Patent ID: 8322401

Claim:
A method to make long metal rolled products, comprising the following steps: continuous casting, made by a continuous casting machine including two casting lines, each of said two casting lines casting a cast product with a square, rectangular or equivalent section, wherein the section has a ratio of a longer side to a shorter side which is 1 to 41; shearing to size each of the cast products by each of the two casting lines to define a segment in each of the cast products, the segment having 16 to 150 m in length, and 10 to 100 tons in weight; direct introduction of each segment, each segment having an average temperature of 1000° C.-1150° C., into a maintenance and/or possible heating furnace, wherein the maintenance and/or heating furnace includes a first and a second movement sections, each of the first and the second movement sections disposed in axis respectively with each one of the two casting lines to receive each segment respectively; lateral transfer of each segment inside the maintenance and/or heating furnace transferring each segment to a third movement section disposed parallel and misaligned with respect to said first and said second movement sections and aligned to a rolling axis of a rolling line parallel and offset and disposed sideways, on a same side with respect to the two casting lines; reduction of the section in a rolling mill defining said rolling axis; and reduction/roughing of each cast product carried out by at least one additional reduction unit, the at least one additional reduction unit includes a rolling stand, wherein said reduction/roughing of the cast product is upstream of the maintenance and/or heating furnace when an entrance speed into the rolling stand of said additional reduction unit is less than about 0.08 m/s, and wherein said reduction/roughing of the cast product being downstream of the maintenance and/or heating furnace when the entrance speed into the rolling stand of said additional reduction unit is about 0.08 m/s or greater.