Danieli Universal Endless (Due®): The First-ever Universal Solution For Flat Products Is Now On Stream

Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. (SGJT) in 2016 confirmed its trust in and satisfaction with the technological equipment supplied by Danieli in previous projects, placing another order to the Group for the world first DUE® plant, for the new facility in Caofeidian Industrial Area, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, China.

- Alessandro Pigani, Santanu Rudra

The thin slab casting and rolling process is continuing to gain a greater share of the global market in the production of hot rolled strip, mainly thanks to its competitiveness over conventional routes as well as to the growing ability of this technology to cover the majority of all market requirements, not limited to the pure commodity sector.

Anticipating the market trend, Danieli has progressively developed a new generation of thin slab casting and rolling layout, named Danieli Universal Endless (DUE®), marking a new phase in the evolution of this process, being able to improve existing processes and technologies and, at the same time, overcoming their current limitations.

The new DUE® plant features an innovative layout configuration (Danieli patented technology – US patent n. 8087449, January 3rd, 2012), which Danieli has developed in a continuous effort to improve existing processes and technologies and overcome their current limitations.

This new concept in thin slab casting and rolling plant is able to unify in a single production line all the winning features that up to now have been achieved using either endless or coil-to-coil rolling modes in separate production lines, while eliminating the limiting factors of each one of them.

With its characteristics of low consumption, low emissions and high efficiency, the DUE® perfectly fits to the “new normal” vision that establishes the guidelines for industrial development in the People’s Republic of China, which includes the steelmaking sector.

What makes the DUE® different is the ability of “universal” rolling modes thanks to the fact that, now, within one single plant it is possible to perform endless and coil-tocoil rolling modes, hence a major technology innovation compared to the previous generation.