CMI extends its industrial thermal activity pole

Amongst equipment in the portfolio of the CMI Group, the range of industrial furnaces is seeing increasing success. CMI has seen four important contracts follow on from each other over recent months, of which two are in steelmaking (ArcelorMittal Ghent and Severstal Russia) and two in the domain of thermal treatment for the aeronautics industry (Snecma France and Nanshan China). This performance in the four corners of the world has led it to strengthen its teams of specialists in thermal engineering at Liège.

This summer CMI has won a contract with Russian steelmaker Severstal for two steel treatment lines: a colour coating line and a galvanizing line. The latter will also be fitted with a CMI furnace, a key piece of equipment for the performance of the installation and the quality of the steel produced.

Another important success to be highlighted on the steelmaking market, and which will be under the spotlight at the ‘Paris Climate 2015’ summit, is that of the design and installation of the largest slab reheating furnace in Europe. This highly technological furnace, destined for the ArcelorMittal Ghent (formerly Sidmar) hot rolling mill, puts into operation a new process which enables blast furnace gases to be used as combustible fuel, and in total safety.

On the aeronautics front, CMI Industry has been selected by Snecma, a subsidiary of French giant Safran, to design and supply three thermal treatment furnaces: two tempering furnaces with their cooling vats, and one hardening furnace.

Remaining in aeronautics, CMI is to supply Chinese company Nanshan, the leading private Chinese aluminium producer and an emerging supplier to the Chinese aeronautics industry, with two complete thermal treatment lines and two forging furnaces dedicated to super-alloys. The order involves sixteen reheating and thermal treatment furnaces. They will be installed at the Nanshan Aviation Materials Parks at Longkou (Shandong province, China).

This series of successes should lead to others, and has led to CMI strengthening its thermal skills center by taking in new experienced staff members at Liège, especially for the continuous steel strip treatment line furnaces. Around a dozen experts – thermal engineers, project heads, designers – have already joined CMI since the beginning of 2015. Other posts remain to be filled to complete the workforce.

Jean Jouet, President of CMI Industry: “Thermal equipment is more than ever at the heart of the performance of industrial installations. Furnaces are genuinely at the crossroads of economic, technological and environmental concerns within industry. This is the reason why, at CMI, we are taking care to develop ever more perfected furnaces which use even less energy, which makes them both more competitive and more respectful of the environment”.