The Blue Box

new generation of water boxes

FROM COOLING LIMITATIONS
TO A NEW APPROACH

Rolling at reduced and precisely defined temperatures is essential for normalizing and thermo-mechanical process routes. Material grade, bar diameter, rolling speed and, consequently, equalization length and mill layout all influence the target temperature before the last decisive formation step.

Today, mills use different cooling technologies during the rolling process. These conventional cooling lines, however, have grown ever longer and highly complex over time: more water boxes, more cooling strands, extensive piping and valve stations – and still the process challenges remain, such as inhomogeneous cooling across the section and the well‑known “black stripe” phenomenon on the bar surface.

With the Blue Box series, KOCKS sets a clear counterpoint to conventional water box designs.

A NEW CHAPTER IN CONTROLLED COOLING

RETHINKING WATER BOXES
FOR HOMOGENOUS RESULTS

The internal design of the Blue Box series has been completely re-imagined and consequently re‑engineered. Instead of cooling pipes, the Blue Box uses patented cooling heads equipped with spray nozzle rings, creating an overlapping spray pattern. The cooling heads and spray rings and can be replaced quickly and easily when required. Thanks to its minimized weight, this can even be done manually.

This design achieves

Extremely uniform cooling over circumference and along length
Reduced water consumption compared to conventional cooling
Continuous removal of residual water from the product surface

The Blue Box: A cooling system that can be finely tuned to process needs, supporting most stable rolling conditions.

High cooling performance

The Blue Box with its modern design, combines significantly lower water consumption with a minimal footprint

Reduced space requirement

Thanks to its compact design and the elimination of cooling tubes, the Blue Box is up to 50 percent shorter than a conventional water box.

Homogeneous cooling results

Spray nozzle rings, the core element of each water box, lead to extremely uniform cooling over the circumference.

Precise control concept

The advanced control concept offers significant flexibility due to the individual controllability of each cooling head.

Flexible cooling strategies

The Blue Box automation system ensures accurate temperature control for highly precise thermo-mechanical rolling processes.

A NEW LEVEL OF CONTROLLABILITY

THE ANSWER FOR
TODAY’S COOLING CHALLENGES

With its innovative plant design, intelligent process automation and operational advantages, the KOCKS Blue Box series breaks the traditional trade‑off between more economical cooling processes and higher process quality.

Functions & Features

Fine adjustment of water flow and pressure for each cooling head
Flexible cooling tailored to material, dimension and rolling speed
Targeted correction of temperature deviations during production

Blue Box also sets new standards in piping and maintenance. Instead of individually piped cooling strands, water is supplied via a single main feed. Special seals minimize the amount of piping. When changing the cooling strand, the water box is moved horizontally until the selected cooling line is positioned above the supply connection.

THE EFFECTS IN PRODUCTION

A NEW MILESTONE FOR LONG PRODUCT COOLING

The Blue Box technology has been successfully proven in mill operation for various steel grades. For instance, in normalizing rolling of spring steel 51CrV4 (SAE 6150) a pre‑section of Ø 46.6 mm was cooled down to 800 °C before the last deformation step and then rolled to a final size of Ø 40.5 mm with a total area reduction of 22.2%.

The results show a very fine ferrite‑pearlite microstructure, much more homogeneous than can be achieved with conventional cooling with ring gap nozzles. Cooling with Blue Boxes also has a notably positive effect on the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties.

In addition, water consumption was reduced by more than 30% for the same target rolling temperature.

Residual water on the bar surface is avoided throughout the box, even at high pressures and flow rates. Uncontrolled water discharge is prevented, classical water strippers become unnecessary – and the effect of black stripes on the bar surface is eliminated.

REDUCING COOLING TRIALS

REALISTIC DIGITAL TWINS
FOR PROCESS & MATERIAL

The Process and Microstructure Simulator is a software model for bar, wire rod and tube mills that adds powerful digital twinning capabilities to the rolling process. It provides temperature profile investigations along the process and models the resulting microstructure evolution within the material.

Seen in the context of energy efficiency, material development, product strategy and process optimization, the application of this software offers a high number of advantages.

This software offers

Economic benefits in the development and optimization of rolling processes and alloy concepts
Cost savings due to a drastic reduction of extensive rolling trials
In-advance material investigations and examination of alternative rolling and cooling processes for materials.
Analysis of parameters of the finished product

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Bluebox Vergleich

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KEY TECHNICAL FACTS
AT A GLANCE

Thanks to the new spray concept, fewer cooling strands per water box are required. For example, for a diameter range of 20 to 100 mm, only two cooling strands are needed instead of four. This reduces complexity and frees up process space for other functions such as additional reduction or equalization zones.

For mills with very tight space constrains or specific product ranges, the Blue Box mini is available as a highly compact single‑strand variant that integrates optimally into existing lines with minimal space requirement.

Diameter Range	20mm - 100mm Always based on product mix
Cooling Technology	Spray Cooling
Footprint	X × Y m
Number of strands With additional Bypass	2 for all dimensions 1 with BlueBox mini