PECM Issue 23 2016 | Page 30

Metalock's Global Steel Reputation Port Talbot Due to the severe operating conditions in steel plants, regular refurbishment of heavy rolling mills is essential to ensure efficient production and consistent product quality. Window areas on roughing and subsequent finishing mill stands suffer erosion and corrosion due to the very nature of the steel rolling process and once resultant wear reaches a certain point, it becomes necessary to remove old wear plates, remachine the surface behind them to restore original manufacturing tolerances for squareness, straightness and dimensional accuracy. New oversize wear plates are then fitted. The shear size of the mill housings means that the remachining needs to be carried out in-situ. For this reason Metalock Engineering UK has built up an extensive range of precision on site machining equipment specially designed in-house for steel mill refurbishment. 30 PECM Issue 23 These machines, together with the company’s team of highly skilled engineers and technicians, all of whom have many years of experience with steel projects both large and small all over the world, are enabling Metalock Engineering to establish a global reputation as the market leader in this type of machining work. Drilling & tapping As well machining the wear areas, before new wear plates can be fitted, many of the tapped holes for the plate bolts often need to be refurbished. The constant pounding of rollers on hot steel and the vibration cause the threads to gradually deteriorate. In addition to the milling machines for surface work Metalock has developed a range of drilling equipment to redrill and tap all the holes. Not only is the Metalock mill housing equipment suitable for machining vertical surfaces it is also used to remachine the housing bases flat and level with each other and square to the housings themselves. Increasingly, Metalock is carrying out reboring for upgrades of mill screwdown systems and like the drilling procedures this work is performed using an adaptation to the mill housing remachining system. This means that the range of Metalock equipment available for steel plant work encompasses milling, drilling and tapping, boring and facing. Orbital turning One of the latest pieces of equipment to be developed is an orbital turning machine which was designed for machining and reprofiling 0.5 metre diameter X 1.5 metre long stub shafts for a beam straightening/ finishing machine at Corus, Teesside.