steel billet heating process

Forever Electromechanical: Standardized Steel Billet Heating Process Ensures High-Quality Steel Processing

As a core pre-process of steel rolling, forging and forming, steel billet heating directly determines the dimensional accuracy, surface quality and mechanical properties of finished steel products. Inconsistent heating temperature, excessive temperature difference or improper heating rhythm will easily lead to steel cracking, unqualified deformation and reduced production efficiency. Forever Electromechanical has optimized and upgraded the traditional billet heating process relying on years of experience in metallurgical equipment research and development, forming a set of efficient, energy-saving and standardized full-process operation procedures, which greatly improves the stability and intelligence of billet heating production.

The standardized steel billet heating process formulated by Forever Electromechanical is divided into six core links, realizing closed-loop control from raw material feeding to finished billet discharging.

1.Billet Inspection and Preparatory Sorting

Before heating, the staff conducts comprehensive inspection on the incoming steel billets, focusing on checking the billet specification, surface quality, steel grade and initial temperature. Unqualified billets with cracks, burrs and serious oxidation are screened out in advance. Meanwhile, billets are sorted and grouped according to subsequent processing requirements, and stacked neatly in the feeding area to ensure continuous and orderly feeding, avoiding mixed heating of different steel grades and specifications.

2. Automatic Feeding and ConveyingAdopting 

Forever Electromechanical’s intelligent automatic feeding system, the sorted steel billets are stably transported to the heating furnace inlet through the roller table and mechanical pusher. The equipment realizes single-piece rhythmic feeding, effectively avoiding stacking and collision of billets. The system can automatically adjust the feeding speed according to production parameters, matching the heating cycle of the furnace body, and laying a foundation for uniform heating.

automatic feeding billet induction heating system

3. Gradient Preheating Treatment

This link is a key to reduce oxidation and cracking. The billets first enter the preheating zone, and make full use of the waste flue gas heat of the furnace to realize gradual temperature rise. Slow preheating eliminates the internal temperature difference of cold billets, prevents thermal stress from causing surface cracking, and greatly reduces the oxidation degree of the billet surface. This process effectively reduces energy consumption and improves the yield of finished products compared with traditional direct high-temperature heating.

4. Constant-Temperature Induction Heating

Based on electromagnetic induction heating technology, the core heating link accurately heats the billet to the target temperature of 800-1250°C according to different steel grade standards. Forever Electromechanical’s independent developed IGBT high-frequency power supply system realizes closed-loop temperature control. When the billet temperature deviates from the set value, the equipment automatically adjusts the heating power to ensure uniform temperature distribution inside and outside the billet, eliminating the problems of local overheating and insufficient heating.

5. Isothermal Soaking and Temperature Stabilization

After reaching the preliminary target temperature, the billet enters the soaking zone for constant-temperature heat preservation. This process balances the internal and external temperature of the steel billet, optimizes the internal metallographic structure of the steel, improves the plasticity and deformation performance of the material, and reduces the rolling force in the subsequent process. It effectively avoids product deformation, size deviation and internal residual stress defects caused by uneven heating.

6. Intelligent Discharging and Quality Screening

After the heating process is completed, the qualified high-temperature billets are stably discharged through the automatic discharging roller table and directly connected to the rolling mill or forging equipment. The system is equipped with infrared real-time temperature measuring devices, which can automatically sort out unqualified billets with substandard temperature, ensuring the consistency of subsequent processing quality and stable and continuous production line operation.

At present, the standardized induction heat treatment line for steel billet of Forever Electromechanical has been widely used in medium and large steel metallurgical enterprises. It has significant advantages in energy saving, emission reduction, quality improvement and efficiency enhancement, helping the steel industry realize refined and intelligent upgrading of heating links.