Steel Construction Vol 40 No 3 - Mining, Industrial, Import/ Export | Page 27

SAISC TECHNICAL
In April 2016 a crew from Sian Clarke
Communications, a production company
with a proud history of providing excellent
audiovisual services for the SAISC’s
Steel Awards, flew to Omaha Nebraska.
Their mission? To meet up with Redbud
Industries vice President of Sales and
Marketing – Dean Linders and capture the
milestone achievement in the company’s
history.
In 2015, Paxton & Vierling Steel built a
200 000 square-foot processing center next
to its headquarters just outside of Omaha,
Nebraska. The new facility was specifically
designed to house a massive Heavy-Gauge
Cut-To-Length/Stretcher Leveling Line,
built by Red Bud Industries, Red Bud,
Illinois, USA. The line, which is one of the
largest of its type in the world, integrates
a number of unique features and the latest
in coil leveling and blanking technology.
This includes a Fully Automated Storage
and Retrieval System that feeds three
sophisticated fiber lasers – a combination
found nowhere else in the country.
The new Red Bud line is rated for 1-inch
(25.4mm) material at 77 inches (1 955mm)
wide and has an 80 000-pound (36mt)
coil capacity, with a maximum speed of
200 FPM (60mpm). It can handle highstrength, 72-inch-wide (1 829mm) coils
from 16 gauge (1.6mm) up to three-fourths
of an inch (19mm) thick at 80 000 psi
(551Nmm2) yield.
The process begins when pre-staged coils
are automatically retrieved and loaded onto
a Dual Stub Uncoiler. After being unwound,
the steel first passes through a Precision
Roller Leveler where rolls are used to
precondition the strip prior to it being
stretched. Next, the strip enters Red Bud’s
3 000-ton Stretcher Leveler, which applies
enormous force to grip and stretch the

strip. Stretching the steel by up to
2 percent exceeds its yield point, thereby
equalizing trapped internal stresses that can
otherwise cause the material to warp when
it is cut, formed, or made into parts. After
being stretched, a massive 300 tonne shear
is used to cut the leveled material into
sheets of various sizes up to 64 feet (19.5
meters) in length. Each of these sheets can
weigh as much as 10 000 lbs. (4 536kg) or
more. Once cut, the parts are neatly piled in
stacks that weigh up to 40 000 lbs.
(18 144kg). The combination of roller and
stretcher leveling produces material that
is perfectly flat and cut and stacked into
bundles that resemble a deck of cards.

(2.7mt) each deliver material to three
TRUMPF fiber lasers, which cut parts at
high quality and high speeds. Once the
parts are cut, they are moved by magnetic
lifters to Sorting Tables for packaging and
shipment.

A shuttle table at the end of the line
moves the blanks perpendicularly into an
Automated Storage and Retrieval System.
The Automated Racking System can store
up to 1.4 million pounds (635mt) of steel.
Cassettes holding up to 6 000 pounds

OPPOSITE BELOW: Coil storage areas.

A big thank you from the SAISC to Sian,
her team and her client Red Bud for
letting Steel Construction readers share
this historical moment.

OPPOSITE ABOVE: Part of the decoil/slitter line.

ABOVE: The rest of the decoil/slitter line.
BELOW LEFT: Unravelling coil.
BELOW RIGHT: Stacking and bundling.

Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 3 2016 25