On March 24, Baosteel held the achievement appraisal meeting of Localized HSS rolls made by Sinosteel XTMMC. Technical expert Shen Zhong-fang from Baosteel’s Stainless Steel depatrment and deputy general manger Zou De-cai of Sinosteel XTMMC attended the meeting and they signed the appraisal certificate on behalf of their enterprises. The appraisal certificate says that the service life nd the rolled tonnage/mm of the HSS rolls made by Sinosteel XTMMC are equivalent to those of the imported HSS rolls used in Baosteel’s stainless steel rolling line at the same time, and the cost-performance ratio is obviously superior to the simillar foreign products.

Over the years, Sinosteel XTMMC always aims at the world’s most advanced roll manufacturing technologies, actively explores the application and development of hi-tech roll materials and continuously promotes the localization of new superior rolls. As early as in the 1990s, Sinosteel XTMMC has firstly developed high speed steel rolls through the integration of number of independent innovation technologies in China, which represented the world’s most advanced roll manufacturing technology and can replace HiCr iron rolls and HiNiCr iron rolls. In 2005, according to the special requirements for wear resistance and hot cracking resistance of rolls used in Baosteel’s 1780mm stainless steel plate rolling line, Sinosteel XTMMC and Baosteel jointly made professional demonstrations on the aspects of complex method, alloy composition design, microstructure and mechnical property, and conducted special design for the heat treatment process. In Deember 2007, two HSS rolls developed by y Sinosteel XTMMC were put in use in the early stand of a fininshing mill and they were taken out of mill normally in Febraury 2010.Among the rolled plate coils of stainless steel, pickling coil and carbon coils, the propotion of stainless steel is above 60%. During operation, the technical personnel from Sinosteel XTMMC and Baosteel compared the HSS rolls with the imported ones for over two years by verification test on the performance parameters of  microstructure, hardness, ultrasonic flaw detection,etc and evaluating the roll regrinding amount, wearing amount and oxide film on roll face. The results showed that the HSS rolls have a compact and uniform oxide film and have high oxidation resistance, surface roughness and wear resistance, high thermal fatigue resistance and good accident resistance.They are stable in quality and have a price advantage. The rolled tonnage is up to 9472t/mm.They can meet the rolling requirements of Baosteel’s stainless steel rolling line and can completely replace the imported ones.

At the meeting ,more than 20 people，including relevant leaders and technical experts from Baosteel and Sinosteel XTMMC,recalled the history of cooperation between the two sides and they conducted in-depth exchanges on the related technology. Both sides believed that the HSS rolls independently developed and made by Sinosteel XTMMC have reached the world’s advanced roll manufacturing level. The successful application of home-made HSS rolls will break the foreign monopoly, make a positive contribution to the significantl cost reduction of the Chinese steel enterprises and the  improvement of the rolling quality of high-grade steels.

The meeting site