Siemens VAI Metals Technologies will equip the new cold rolling mill of the Bokaro Steel Plant located in Jharkhand with turnkey process technology. This follows Steel Authority of India (SAIL) having awarded order, valued at triple-digit million euros to the Indian arm of the German engineering company.

With a raw steel output of around 13 million metric tons per year, SAIL is the largest steel producer in India. The company operates integrated iron and steel complexes at five Indian locations including additional production plants for alloyed steel and iron alloys.

It already operates two cold rolling mills at its Bokaro location and is investing Rs2,500 crore in the construction of the new cold mill plant, which is to be used to produce high-quality steel grades for applications in the automotive industry.

The new cold rolling mill will have a capacity of around 1.3-million metric tons per year and is scheduled to take up production in 2010.

SAIL produces a wide range of steel products for the Indian construction, energy, railroad and automotive industries, as well as for export.

Siemens will be responsible for the design, engineering, supply, installation and commissioning of the core lines of the new cold mill plant, which include a coupled tandem pickling line, a hot-dip galvanising line and an electrolytic strip cleaning line.

The contract also covers installation supervision, commissioning and intensive customer training. Among the reasons why Siemens was awarded the order was the superior solution and the high degree of standardisation between the several lines which supports optimized operational costs.

The technological core components of the equipment will be manufactured at the Siemens workshops in Montbrison in France. The coupled tandem pickling line will feature two uncoilers and one LW21H laser welder, followed by a scale breaker and a turbulence process section with a ''Faplac'' pickling model and Siemens special plastic tank design.

The central part of the plant is the five-stand tandem cold mill with six-high rolling stands and a carousel coiler. All systems and components form part of the solution platform Siroll CM for cold rolling mills. This also contains the entire Sinamics-based drive technology, comprising the main drives of the rolling stands of type Sinamics SM150, and the basic and process automation including all the technological controls and process models.

The hot-dip galvanizing line also includes two uncoilers and a type LW21L laser welder. The line will additionally be equipped with strip cleaning equipment, a vertical annealing furnace, DAK dynamic air knifes, a skin-pass mill, and a tension leveler from Siemens.

The equipment of the electrolytic strip cleaning line includes an uncoiler, an ML 21L seam welder and cleaning tanks in a V configuration. Siemens is also supplying the drive, automation, and process technology for the two processing lines. The equipment for the hot galvanizing line and the electrolytic strip cleaning line will be based on the solution concept Siroll PL for strip processing lines.

The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the world's leading supplier of production, transportation and building systems. Integrated hardware and software technologies combined with comprehensive industry-specific solutions enable Siemens to enhance the productivity and efficiency of its customers in industry and infrastructure. The sector comprises six divisions: building technologies, industry automation, industry solutions, mobility, drive technologies and Osram. In fiscal 2007 (ended September 30), Siemens Industry generated sales of approximately EUR40 billion (pro forma, unconsolidated) with around 209,000 employees worldwide.

With the business activities of Siemens VAI Metal Technologies, (Linz, Austria), Siemens Water Technologies (Warrendale, Pa., U.S.A.), and Industry Technologies, (Erlangen, Germany), the Siemens Industry Solutions Division (Erlangen, Germany) is one of the world's leading solution and service providers for industrial and infrastructure facilities. Using its own products, systems and process technologies, Industry Solutions develops and builds plants for end customers, commissions them and provides support during their entire life cycle.