1. Steel Dynamics, Inc. Overview Gary M. Morris Steel Dynamics, Inc.
Manager - IT
Steel Dynamics, Inc.
Structural & Rail Mill
November, 2006
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

2. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
SDI FOUNDERS
‘Dick’ Teets
Vice President
General Manager – Structural & Rail Div
Keith Busse
President & CEO
“Always producing a high-grade, high quality product at the lowest possible cost.”
- K Busse
In September 1993, with the vision to “Always produce a high-grade, high quality product at the lowest possible cost” Steel Dynamic, Inc. (SDI) was founded. Without any pre-existing funding, or financial credentials, SDI’s founders set-out to raise the $275 million required to build their dream.
By June of 1994 financial backing had been secured, and contracts let for the manufacture of key, time critical mill components. Construction began in October of 1994, and finished in December After 14 months of construction, Operations at the Flat Roll Division began in January of 1996.
Mark Millett
Vice President
General Manager – Flat Roll Division
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

3. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Steel Dynamics – Flat Roll Division
Butler, IN.
Six months after beginning operation, SDI’s Flat Roll Division became profitable. In 2002, SDI-Flat Roll produced 2,373,000 tons of hot-band, and shipped over 2,390,000 tons of steel. Net sales for that year were in excess of $ 864 million. After 7 years of operation, SDI Flat-Roll has a cumulative shipment total of 11.6 million tons of steel, worth $4.0 billion.
Steel Dynamics Flat Roll Division is the first scrap-based mini-mill that has been successful in producing quality added cold-rolled, and galvanized sheet steel for use in automotive applications. SDI Flat Roll current supplies to two of the “Big 3” domestic automotive manufacturers.
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

4. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Steel Dynamics – Structural and Rail Division
Columbia City, IN.
Strategically located in the “Rust Belt”
450 Acres
In 1997, with an eye to the future, Steel Dynamics’ management began planning its entry into structural long products. Several prospective locations were considered, but ultimately a 450 acre mixed wooded – farm land site between Fort Wayne, and Columbia City, Indiana was chosen. During 1998, the team that was to design, build and ultimately supervise and manage operations at the new facility was assembled. Early in 2001 and abutting parcel of land was acquired, bring the current plant site total to approximately 600 acres.
2601 S 700 E
Columbia City, IN
(866) Toll Free
On US 30 between Columbia City and Fort Wayne Indiana
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

5. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Steel Dynamics – Structural and Rail Division
Columbia City, IN.
APRIL 2000
pre-construction
Green-field Site
FEB. 2002
~ 7/8 complete
$ 350 Million total cost
Ground breaking was planned for the spring of However, a vocal minority group of local area residents, and a trade’s union opposed creation of the mill, and delayed construction activities through the environmental permitting processes.
During the delay, market conditions became such that SDI management considered it advantageous to enter into the rail products market. At this point, the major mill equipment contracts had been let. The winning Rolling Mill supplier, SMS-Schloemann, had provided a design that was capable of hot rolling not only structural long products, but also 240 foot (75 meter) long length rail products. SDI’s board of directors approved an additional $30 million to be spend to add the missing components for up to 320 foot (~100 meter) rail manufacture. Total cost of the completed mill was approximately $350 million.
~ $ 1 Million investment / employment position
(at full staffing)
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

6. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Mill Process
VTD
Continuous Caster
Semi - Finished Products
EAF
Scrap
LMF
Cooling Bed
Structural
Standard
Reheat Furnace
Hot Rolling
Rail
Premium
Steel Dynamics, Inc – Structural and rail Division is a scrap-based mini-mill operation. Process flow does not differ significantly between rail and structural products except in the finishing areas (after the straighteners). Due to the different finishing requirements, structural long products and rail products, each has its own independent finishing line.
Cut, Pile, & Bundle
Structural
Straightening
Ship to Customer
Rail
Drill, Cut,
End Straighten
Inline Inspection
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

