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Butech Bliss gets contract with world’s largest steel producer
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Steve Smith, a fitter and welde at Butech Bliss in Salem on Tuesday .worked on a special lifting beam that will only be used in the .teardown and reinstallation of steel shears in Europe.
By D.A. WILKINSON
SALEM
Butech Bliss will load up some of its equipment, put it on a ship in Cleveland and send it to Europe next month.
No, the company isn’t closing.
Butech Bliss has been awarded a contract to help build the world’s largest hot-steel slab shear for ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel producer, according to Jock Buta, Butech Bliss’ executive vice president.
The metal to be sheared will be red-hot steel fresh from a furnace. The steel will be 3 inches thick and 87 inches wide. Both ends must be cut while the steel roll is moving at about 200 feet per minute.
The cuts will be made with mammoth shears built by Butech Bliss. The shears are large metal towers that will have steel running through their centers. The shears will be built here, disassembled and then reassembled at the ArcelorMittal plant.
The machinery will weigh about 2 million pounds. The gearbox for the shears has 18,000 horsepower.
Why did the company get the contract?
Because of Butech Bliss’ high technology in custom machining along with strong engineering and electrical know-how.
“We were awarded the best technical design,” Buta said.
Because of the design, he added, they can run bigger, heavier and stronger steel than with some other designs, Buta said.
Throughout the plant here, various portions of the shears and other components are being readied. A roll of copper the size of a large trash can will be turned into a gigantic nut on the shears.
One of the company’s workers, Steve Smith, a fitter and a welder, is working on a special lifting beam that will be used only during the reassembly of the shears.
The company also is making huge replacement blades for the shears.