Bar processing and finishing lines running the length of a Laxcon Steels plant

Manufacturing

Technology

Cutting-Edge Technology Gives Us An Edge

INFRASTRUCTURE

Our Steel Doesn't
Just Meet Expectations,
It Exceeds Them

At Laxcon Steels, you will only find the best in terms of infrastructure. It is one of the most technologically advanced stainless steel manufacturing companies in India. It utilizes a wide range of modern steel manufacturing techniques and accurate melting statistics along with stringent monitoring processes.

The state-of-the-art machinery provides the group with the capacity and flexibility to produce everything from unalloyed constructional steels to the highest alloyed tool steels.

Cutting-edge equipment like Spectrometers, Ultrasonic Testers, Hardness Testers, Wet labs for Chemical Testing, Physical Testing and Radioactivity Testing machines, enable the hawk-eyed professionals to strictly monitor each outcome, and ensure that the products always exceed customer’s expectations.

Molten steel pouring from the ladle in the Laxcon melting shop

FACILITIES

Production
Process

Every product starts as the same melt and is hot rolled on the same mills. The line then divides: one route finishes bars, the other makes seamless pipes and tubes, and both meet again at packaging.

Molten steel pouring from the ladle in the Laxcon Steels melting shop

01

Melting

140,000 MT a year

Stainless scrap, alloys and virgin metals are melted in electric furnaces, refined to the grade and cast into billets, blooms and rounds.

  1. Pictogram of a three-electrode electric arc furnace tapping into a ladle

    1.1

    Electric melting

    Three electrodes strike an arc on the charge and melt it.

  2. Pictogram of an AOD converter with its gas mixing station

    1.2

    AOD refining

    Argon and oxygen blown through the bath take the carbon out and leave the chromium in.

  3. Pictogram of a ladle refining furnace with a vacuum degassing tank

    1.3

    Ladle refining and degassing

    The chemistry is trimmed with cored wire under arc, then degassed under vacuum.

  4. Pictogram of a twin-strand curved continuous caster

    1.4

    Continuous casting

    The 9/16 metre twin-strand caster pours billets, blooms and rounds.

Glowing billet entering a cross-country rolling mill at Laxcon Steels

02

Hot rolling

4 cross-country mills, 21 stands

Billets are reheated and rolled stand by stand into black bar for finishing, or into rounds for the tube mill.

  1. Pictogram of a pusher type billet reheating furnace

    2.1

    Reheating

    Billets are pushed through the furnace to rolling temperature.

  2. Pictogram of a cross-country rolling mill with a hot bar threading its stands

    2.2

    Cross-country rolling

    Grooved rolls in stands of five and six reduce the billet pass by pass.

Automatic bar peeling line in the Laxcon Steels cold finishing facility

03

Bright bars

Automatic bar finishing lines

Black bar is heat treated, peeled or drawn, straightened, ground and polished, and tested before it is packed.

  1. Pictogram of a heat treatment furnace with a quench tank

    3.1

    Heat treatment

    Six PLC controlled furnaces, bars up to 7 metres, water and oil quenching.

  2. Pictogram of an automatic bar peeling machine

    3.2

    Peeling

    A rotating cutter head takes the black skin off in one pass.

  3. Pictogram of a two-roll bar straightening machine

    3.3

    Straightening

    The bar rotates between skewed rolls that work it straight.

  4. Pictogram of a centreless grinding machine

    3.4

    Grinding and polishing

    Ground to tolerance on centreless grinders, polished on belt and grit lines.

  5. Pictogram of an eddy current testing line

    3.5

    Eddy current testing

    An encircling coil checks the finished bar for surface defects.

Hot rolling mill in the Laxcon Steels pipes and tubes division

04

Pipes and tubes

Seamless tubes and mother hollows

A solid round is pierced into a hollow shell, reduced to size in stages, annealed, pickled and tested. Austenitic and duplex grades.

  1. Pictogram of a cross-roll piercing mill forming a hollow shell

    4.1

    Piercing

    The hot round is driven over a plug and comes out a hollow shell.

  2. Pictogram of a cold pilger mill

    4.2

    Cold reduction

    Rolled or drawn over a mandrel to the finished diameter and wall.

  3. Pictogram of a continuous tube annealing furnace

    4.3

    Annealing

    Solution annealed between passes to restore the structure.

  4. Pictogram of a tube pickling line

    4.4

    Pickling

    Acid removes the scale inside and out.

  5. Pictogram of a tube testing station with ultrasonic and hydrostatic test

    4.5

    Testing

    Every tube is tested for wall soundness before it is packed.

Strapped bar bundles ready for dispatch at Laxcon Steels

05

Packaging

500–1000 kg bundles, ISPM 15 boxes

Bars and tubes are colour coded, labelled, strapped and wrapped in bundles of 500 to 1000 kg, or boxed for export, each marked with heat number, grade, size and weight.

  1. Pictogram of a strapped and wrapped bar bundle on lifting slings

    5.1

    Bundles and boxes

    Strapped, wrapped and slung, or packed in ISPM 15 wooden boxes for export.