USA The project concerns the tartan bar production of Scot Forge, one of the company's key products. In February 1998 a new automated bar mill at Scot Forge's Clinton, Wisconsin, works began production runs of a new type of bar, trade named the Tartan Bar, which is round to one-half of the AISI tolerance for a hot rolled bar. The Tartan Bar is a forged bar with a fully consolidated centre and a hot-rolled surface. Metallurgically, it is identical to a bar formed entirely by forging. Tartan Bars can be produced in smaller quantities with shorter lead times than hot-rolled bars.
Orders are necessarily large, and lead times can run from two to four months.
The new reversing mill gives the ability to do with one stand, at a lower cost, what would normally require several stands, and the line automation allows Scot Forge to make custom sizes. The company stated that it is economically practical to purchase the production of only one ingot. Lead times are from two to four weeks, and the company goal is one week for untreated bars, and two weeks for heat-treated metal. Scot Forge's Tartan Bars feature a fully consolidated forged centre, and a surface that is finished by multiple-pass rolling. The runout table and multiple-stage cooling bed were built by Voest Alpine, which also integrated the line controls.