The client is Jiang Yin Xing Cheng Special Steel Works Co. Ltd. (Jiangyin, China), a subsidiary of the Jiangyin Steel Group, to which Wuxi Xingcheng also belongs. The surface treatment plant is scheduled for commissioning in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The volume of the order is approximately 6 million euros and covers engineering, supply, assembly and commissioning of a complete, automatic continuous tunnel pickling line for wire coils. The plant can treat bearing, spring and cold-drawn steels in the form of wire rods and drawn wires with an annual capacity of approximately 120,000 tonnes. The surface treatment plant comprises the following process stages: pre-treatment with potassium permanganate/sodium hydroxide, multi-stage pickling, zinc phosphating as well as borax coating, soaping or lime coating with the necessary rinsing stages.
In addition to the surface treatment plant, the order includes Steuler Anlagenbau implementing a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) wastewater treatment plant. It recovers a large proportion of the water from the spent acids, spent solutions and rinsing water and feeds it back into the process as fresh water. The solids contained in the process solutions as well as the dissolved acids, salts and metals are neutralised using lime and converted into a solid suitable for disposal. Thus the entire surface treatment plant operates without generating wastewater (ZLD).
This is already the third surface technology order Steuler Anlagenbau has received that incorporates the STEULER-ZLD process. There is an increasing demand for surface treatment plants that operate without generating wastewater from China, India and other Asiatic countries, because ever greater emphasis is being placed on significantly reducing environmental and water pollution in these regions. Besides operating without generating any wastewater (ZLD), the entire Steuler process is characterised by very low operating costs too. They are well below those associated with conventional methods of wastewater treatment, such as neutralisation, precipitation, drainage and discharge into an on-site soak pit or sewer.