Danieli Universal Endless (DUE)

Abstract

Over the last 25 years, the thin slab casting and rolling process has been gaining a major market share in the production of hot rolled strip, progressively eroding the areas previously of exclusive domain of conventional mills. This is mainly thanks to the competitiveness of the process over conventional ones and to the growing ability of this technology to cover the majority of market niches well beyond the boundaries of the commodity market. After having significantly contributed to the continuous expansion of this production mode and after an extensive campaign of research and physical testing in reference plants, Danieli has progressively developed a new generation of thin slab casting and rolling layout over the years, marking a new phase in the evolution of this process. The new step-ahead is a new development within the Quality Strip Production (QSP) family, which is the Danieli’s strip-quality-oriented thin slab based plants. What makes this new concept different is the ability of “universal” rolling modes thanks to the fact that now, within one single plant, it is possible to perform different rolling modes, making this plant a major technology innovation compared to the previous generation. This new approach can be seen as the natural evolution of the original successful Danieli concepts that marked the progress of the thin slab route, namely the application of the vertical curved design thin slab caster and the separation of the rolling stands into high reduction units and finishing units.