IRON MAKING
The iron making department consists of a raw material handling area, sinter plant and two blast furnaces. Raw materials such as iron ore, sinter coke and dolomite are charged into the blast furnaces where it is converted to liquid iron.
Vanderbijlpark works has two blast furnaces in operation with a combined capacity of 240 000 tonnes tones of liquid iron monthly.
DIRECT REDUCTION
The direct reduction plant is coal bases and has six rotary kilns currently capable of producing 900 000t f direct reduction iron, or DRI. The main consumer of product is the Electric Arc Furnaces.
COKE MAKING
The coke making department produces coke from the carbonization of high grade coking coal. The coke is a raw material for use at the blast furnaces. The coke making department consists of 6 coke batteries and there are a total of 334 ovens in the 6 batteries. The plant has the capacity to produce 1.4 m tons of coke per annum. The gas generated form the carbonization of coal is used in internal heating processes at Vanderbijlpark- mainly at the hot strip mill and the plate mill. Commercial grade coke can also be produced when there is spare capacity available.
STEEL MAKING
The steel making department consist of an Oxygen steel making route, a direct reduction unit and an electric steel making route.
The premier steel making facility at Vanderbijlpark works is the Oxygen steel making facility which consists of three 170 t basic oxygen furnaces ( or BOF's ) , two ladle furnaces and a Ruhrsthal Heraeus or RH degasser in line with two twin strand slab casters.
The plant has a capacity of approximately 3 million tons liquid steel and produces various grades for automotive, Tin as well as drew and wall ironing or DWI, applications.
The electric steel making route consists of three 155t eccentric bottom tapping electric Arc furnaces, two ladle furnaces, a vacuum arc degasser ( VAD ) and twin strand slab caster. Current capacity of the plant is around 1.3 million tons liquid steel and produces mainly plate mill, pipe and galvanised applications.
ROLLING
Slab are hot rolled into heavy plate in the plate mill, or into coils in the hot strip mill. The coils are either sold as hot rolled strip or processed further into cold rolled and coated products, such as hot dip galvanised, electro - galvanised and pre - painted sheet, and tinplate.
HOT STRIP MILL
Hot rolled coils ranging between 1.5mm to 23mm in thrickness and widths of 750 to 1850mm through four furnaces, a 2 - stand roughing mill, a 7 - stand finishing mill and three coipers.
Slabs are reheated to approximately 1250 c depending on product, reduced in the roughing mill from 240mm to the required transfer bar thickness of between 30 and 42mm. The transfer bar is then processed through the finishing stands and coiled.
PLATE MILL ROUTE
Slabs are reheated in the plate mill furnaces and rolled into plates ranging between 5mm to 100mm in thickness and widths of up to 3500mm in different lengths. The plates cool down on the cooling beds before it goes throungh the different cutting units. Special grade plates get treated at the plate treatment plant to achieve improved steel properties and wear resistance.
COLD ROLLING
Hot rolled strip from the hot strip mill is received at continuous pickling lines where scale is removed using Hydrochloric Acid. Coils are then sold in the pickled and oiled condition or sent for further processing at the 5 - stand tandem cold mill. The material can then be processed further via two routes. The first route is through batch annealing, temper mill and elecrtro - galvanising line where electro - galvanised material is produced for the automotive industry.
The second route is though the continuous annealing line and a hot dip galvanising line where galvanised material is produced for dispatch or further processing at the paint line.
TINNING LINE
Cold rolled coil is firstly annealed and then tempered to get the desired surface and metallurgical properties for the tinning process where the base metal is electrolytic alloy coated with tin for the food and beverage industries.
GALVANISING LINE
Cold rolled coil is heated in a reducing furnace and then coated with molten zinc using a hot dip process. The thickness of the coating is determined by air force applied on the strip. It can also bevtempered and further processed through the colour line.