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By G. Martino, F. Silva, Emmanuel Marchal

The definition of the chemical specification at multiple steps of the steelmaking process is very common in the industry. Among all elements and compounds, the Sulphur content has a special control over several stages, from the coal blend to the final products. Coke, iron and steelmaking specialists usually agree on a static specification for each intermediate product according to their local operation capacity and production cost. However, local decisions have major impacts on the whole production chain and many global factors should be considered in order to make the best decision. In this study, we will exemplify focusing on Sulphur content concepts and techniques that could be applied to many decisions in an integrated carbon steel plant. The variation of coal and coke prices, the desulphurization cost and time, the processes operating points, the hot metal rate at converters, prices and demands of low and ultra-low Sulphur steel grades are some of the integrated factors that are usually disregarded during the specification process. Mathematical modeling presents itself as a proper option into dealing with all the complexity that emerges from integrating all these processes' trade-offs and decisions. This study presents the results of a mathematical model that encompasses economic, thermal, chemical, and mass balances, physical quality of materials and productivity constraints of all processes of a hypothetical integrated carbon steel plant. It optimizes the iron and steelmaking process on a global and unique objective, dynamically defining targets for product quality to achieve the lowest steel production cost. This study details multiple market-plant scenarios in order to compare economic and operating results of a static vs dynamic specification practice.

Oct 1, 2019

By Michael Windhager, Karl H. Ziehenberger

ULTIMA® are high performance, centrifugal cast, double poured (CC duplex) work rolls. This paper describes the principle of the ULTIMA® roll concept and its wide range of usability. The ULTIMA® concept provides a solution for rod and bar mills to increase performance and output, even under harsh rolling conditions. The main focus is on highly loaded mill stands that require both high wear resistance and resistance against thermal fatigue, like pre-dog bone, dog bone, slitter. Specific case studies of quite different mill configurations and rolled product mix prove the positive impact on production yield, mill and roll shop operations, and profitability in terms of TCO (total cost of ownership).

Oct 1, 2019

By Javier Martinez Rubio

In this paper we will discuss the benefits of a very innovative way of introducing MgO in the blast furnace operation through the sinter, using mini lumps of dunite. By changing the traditional way of using an MgO bearing material in fines form (particle smaller than 5 mm), most of the MgO inserted material behaves as inert during the sintering process, with the effect of having the following parameters (among others) improved: productivity at the sintering bed, permeability inside the blast furnace, energy consumption, stability of the operation.

Aug 16, 2017

By Henrique Silva Furtado

This paper presents the results obtained on the exchange of an original old blow charge model for a new up-to-date state of art global model, employing optimization techniques and process modelling, and, the results obtained in terms of fluxes consumption reduction and the introduction of user friendly tools and practices.

Aug 17, 2017

By Jovanir Francisqueto, José Fagundes, Nayara Neves Coutinho, Marco Túlio Costa

The purpose of this project is to increase the visibility of which will be daily produced on the hot strip mill (HSM). The forecast was performed through the implementation of an automated tool for weekly HSM production planning. The project was started with the definition of the weekly planning process, through the determination of the main business objectives, like as: priorities of service (customers and delivery date), definition of HSM’s rules and restrictions of operating resources. Using a sophisticated mathematical model, through the computational simulation is possible the experimentation of various production scenarios, allowing the visualization of volumes by type of sequence, clients / priorities, mix to be produced, cylinder change quantity forecast, better forecasting of the productivity of the HSM, consumption of utilities, within others. Main benefits: sequencing which production orders should be produced, reducing unforeseen stops due lack of material, improving the quality of the stock which allows the reduction of the aging of slabs in the slabyard and the vision of customer services. Computational simulation as a weekly planning tool achieve, with other benefits, to present alternatives for better decision making.

