At the heart of the slab casting process is the series of casting segments, through which a continuous slab of liquid metal with a thin outer crust is simultaneously bent, cooled and finally discharged onto a roll line. Each of the nine casting segments have two drive rollers, one on the top of the slab and one on the bottom. Several additional rollers on each casting segment guide the slab and help it to maintain its shape.

Because any misalignment or poor positioning of the rollers would result in stresses on the crust of the fragile product and could lead to a "breakout" of liquid steel, the 35-ton casting segments and their rollers had to be carefully placed to tolerances within three thousandths of an inch. It is almost impossible to adjust the rollers after they are set, so high tolerance levels had to be met during construction.

The project also included a complete water treatment plant with over 40 pumps, three cooling towers, three heat exchangers, an extensive hydraulic power system, a roll line of approximately 25 rollers to transport the slab to the rolling mill, a moving “torch table,” two 100-ton bridge cranes and other supporting pieces of equipment.