Patent ID: 6956187

Claim:
A steel plate splicing facility comprising: a steel plate heating apparatus structured and arranged for retrieving a preceding steel plate from a first coil and heating the retrieved preceding steel plate upon a shear-joining operation and for retrieving a following steel plate from a second coil and heating the retrieved following steel plate upon the shear-joining operation; and a shear-joining apparatus structured and arranged for clamping a tail end portion of the preceding steel plate and a leading end portion of the following steel plate in an overlapping condition by means of a die and a clamp and for shearing the tail end portion of the preceding steel plate and the leading end portion of the following steel plate by means of a punch in such a manner that surfaces of the tail end portion and the leading end portion that are newly formed as a result of the shearing are brought in contact with each other in order to join the leading end portion of the following steel plate to the tail end portion of the preceding steel plate; wherein the shear-joining apparatus is structured and arranged so that the apparatus joins the steel plate and the following steel plate at a temperature equal to or higher than 350° C. and at a percentage clearance c/t equal to or lower than 5%, the percentage clearance c/t being defined by c/t=D /( t 1 +t 2 )×100 where D represents a distance between the punch and the die, and t 1 and t 2 represent respective thicknesses of the preceding steel plate and the following steel plate as measured at a location where the preceding steel plate and the following steel plate overlap each other.