearing means coupled to a CPU configured to operate the shearing means, while the length of bar is in motion, to produce bars cut to the length of the customer order in time with the production of the continuously produced length of bar;
- and
- at least two bundling stations positioned to receive the cut bars from the cold shears for producing bundles of the bars of the length of the customer order, wherein at least one of said bundling stations has a plurality of bundling machines, and wherein the bundling machine nearest the end of the bundling station at which the bars of the length of the customer order are input for bundling remains axially stationary in use independently of the length of the bars of the customer order, and further wherein at least one of the other bundling machines of the bundling station is axially moveable.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.