World record!

The new continuous casting machine CC 6 at the Dillinger plant in Dillingen – the biggest single investment at the site, with an investment volume exceeding EUR 400 million – has set a new record: the world’s first slab with a thickness of 600 mm was successfully cast on 25 July.

Following successful simulations, the development and commissioning teams at the steelmaking plant and at the new engineering department were eager to achieve the next step toward increasing the efficiency of the line along with new dimensions and quality grades. Precisely one year after the official introduction of the line, the high-quality input material for the Dillinger heavy plate rolling mill can now be manufactured in the world’s largest slab dimensions – up to 2,200 mm x 600 mm. This also allows the company to cover an increasingly advanced product mix.

Slabs cast with the CC 6 allow the manufacture of plate with extremely large dimensions and unit weights. “With the CC6 we can process higher volumes of thick plate in shorter times. The benefits for our customers, such as those in the offshore wind power industry or the boiler and pressure vessel sector, include less welding required for larger components, which also results in time savings when processing these types of orders. Not least, the line offers the opportunity to continue developing new steels with extreme surface requirements and unusual dimensions,” said Dr. Bernd Münnich, Chief Technical Officer at Dillinger, explaining the achieved process improvements.

The researchers and metallurgists have steadily advanced development of continuous casting technology and, with the new CC 6, have constructed the first vertical continuous caster without bending at the Dillingen plant. The company took the lead in advanced technology in 1961 when it launched operation of the world’s first double-strand  continuous casting of heavy slabs. The Dillinger continuous casting machine 5, which began operating in 1998 and was modernized in 2010, is likewise among the most capable machines of its type. It held the previous world record with a maximum slab thickness of 450 mm.

This was followed by the new records on the CC6 : 500 mm in autumn 2015 and the latest record of 600 mm in 2017.

Information about the continuous casting machine CC 6