EUROPEAN STEEL TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION DAYS 2017 - ESTAD 2017

The European steel industry identified digitization as a key enabling technology not only for maintaining its world-wide leading role with respect to product quality, but also for pushing the limits and raising efficiency, reliability and quality to a next level. Recently, many steel companies updated and overhauled existing infrastructures and prepared for being “BigData-ready” and to apply...

Modern information and communication technologies like Business Intelligence, Big Data or Cloud Computing will help predict the possibility to increase productivity, quality and flexibility within the manufacturing industry and thus to understand advantages within the competition. From the first introduction of Q3Intelligence more than 10 years ago, Danieli Automation has always focused on...

State-of-the-art automation information technology and connectivity enables the digitalization of steel production that goes far beyond conventional automation of industrial production. Initiatives have been started around the globe to foster digitalization like IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) in the US, Industry 4.0 in Germany or China2025. Primetals Technologies is actively driving the...

The challenging and competitive market situation caused by worldwide excess capacity forces more and more steel producers into the market of high-quality, high-price products in order to increase their profits. Compared to commodity grades high-quality products pose substantial demands on the quality management, which has to address extremely tight production tolerances across the entire...

Modeling Metals production becomes more challenging due to the constant increase of diversification on one hand and higher quality requirements on the other. At the same time globalization drives the metals industries towards modern ERP “standards” that by default are designed for assembly production. All attempts to model metals production by BoMs are failing as soon as the constantly...

Numerical simulation methods such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) are increasingly used in the steel industry to provide quick and economical tools for problem-solving and design. Game engines such as Unity 3D have become important tools for developing interactive applications such as serious games and training applications. However, little work has been...

European steel is decisively driven by product quality and customer demand. Industry 4.0 is yet a blurry term, nowadays being praised for bringing disruptive advantages for modern manufacturing industries in the next decades. Many people are overwhelmed by the diversity invoked by the word Industry 4.0 and although many applications are emerging, practical examples are rarely described or...

Data mining process has proved to be very valuable for addressing industrial issues such as understanding defect crisis. However, for the methodology to be successful, several key criteria have to be fulfilled: * Data has to be relevant and well prepared * Rigorist mathematical, statistical and modeling methodologies have to be used to assess result robustness. * As many process knowledge...

MES systems constitute the central information and management platform for the entire process sequence of a plant and its ancillary equipment in the metal-producing industry. It is linked with the automation systems of all plants and it receives status information, production data and process data. In the SMS group X-Pact® MES 4.0 modules, comprehensive technological control systems ensure...

Maintenance is gaining more and more attention in the steel industry as companies realize that it is critical to monitor the condition of assets to increase plant availability and reduce the risk of an unplanned shutdown. Due to global overcapacities, modernization investments have been reduced, pushing plant equipment to its maximum lifecycle level. To reduce unplanned shutdowns, increase...

Evolving market conditions in today’s world – increased variability, volatility and complexity – require more agility than ever for metals supply chains. The bottom line is that future supply chain ROI maximization will not so much be driven by unit cost minimization but by the pro-motion and protection of flow of materials and information. This implies revisiting today’s MRP and ERP systems...

A methodology has been developed for improving the operational efficiency and cost competitiveness of steel plants. The salient features of this methodology which is implemented working closely with steel plant personnel, includes internal benchmarking, comparison with best practice (similar class) after normalization of key performance indicators (KPIs), fundamental process analysis including...

The utilization of production facilities in an optimum way, with reliable due date fulfillment, reducing raw material and energy consumption, are challenges iron and steel companies are facing in their business every day. By using an APS Advanced Planning and Scheduling System such goals can be achieved to increase the competitiveness of iron and steel producers. A sophisticated APS...

With increasing computing power, data storage capacity, advanced algorithms and innovative sensor technolo-gies it is today possible to approach the BOF process from another point of view: machine learning models and Data-driven Prediction Models (DdPM). These approaches process large amounts of data to predict the BOF process conditions, e.g. temperature, carbon and phosphorus content of the...

Industrie 4.0 is slowly but surely arriving in the melt shops. Furnaces are being equipped with more and more sensors, digital models are increasing the degree of automation, and information is being shared between different aggregates within the plant. Because the electrode control system plays a key role in electric steelmaking, it naturally assumes an important position in the melt...

Indoor positioning of steel ladles using beacons ------------------------------------------------ ---------- In recent years significant progress has been achieved in the field of Bluetooth technology. While the Bluetooth functionality is well-known since the 1990s, it was recently that new application scenarios have occurred originating from the energy saving Bluetooth version BLE...

Despite continuous progress in roll development and improved rolling conditions, the control of work roll performances remains a major concern for the hot strip mill. One shortcoming is objective information and knowledge about the roll degradation and the origin. To address this situation, several hot rolling mills introduced a work roll evaluation procedure that is performed at the end of...

Dr.-Ing. Jens Kempken, Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Hüper, Dr. Martin Blaesner Key words: Process, product, performance, optimization, quality management, expert know how, automation, digitisation, A competitive landscape pressurizes the steel producers business, zero defect requirements from customers forces the producers for additional efforts in process control and quality management. The so...

Hans Peintinger Managing Director QuinLogic GmbH, Aachen Smart factory, high flexibility, short time to market & efficiency in industrial scale are key words of Industry 4.0. The growing quality requirements in high end products are same time an enormous challenge, which are very often in competition with efficiency targets and market driven cost cutting measures. This paper...

Semi-finished steel and Special alloy products need to be cut for further processing. In most cases (e. g. for cold cutting of bright bars, etc.), shortest-possible cutting cycles, precise and clean cuts are a must. 2 cutting technologies, abrasive cutting and cold circular sawing, meet these requirements. For certain material grades, however, cold circular sawing is the more economic solution...

Today’s steel producers face the dual challenge of ensuring on-time delivery and ever demanding product requirements while also running a lean operation. Every day the management of a long rolling plant requires continuous optimization of both operating and business practices. Utilizing the evolution in technology (data collection, communication, internet of things, control techniques and...

The purpose of this document is to describe the new technology developed increase the safety, reduce the manpower needed in dangerous areas, increase the traceability and reduce the risk of mistakes in the production. The integration, made in different steps, both in automation and robotics side introduce the concept of the industry 4.0, the digitalization of the information shared with the...