SCS UPDATE - March 2006

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Layhill Processing LLC completed installation of its SCS Sheet Line in February and is now processing sheets from its location near Knoxville, Tennessee.

Layhill processes material that is stretcher-leveled on its joint venture partner, Olympic Metals', Stretcher-Leveler Cut-to-Length line. The Layhill SCS Sheet Line processes sheets up to 72" wide by 240" long and 0.50" thick.

For more information, visit www.layhillprocessing.com

The Fulton County Processing (FCP) facility in Delta, Ohio could not have been put together 10 years ago . . . maybe even 5 years ago. That's the contention of Jim Wirth of Kelco Metals, one of the three companies that are equal partners in FCP. Wirth, along with his Kelco co-owners Matt Keller and Jean Switzer, teamed up with Heidtman Steel and Van Poppel Enterprises to form FCP in October 2001.

"Steel Service Centers have traditionally been fierce rivals, not partners," Wirth explained during a recent tour of FCP, "but times

The Toll Processing Trio That Is
Fulton County Processing
SCS News Bytes:
- Same Name, New Meaning
- Fabrication Guidelines Update
- SCS Fabrication 'Go-To' Guy
- New SCS Sales Brochures

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have changed. Consolidation in the industry has broken down traditional barriers and it makes sense to look to partners to fill gaps in capabilities or product lines. FCP does that for us."

.With 154,000 ft² under roof and modern slitting and packaging lines, FCP can fill a pretty big gap. Since it opened in June, 2002, FCP has toll processed primarily hot-rolled and galvanized coils for tubers, steel buildings and racks/store fixtures manufacturers. Located a mile from the North Star-Bluescope mini-mill in Delta, FCP offers big freight savings to customers of the mill who need their hot band slit and packaged quickly.

"We'll pick up at North Star, slit and deliver and it all goes on one invoice," explained Jim Van Poppel, General Manager of FCP. "It's true one stop shopping, at a QS 9000 certified shop,

Representing the three firms joined together in FCP are (left to right) Jim Wirth - Kelco Metals, Jim Van Poppel - FCP General Mgr. (holding the 3-1/2 year old SCS sample) and John Grossheim - Heidtman Steel.	soon to be TS 16949 certified." In a year from now, FCP customers will be able to add SCS processing
	to their shopping cart. That's when

FCP will begin producing on their new SCS Coil Line. The line will have a single Brushing Unit when it starts operation, but is configured to add a second, tandem Brushing Unit. Adding a second unit will boost throughput
to 32,000 tons/month - a level Van Poppel believes.

they'll need sometime in the line's second year.

.While Kelco Metal's involvement in FCP was a strategic decision to better manage cost -- replacing outsourced pickling with their own SCS processing -- for Heidtman Steel, FCP is an extension of an established commitment to SCS. Heidtman is a joint venture partner with TMW in the first-ever SCS Coil Line in Red Bud and will begin operating an SCS Sheet Line at its Butler, Indiana facility this summer. John Grossheim, Heidtman's National Accounts Manager for Processing Services, personifies that commitment to SCS technology.

"You could not have found anyone more skeptical of SCS than I was when I first learned of it three and a
half years ago," laughed Grossheim. " After all, I was one of Heidtman's 'point men' for pickling, having been heavily involved in our move into pickling in 1979. I thought there was no way SCS would stand the test of time. But I kept that SCS sample I had gotten three
and a half years ago and, as month after month went by, it never changed. It never rusted, never darkened ... nothing. So when the lab tests and shop tests showed that SCS also performed so well in downstream fabricating processes, I became convinced that SCS was the way we had to go."

Grossheim continued, "For us as a processor, the economics of SCS are provocative. It takes six people to run a pickling line. An SCS line takes two. Pickling requires large amounts of natural gas, which has become very expensive, whereas SCS uses only electricity which is very price-stable. And last fall, when Hurricane Katrina knocked out so much hydrochloric acid production, we were put on allocation for acid like everyone else. That hurt all the picklers and our customers. SCS uses just water -- I don't think we'll run short of water any time soon."

"SCS is a great example of a technology 'tipping-point'," added Wirth. "The evolution from batch pickling to push-pull picklers was an important technology change with clear advantages, but SCS is a much bigger deal. So Jim, John and I feel that bringing SCS into FCP is a pretty big deal for all our companies.

How big of a deal is SCS to FCP? "Well, let's just say there's room in that building for more than one SCS Coil Line, " said a grinning Jim Van Poppel.
"That's how serious we are about this technology."

Same Name - New Meaning

The acronym 'SCS' has stood for 'Stretched Cold-Rolled Surface', reflecting its attractive surface properties and our original belief that to brush
material it had to reach stretcher-leveled flatness.

The SCS Coil Line shows material doesn't have to
be stretcher-leveled to SCS brush it, although the stretching gets SCS sheets 'laser-flat'. The original meaning isn't correct for SCS coils, so we reworked
it to apply across-the-board. SCS now stands for Smooth-Clean-Surface, whether in coil form or stretcher-leveled sheets. We changed our web site
to reflect this and ask SCS producers and sellers
to do the same. Note: no changes are needed to
any TMW-provided literature you may have.

SCS Fabrication Guidelines Update

Continued experience with laser cutting SCS has
provided useful information that we recently added
to our SCS Lasering Recommendations. To get
the latest version download here.

Also, we put our recent rinse-only' SCS paint prep
findings into the new Paint Prep Rinse Guidelines.
To get your copy, download here..

The SCS Fabrication 'Go-To' Guy
Our SCS Fabrication Guidelines are useful, but sometimes there's no substitute for talking with the expert. For answers to SCS fabrication questions,
call Bob Hoffman at (618) 282-4200 xt. 113, or you
can email Bob at BobH@thematwks.com

New SCS Sales Brochures
Two new SCS brochures are available and if you produce or sell SCS, we think you'll find them very useful. One explains how SCS differs from P&O, in both physical properties and performance in many fabricating processes. The other makes this comparison between SCS and hot-rolled black.

These are intended to help fabricators getting their
first exposure to SCS know what to expect and how
to get the most out of processing SCS. To order or download copies, use this link.