Oct 6, 2019

By Ivan R. Jankov

No setor industrial no mundo todo, são exigidas as emissões cada vez mais restritivas. Nas plantas onde o Precipitador Eletrostático já está instalado, a solução com o melhor custo-benefício para reduzir as emissões de material particulado abaixo de 20 mg/Nm3 é com o Filtro Híbrido. Esta tecnologia consiste em combinação dos princípios de operação de um Precipitador Eletrostático (utilizado na entrada do sistema), com uso de campo elétrico para separação de material particulado do fluxo gasoso, e de um Filtro de Mangas (utilizado na saída do sistema), com uso de tecido para retenção de material particulado. Salienta-se que a viabilidade de implementação do Filtro Híbrido depende da configuração original do Precipitador Eletrostático (i.e. altura das placas, número de campos, largura da carcaça) que determina o espaço disponível para mangas, bem como as velocidades máximas do gás dentro da carcaça. Na indústria siderúrgica, este tipo de retrofit já é utilizado em planta de sinterização, mas também é aplicável para despoeiramento de fornos de cal e de plantas de pelotização.

Oct 30, 2017

By Maria Olivia de Barros Almeida

O intuito do presente trabalho é identificar, dentre as proporções entre resina e catalisador analisadas cineticamente, a melhor condição de cura. O mecanismo de cura das resinas epóxi é um dos mais estudados e a técnica mais utilizada no estudo deste comportamento é a calorimetria exploratória diferencial (DSC). Neste trabalho, foi utilizado o equipamento DSC 1, fabricada pela Mettler Toledo, pelo método dinâmico. Por meio da técnica de DSC, pode-se observar perfis de cura, temperatura de transição vítrea e a determinação das melhores condições de preparação de compósitos. A reação de cura de resinas termofixas é um processo complexo, definido como uma mudança irreversível nas propriedades químicas e físicas por uma reação química. Estabelecendo-se as condições ideais de cura, a resina epoxi resulta em uma estrutura rígida altamente reticulada, a qual combina as excelentes propriedades térmicas, mecânicas, resistência química.

Aug 17, 2017

By Paul Riches

LR Process Expert is a cost-efficient process automation system for all types of long rolling mills, including, rod, bar, section, rail, reversing mills, and flat blocks. The system performs a wide range of tasks for optimized operation – from suggesting pass schedules to calculating and downloading optimized mill settings according to the availability of rolls. LR Process Expert also monitors and collects data from the raw material stage through to the finished product. It delivers valuable mill reports to the operator staff and management so they can easily assess a plant’s performance and optimize production. Defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help to assess a plant’s performance; this system is not limited to one plant but can enable plant-toplant performance at corporate level.

Aug 16, 2017

By Fernando Velazquez Guzman

Titanium is an alloying element used to refine grain size in steel and improve its physical and mechanical properties. In some stainless steels it is used to increase the resistance to corrosion by the precipitation of titanium carbides or carbonitrides. Its alloying performance is highly variable and depends largely on the stage of the secondary metallurgy process when it is added. Furthermore, the addition method (wire injection or direct addition) has a remarkable influence in secondary refining. This paper describes the tests performed in vacuum degasser (VD), with a highly compacted and encapsulated Ferrotitanium wire (FeTi HC). The yield of titanium in steel increased from 52% to 89%. Moreover, the consumption of the highly compacted Ferrotitanium was optimized.

Oct 30, 2017

By Marcel Antonio Arcari Bassani

In the mining industry, it is common to have data collected in various formats. In an open pit mining operation, at the early stages of exploration samples are obtained from diamond drillholes. During the production stage, samples are collected from blastholes. The last is more numerous but less precise. From a geostatistical view, this dissimilarity has to be considered to integrate the two sources of information. To combine this different data, three methodologies were investigated: simple kriging with local varying mean, cokriging and ordinary kriging. The exhaustive Walker Lake data set was used and it is considered the source to obtain the true grades. Initially, samples were obtained from the exhaustive data set at a regular spacing grid of 20 x 20 meters. Next, samples were obtained again from the exhaustive dataset at a regular spacing of 5 x 5 meters and a relative error of 25% was added. Then, both data were used to estimate blocks using the three methods mentioned. The grade tonnage curves were compared with the true block grade distribution. Moreover, the block misclassification was evaluated. The results showed that ordinary kriging produced estimates closer to the true block grade distribution and reduced the block misclassification.

