Basic Process

Figure 2 illustrates the basic Thermex plant as installed in a rolling mill. Directly after leaving the last rolling mill stand the bar is passed through a special cooling pipe system where it is rapidly water quenched for a short time depending on the size of bar and the rolling speed. The rolling strand, which is cut to cooling bed length by suitable rotary shears, is fed to the

THERMEX Cooling Pipes

Rolled Bar

From Mill

High Pressure Water Station

Pyrometer

To Despatch

Cold Shear

Hot Shear

Cooling Bed

cooling bed and the finishing shop in the well-known manner.

The result of the rapid quenching in Thermex is a hardened structure of the surface. After leaving the cooling line the heat in the core of the bar reheats the surface up to an equalising temperature thus tempering the martensite surface. The resulting heat-treated structure has high strength and good toughness properties. The microstructure of the core is a very fine-grained ferrite and pearlite.

The final quality - i.e. characteristics - of the Thermex bars depends on the cooling intensity and the equalising temperature level, values that are part of documentation given to each Thermex Licensee. These values can be set at the beginning of a rolling campaign and need no subsequent adjustment thus no sophisticated control equipment is necessary.

The wide application of the Thermex Technology in all the continents is a testimony to its global suitability, the simplicity of the process and the acceptance of Thermex bar amongst the civil & structural designers in every part of the globe as it effortlessly meets standards of different countries.