7. Electric Arc Furnace(s)
SDI-CCI has installed and commissioned two SMS-DEMAG eccentric bottom-tapping electric arc furnaces. Current permitting allows operation of only one furnace at a time. The furnaces are of a conventional 3 phase alternating current nature. The 22 foot diameter vessels can hold 135 ton of liquid metal. Current carrying arms deliver between 30 to 47 thousand amps per phase, at an operating voltage of 760 to 1350 amps to the 24 inch diameter graphite electrodes. On-line tap changers allow flexible adjustment to input power for changing scrap conditions. A computer based arc regulation system constantly monitors and adjusts arc to scrap distance to keep arc lengths stable, thus improving power efficiency and minimizing electrode consumption. Static VARs are utilized to reduce flicker inducement to the power grid.
A water-cooled super-sonic oxygen lance and five tangentially mounted super-sonic lancing 5 megawatt burners aid in melting and reduce overall electrical demand. The lance and any one of the burners may also inject powdered carbon to produce foamy slag.
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

8. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Electric Arc Furnace(s)
Designed Capacity
1.2M tons / eaf / annum
142.5 ton/hr 50min tap-tap
Spring – 45 avg min tap-tap
The designed melting capacity of one furnace, is 1.2 million tons per year. This equates to approximately yielded tons per hour, at a tap-to-tap rate of 50 minutes. During the spring of 2003, tap-to-tap times have varied between 45 and 36 minutes. This roughly equates to a melting pace of between 1.34 and 1.68 million tons per year.
Current environmental permitting allows operation of only one furnace at a time.
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

9. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Continuous Caster
At the end of the second secondary cooling zone, located just outside of the spray chamber, are located the withdrawal and straightener stands. The first pinch roller acts as the primary withdrawal unit breaking the gravity driven withdrawal of the casting from the machine. The rolls of this first pinch roll unit is on the 33 m radius pass-line (as are the secondary containment units), and does not play in the subsequent straightening of the casting. The remaining two pinch roll units form a two point unbending straightener that transforms the 33m radiused casting to tangential. Once straightened, automatic clamp-on oxy-fuel Gega cutting torches clamp on to the casting and cuts it desired lengths. Weigh bridges located on each strand exit roll line periodically weigh the cut lengths to verify and adjust cut lengths to optimal piece weight.
Exit of spray chamber
Casting beam blanks
Withdrawal Rolls
Casting beam blanks
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

10. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Production Tracking
CTG (pittsburgh, PA) has provided their “One Vision” package for Meltshop Level 2 tracking, and plant-wide Level 3 tracking. SMS-Schloemann has provided the rolling mill level 2 tracking system and interface to the CTG Level 3 system. Among other tasks, Level 3 of One Vision is used for sales order entry, quality reporting, inventory tracking and management, and production scheduling. Level 2’s primary function is the tracking and reporting of production events. Level 2 records, on a heat basis; additive, alloy and flux usage, electrical and gas consumptions, power on times. Many tracking events are recorded on a date – time basis, and can be used to reconstruct a chronologic heat histories. The system allows flexible “quality event” definitions (grade or customer requirement dependant). Once operating conditions vary outside of the specified parametric windows, a “Quality Event” is deemed to have occurred. Operators are alerted, and predetermined courses of action may automatically be taken. For example, during casting, level 2 continually monitors all active casting strands. Each strand generates its own stream of data. Minimum, maximum and average operating parameters are determined for every 12 inch increment cast (per strand). Should a upset occur, the predetermined course of action may be to cause the Gega torches to automatically cut-out the length of upset casting.
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

11. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Reheat Furnance
A C Leadbetter
Discharging 2250°F
Recuperative - Natural gas
80’x50’
19’ - 47’ 6 bloom lengths
Walking Beam
3 Zones:
Charge, Heat, Soak
Deep Charge
Regardless of whether blooms are feed to the rolling mill in a ‘hot’ charge, or ‘cold’ charge mode, all blooms must be reheated prior to commencement of hot rolling. Positioned to the east of the bloom yard is the A C Leadbetter natural gas fired, recuperative, walking beam reheat furnace. The furnace is 80 feet long and 50 wide, and capable of handling blooms from 19 feet to 47 feet 6 inches. When charging shorter length blooms, two blooms can be placed side by side in the furnace but will be discharged independently.
The furnace is zoned into three sections: charge, heat, and soak. ‘Hot Charged’ blooms arriving from the caster have neither the temperature, nor the homogeneity of temperature to be rolled directly. They do, however, have sufficient residual heat so that the initial charge zone of the furnace may be bypassed. The hydraulically operated charging mechanism has been designed with an extended reach capability so that Hot Charged pieces may be deep charged directly into the heating zone of the furnace.
The furnace is capable of generating 356 million Btu’s per hour. For a desired discharge temperature of 2250 degrees Fahrenheit, this translates to product reheating rate of up to 300 tons per hour for hot charge, and 200 tons per hour for cold charge.
Heating Rate:
356 Million Btu / hr
300 ton/hr – hot charge
200 ton/hr – cold charge
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

12. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Tandem / Combination Mill
SMS - Schloemann UR
EDGER UF
7500 hp
5000 hp
Having been roughed into a rail-like shape by the breakdown mill, the piece is next fed to the tandem or combination mill. The combination mill is an inline series of three mill stands; a universal rougher, an edger, and a universal finishing stand. Unlike the BD mill, each of the combination mill passes are aligned on the same continuous line. A single reverse through the combination mill can result in up to three simultaneous reductions. For rail rolling, the Universal Rougher, and Edger are used on every reverse. The Universal Finisher is used only on the final reverse. The rail is oriented on its’ side during hot rolling.
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

13. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Technology Control System
TCS’s job is
Roll Gap Adjustment
Roll gap calibration after roll change
Determination of passline after roll change
Determination of roll spring
Calculation of the position of the rolls => with the static Automatic Gage Control (AGC) before the rolling
Roll gap control (loop control) => with the dynamic Automatic Gage Control (AGC) during the rolling ( 1 sec cycle rate )
Position control of the hydraulic cylinders (very fast loop control) in both mode, to keep the setted cylinder position of the rolls
Precision: ± .05mm / .002”
The mill stands of the combination mill are equipped with SMS’ Technology Control System (TCS). After a roll change, the TCS is used to calibrate the roll gap, measure roll spring, and balance the rolls. The computerized pass schedule is automatically updated with revised absolute roll positioning based upon new roll diameters. During rolling, the TCS can be operated in two different modes. In the static mode, prior to hot steel entering the pass, the required roll gap is determined and rolls appropriately positioned. In the static mode, a dimensional accuracy of ± 0.05 mm can be obtained. In the dynamic mode, the roll gap and anticipated roll forces (compensating for roll spring) are calculated prior to the introduction of the steel. During rolling, load cell and hydraulic pressures are monitored on a one millisecond sampling time base. Based upon changing measurements, the computer-based Automatic Gag Control (AGC) dynamically adjusts servo-hydraulics valves to maintain the roll gap within the predetermined ranges. Actual roll response rate is on the order of 6 milliseconds. Thus a dimensional precision of ± 0.02 mm can be obtained as compensations for dimensional variations and temperature variations along the bar are made.
Precision: ± .02mm / .0008”
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

14. A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
Steel Dynamics, Inc.
Question and Answer
For more information contact:
Steel Dynamics, Inc.
Structural and Rail Division
2601 S 700 E
Columbia City, IN
(886) / (260)
A New Mill for the Production of Long Rails
D Rees-Evans, K Reid

15. Required Skills Problem Solving Communication Highly Analytical
Enjoys challenges
Time Management
In-depth business knowledge
Team oriented
Programming - .NET, PowerBuilder, C#, C++, PLSQL, TSQL
Strong GUI design
Database design
Wireless/RFID architecture
Project Management

16. Rolling Mill - Required Skills
Problem Solving
Communication
Highly Analytical
Math
Time Management
In-depth business knowledge
Team oriented
Skilled trades: pipe fitters, hydraulics, welding, electricians, mechanical
MS Office Suite
Project Management
CNC machining
Leadership

17. Melt Shop Mill - Required Skills
Problem Solving
Communication
Highly Analytical
Math
Time Management
In-depth business knowledge
Team oriented
Skilled trades: pipe fitters, hydraulics, welding, electricians, mechanical
MS Office Suite
Project Management
CNC machining
Leadership

18. Staff - Salaries

19. Salary - Management