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Temper mills: 'leveling' the competition.

Article Excerpt
Temper mill operators are well positioned, as part-makers increasingly demand truly flat steel.

BUSINESS IS GROWING FOR THE handful of temper mill operators United States and Canada, the proliferation of plasma and laser cutting systems, as well as other precision part-making machines, that require dead flat steel.

Steelmakers have been offering temper-passed (also called cold reduced) products from hot-rolled and cold-rolled coils for decades. But when they recoil the material for shipment, it's no longer flat. Even after uncoiling and leveling, the material may retain "coil memory" that causes it to buckle as parts are cut.

Beginning in the 1980s, several service-center companies and toll processors purchased their own temper mills, usually placed in-line with a pickling or cut-to-length operation, to provide their customers with higher quality steel. Using the temper mills, they could offer product with superior flatness and surface characteristics that would remain stable through most types of cutting operations.

Today, nine service center/ processing companies and one plate and tube producer operate 28 temper-pass lines in the United States and Canada. Temper mills cold reduce steel by 1.5 to 2 percent, elongating the product and giving it added strength.

IPSCO Inc. has temper mills in Toronto, Houston and St. Paul, Minn. "We operate three coil processing lines that all include temper mills" says Chuck Schmitt, general manager of Southern region product sales. "We make a temper leveled cut-to-length plate product, cut in line after temper leveling."

Not only is the product flat, he says, but it stays flat.

"Temper processing equalizes the residual or internal stresses as opposed to conventional leveling. When you talk to people involved in burning and welding steel plate, stability is critical. With high-speed lasers and high-speed plasma machines that are cutting ever faster with greater precision, you cannot have the steel moving while it's forming under intense speed and heat," Schmitt explains.

As burning and cutting equipment progresses, he says, the material needs to advance along with the technology. "We certainly see more customers using lasers. We...

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