South Korea’s Posco has partnered with Fives for its reversible cold rolling EcoMill aimed at producing GIGA steel to better serve the automotive industry.
Posco will install the DMS 20Hi cold rolling mill which can process stainless and silicon steels, Fives indicated in a press release. The fully controlled process will make ultra-high strength steel of 0.5-2.5mm thickness through strips with 800-1,650mm widths. The mill has an annual production capacity of 180,000mt.
The Korean steelmaker has been developing GIGA steel since 2016. Some DMS 20Hi cold rolling mills are operating in the company’s facilities in China, Turkey, and Vietnam. Fives is also rolling out the installation to other Posco sites including South Korea.
GIGA steel is an ultra-advanced high strength steel (U-AHSS) that meets high stretching ability, behaves in crashes, and allows for high formability, making it ideal for making car bodies. The steel is stronger than aluminum at lightest weight levels which helps reduce vehicle weight, and therefore, emissions, according to Posco.
Fives is an industrial engineering group that developed the DMS 20Hi cold rolling mill technology which can achieve a maximum rolling speed of 1200mts per minute with a minimum strip thickness of 0.04mm and a maximum strip width of 1880mm.