The company, a subsidiary of Solingen, Germany-based Egon Evertz KG GmbH & Co., operates four grinders, processing up to 182,000 tons of raw material per year. The grinders and the feeding tables are manufactured by the parent company, said Steve Miller, operations manager of the grinding division.
The firm’s top three customers are West Chester, Ohio-based AK Steel Corp.; Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor Corp.’s Hertford County, N.C., mill; and Haynes International Inc. in Kokomo, Ind., Miller said.
Evertz processes 8-inch-thick, 30-foot-long stainless steel slabs from AK Steel and 6- to 7-inch-thick slabs from Nucor that range from 60 to 120 inches wide, Miller said. AK Steel ships the slabs from its Butler, Pa., furnace, and Evertz surface-conditions them and ships them across the street to AK’s rolling mills in Middleton. Miller added that the company processes slabs and ingots for Haynes, whose sizes are smaller.
“We remove the surface by approximately one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch on each side. We expose sub¬surface defects and remove any that are left with a hand grinder,” he explained. “The point is to improve surface quality. (The mills) then roll the material into coil form.” In addition to its grinding facility, Evertz operates a metal-plating division across town. The company takes used continuous casting molds and reconditions them by reapplying lost copper and nickel plating. “By doing that, companies can save half the cost of a new mold,” Miller said.
Evertz performs the replating work for such compa¬nies as Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Steel Dynamics Inc. and Nucor. The idea to introduce bar grinding came from three potential customers. “We (would be) losing too much business if we don’t do it,” Miller said. The company’s combined operations have sales of roughly $6 million per year, according to Miller.
Corinna Petry cpetry@amm.com
22.08.2012 AMM daily (American Metal Market)
