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Abstract

This article focuses on the launch of Sputnik that transfixed the world by Carpenter Technology Corp. By incorporating advanced processing equipment, including a rolling mill, shape controller, annealing furnaces, wet grinders, and leveler with state-of-the-art automated control systems, Carpenter has improved the productivity and quality of its high value strip at a time when Space Shuttle launchings are taken in stride. The Carpenter specialty strip facility installed a cold rolling mill designed by Joseph Frohling GmbH of Olpe, Germany, in November last year, to increase rolling capacity and guarantee that the steel strip it produces meets the desired shape and thickness. In the Frohling mill, strip passes between two working rolls that reduce its thickness to sizes between 0.150 and 0.008 inch, at speeds up to 1500 feet per minute. Carpenter also installed three Ebner vertical annealing furnaces. Coiled strip on mandrels is unwound through each furnace, annealed, then rewound continuously to promote productivity.