INDUSTRY SSAB STEELWORKS
HARD ACT TOFOLLOW
Industrial experts from across WSP Sweden have successfully delivered a highly complex refurbishment for major sheet metal producer SSAB EMEA, enabling it to make its toughest steel yet.
The SEK2.5bn investment at SSAB’s Borlänge facility was completed at the end of 2011, part of the company’s quest, as one of Europe’s largest sheet metal manufacturers, for lighter weight and more sustainable materials. The “direct quenching, direct cooling” project enables faster cooling of the hot steel, creating a harder structure. This new method of quenching consumes twice as much water – about 15,000m³ per hour – and implementing it involved four different renovation projects.
WSP’s Borlänge office was an obvious choice for the design and delivery role because the team has a great deal of experience on this kind of project. “One of the reasons that we got the job was our industrial capability and capacity,” explains project manager Johan Carlsson. “But this was one of the largest projects we’ve ever delivered – we had an average of eight people working on it every week for almost three years. From this office alone, we produced between 800 and 900 drawings. Without the commitment and experience of our colleagues in Skellefteå, Karlstad and Örebro, we might have found it difficult to cope with all the challenges on time.”
Image courtesy of Pär K Olsson
Those challenges were many and varied, especially as the steelworks was operational throughout, even as major elements were completely remodelled. The
hot rolling mill was renovated with a new cooling section, water purification systems and a tunnel to transport the water to the quenching line, and new facilities were added for processing and packing the steel. During the projects, production ceased only three times, at carefully planned intervals.
One of the most complex parts was the refurbishment of an existing building which houses a reel for making rolls of strip steel, on a site measuring approximately 40m x 10m. The hole for the shaft is 9.5m below the water table, so foundations had to be added by casting the piles underwater.
Meeting the demand for increased water supply, meanwhile, involved constructing a reservoir that measured 100m x 30m, and several metres high. Water is delivered to the quenching line at extremely high pressure from a 30m-high tower after passing through sand filters to remove impurities, so the facility had to be able to withstand that strong downward force.
The project was completed at the end of 2011, on time and within budget, and SSAB has commended WSP’s skilled management of the project. With up to 200 people working on site sometimes 24 hours a day, the engineers were constantly on-call in case of any problems. Despite the intensity, Carlsson says it was a thoroughly enjoyable project to work on. “There was a lot of new stuff to think about and try to solve, and our client had a lot of new ideas and encouraged us to come up with our own ideas too. We’ve learned a lot – it’s always incredibly complicated to build a new structure in the middle of an existing site. When I look at how we managed to fit the new, higher powered machine measuring 20m in a small space that used to hold only a reel, and on new foundations, I can’t believe my eyes.”
johan.carlsson@
wspgroup.se
Image courtesy of Pär K Olsson 14 SOLUTIONS
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