Founded in 1829, Waelzholz today is an innovative and internationally-active family-owned company employing cutting-edge technology, with branches on four continents. Over 2400 employees throughout the world manufacture tailor-made steel strip and profiles not just in Europe, but in China, North America and South America as well.

A LEADER IN THE HARDENING AND TEMPERING SECTOR

Cooperation between the Waelzholz Group and EBNER began in 1985, with the successful commissioning of their first EBNER hardening and tempering line for steel strip. This line was designed to martemper carbon steel strip with a width of up to 650 mm and a thickness of up to 4.0 mm.

In the following years, additional EBNER lines for various Waelzholz works in Germany and Brazil were commissioned. Since then, seven EBNER hardening & tempering lines designed to produce carbon steel strip with martensitic, bainitic or sorbitic microstructures have gone into operation.

THE CONCEPT BEHIND THE NEWEST HARDENING AND TEMPERING LINE

The new hardening and tempering line for steel strip, currently the most powerful line in the world, has been producing high-quality carbon steel since 2019. It is distinguished by the following features:

• A highly-flexible austenitizing furnace with a roller transport system guarantees short times when switching between temperatures, as well as the lowest possible exhaust gas emissions due to the use of a special strip heating system.
• The high capacity molten metal quench is equipped with automatic level control for the molten metal, as well as a thermal energy management system.
• The martensite cooling section supports a wide range of product types and ensures a high degree of reproducibility.
• The tempering section, with a leveling furnace that can be precisely adjusted and a HICON tempering furnace equipped with a jet nozzle system, provides a high level of uniformity and ensures that quick changes can be made in the processing conditions.
• The high degree of automation, with pre-setting functions and weld seam tracking integrated into the processing steps, ensures that high productivity is paired with low personnel requirements.