Essar Group has awarded LOI Thermprocess, an LOI Italimpianti Tenova company, a contract for three new furnaces to be used for various types of heat treatment for steel plates at its Hazira plant in the State of Gujarat. They are due to be commissioned within only 16 months by April 2009.

The contract includes a normalizing furnace as well as a quenching and tempering line comprising an austenitizing furnace with continuous quench facility and downstream tempering furnace. When it has been commissioned, the quenching and tempering line will be the most advanced heat treatment facility for steel plates in India.

The furnaces will be designed for a capacity of up to 55 tonnes per our depending on the process used. The normalizing line will consist of a roller hearth furnace with a length of 70 meters and will be designed to treat steel plates with thicknesses from 5mm to 50mm (Maximum 75 mm), widths up to 4.9 meters and lengths up to 25 meters at normalizing temperatures between 880 °C and 950°C.

The line will feature a roller hearth furnace with a length of 43 meter and a continuous quench facility. Steel places with thicknesses from 5mm to 50mm (Maximum 75 mm), widths up to 4.9 meters and lengths up to 25 meters will initially be heated to the austenitizing temperature of 880°C to 950 °C, then quenched and martensitically hardened in the quench facility. The material will be treated to obtain the toughness required in the downstream tempering furnace, which will be 64 meter long.

The plant will be fully automated by LOI, including the control of heating systems and a material tracking program. An optimization computer will adapt furnace operation to load conditions in order to minimize energy consumption, scale formation and losses and to ensure the highest possible surface quality.