Kunshan Deli Copper from Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China, has placed an order with SMS Meer www.sms-meer.com , Germany, for the supply of a CONTIROD® plant of type CR 3700. With a pro-duction capacity of 60 tons of cast and rolled copper wire rod per hour, the plant will achieve the world's highest plant output in this sector.

On the CONTIROD® CR 3700 Deli Copper will primarily produce ETP copper wire rod (electrolytic tough pitch) used as semi-finished product for the manufacture of electric conductors. By using new energy-efficient technologies, the CONTIROD® CR 3700 satisfies the preconditions for an ecoplants solution. Ecoplants is the SMS Meer label for sustainable solutions offering companies economic advantages at the same time. The scope of supply includes a shaft melting furnace, a holding furnace, a twin-belt caster, a 14-stand rolling mill with separate individual drives, a deoxidization and cooling section, a wire coiling station and an automatic tying unit.

The melting furnace is equipped with a lambda control system and improved cathode distribution. This technology minimizes natural gas consumption and increases product quality. The preconditions for the great plant performance is created by the large cross-section of the cast ingot with the dimensions

SMS Meer GmbH is a company of the SMS group which, under the roof of the SMS Holding GmbH, consists of a group of global players in machinery and plant construction in steel and nonferrous metals processing. Its workforce of more than 13,500 employees generates sales worldwide totaling EUR 3.3 billion.
75 x 132 millimeters, while the process technology of the twin-belt caster ensures a symmetrical casting microstructure. The downline rolling mill with its 14 individually driven stands creates a very fine-grain microstructure in the copper wire. In this way, the product fulfills the conditions for the subsequent drawing process – in particular for the production of enameled wire and multi-fine wire.

In the cooling section, the oxide layer on the surface of the wire is first reduced by a chemical reaction with a water/alcohol solution. Afterwards, it is cooled to the desired target temperature in a second step, using water without the addition of alcohol. The two process steps taking place in succession allow a significant reduction in the alcohol consumption to be achieved.