Steel mills are the backbone of the global steel industry, driving the production of essential products for infrastructure, energy and everyday life. From bridges and pipelines to wind turbine towers, steel is at the heart of modern living. However, the demanding nature of steel production puts significant wear on equipment, making reliability and durability critical. 

In modern steel production, continuous casting technology transforms liquid steel into solid slabs. This process relies on Continuous Casting Rollers (CCRs) that must withstand extreme temperatures and harsh conditions. The uppermost CCRs, handling molten metal, are constantly subject to  intense heat, abrasion, corrosion, metal-on-metal friction, and thermal fatigue. As the steel cools and flows downward, the different segments of CCRs encounter varying levels of stress and temperature, each requiring unique wear resistance and mechanical properties. 

Our solutions are specifically designed to meet these challenges, offering welding consumables for each segment of the casting process. From raw material processing and sintering to continuous casting and hot or cold rolling, all areas susceptible to wear can be protected by customized welding solutions. 

Our wear protection welding consumables extend the lifespan of steel mill equipment by minimizing wear on essential components. With hardfacing weld overlays, using cored wires (with or without welding flux) or strip cladding, we offer customized solutions for the applications listed below, and many more: 

• Sinter crushers 
• Continuous casting rollers 
• Hot rolling mill rollers 

Our consumables, developed in collaboration with leading steel industry companies such as voestalpine, cover all major welding processes used in steel mill maintenance.

Frequent wear reduces production efficiency, shortens the lifespan of the machinery, and leads to higher maintenance costs. Our wear protection products counteract these issues and enable steel mills to maintain high production standards with less downtime. With our comprehensive range of high-quality welding consumables, steel mills can optimize their productivity and maintain the performance and longevity of their equipment.  

• Durability: Designed for high temperatures and abrasive conditions 
• Versatility: Solutions for all key wear-prone areas in steel production 
• Proven Results: Developed with industry expertise and real-world testing 

Equip your steel mill with solutions that boost performance, extend equipment life, and reduce operational costs. Find out how our wear protection products can be integrated into your production line for maximum efficiency and reliability.  

In most cases, the SAW process with cored wires and mechanized welding with self-shielded cored wires are used for the overlay of continuous casting rollers. Weaving is used to minimize the number of overlaps between the runs, as these may be more sensitive to corrosion. Submerged arc or electro-slag strip cladding are also regularly used. These processes are characterized by less dilution with the base material, wider beads with fewer overlaps and significantly higher deposition rate. 

Our ultimate goal is to protect components from corrosion and abrasion, ensuring long-lasting durability. Abrasion resistance depends not only on hardness, but also on the shape, size and volume fraction (density) of the carbides. Since carbides are harder than the matrix, they slow down the wear caused by abrasive particles. The higher the carbide content, the better the abrasion resistance. 

Our SK 900 Ni RTC-G single-layer hardfacing solution is a unique gas-shielded cored wire designed for components that are subject to extreme abrasive wear and wet corrosion. In just one layer, the weld metal generates enough carbides in the matrix to achieve excellent abrasion resistance. 

Caster rollers play a critical role in maintaining quality and efficiency in the continuous slab casting process. These specialized rollers are essential for several functions, including: 

• Solidification containment: Ensuring uniform cooling and hardening of the slab 
• Strand support: Preventing slab deformation during the cooling process 
• Slab bending and unbending: Managing the shape of the steel as it solidifies. 

The quality of these rollers directly impacts both the internal structure and surface finish of the steel slab, making precision and durability paramount. Each continuous casting installation can have between 350 and 700 rollers, often made from such durable base materials as 42CrMo4, 25CrMo4, 16CrMo44 or 21CrMoV5.11. However, these materials alone are not enough to withstand the high levels of wear and extreme temperatures that are typical in steel mills.

To significantly extend roller lifespan, our solutions use wear-resistant overlays with martensitic stainless-steel alloys that increase resistance to abrasion, heat and other forms of wear. By protecting caster rollers with these advanced overlays, steel mills can reduce maintenance frequency, optimize production uptime and improve the quality of finished steel slabs. 

In the rolling mill, steel undergoes multiple processes to be shaped and formed into the final product. During the hot rolling phase, components are subject to fatigue and wear that are caused by similar mechanisms found in the continuous casting line. These include thermal fatigue, impact, abrasion, adhesion and corrosion. Our cladding solutions are designed to protect these components from such wear mechanisms, ensuring enhanced durability and better performance.