Aug 8, 2018

By Mirko Jurkovic, Thomas Hueper, Jens Kempken

The high competition scenario pushes the steel producers business. Zero defect requirements from customers force the operators for additional efforts in process control and quality management. PQA® has been developed as an advanced process and quality management assurance solution. It is focusing on the analysis of process data, equipment information, inline quality measurement devices and trend analysis. The paper describes the structure of the advanced process and quality management assurance solution PQA®; it gives insights on the expert know-how, process and quality evaluation and points out the benefits like cost reduction, improvement yield and customer satisfaction increase.

Oct 1, 2019

In today’s competitive steelmaking environment, the optimization and continuous supervision of the blast furnace process is of major importance. Modern probes and process measurement systems can assess the specific operation of the blast furnace. They provide a better and detailed process understanding and control. The benefits are even more important when they are combined with process models and expert systems. Everyday operation, productivity and even the lifetime of a blast furnace can be significantly improved by collecting, interpreting and acting upon such process data correctly. Only a comprehensive knowledge of the various process phenomena together with measurement of process variables inside the blast furnace enables the operators to optimize coke and fuel rates, to run the blast furnace smooth, reliable, and safe, and to make best use of the available raw materials. While the improvement of the blast furnace process with respect to productivity remains the main task, also, the timely identification of abnormalities and the assessment of process variations is an objective. This paper describes the blast furnace measurement systems that are available for everyday automatic use and provides an understanding for the possibilities of modern probes. The different applications are daily blast furnace supervision, charging process optimization, and observation of the internal state. Finally, the paper gives recommendations on probe configurations for different blast furnaces sizes, considering both a technical and an economical point of view.

Aug 2, 2018

By Luiz Antônio da Silva

Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar os resultados do procedimento de geração de energia elétrica adicional a geração econômica na CTE2 com gás natural, visando a redução de custo no grupo CSN.O estudo foi efetuado através da avaliação dos preços do mercado de curto prazo de energia elétrica e análise do processo de geração da planta, aos quais permitiram diagnosticar as melhores praticas e definir a melhor configuração operacional.Os resultados apresentados foram significativos para as condições de operação, o que representa redução do custo de energia elétrica para o grupo CSN e aumento da segurança operacional da planta da CTE2.

Jul 31, 2018

By Milca Ventura dos Santos, Ricardo Rodrigues Grizotti, Luciano Henrique Andrade de Resende, Francisco Ricardo Casa Neto, Paulo Roberto de Oliveira Junior, Bruno Rodrigues Ferreira

O trabalho tem por objetivo demonstrar o processo de desenvolvimento e implantação da automatização nas operações, atividades de almoxarifados (recebimento, armazenagem, movimentação, inventário, picking e entrega de materiais), com o uso da tecnologia SAP FIORI com interface nos sistemas operacionais Android e IOS para utilização do Mobile (smartphones e tablet’s), já alinhado ao momento da indústria 4.0, visando inovações tecnológicas nos campos de automação, controle e tecnologia da informação. O desenvolvimento nesta nova plataforma visa tornar as operações de almoxarifados mais ágeis e eficientes, buscando otimizar o processamento das informações com mais rapidez, redução do tempo de permanência das mercadorias nas áreas de transferência e gerar maior rastreabilidade dos processamentos com interface direta e on-line com o ERP-SAP da organização. A metodologia do trabalho foi identificar as oportunidades de explorar as melhores potencialidades das soluções do SAP Fiori, alinhadas aos sistemas operacionais Android e IOS para uso de celulares, tablet’s, com comunicação através da rede interna e/ou 3G/4G sempre visando otimizar todas as atividades operacionais (fluxo de materiais) e administrativas (fluxo de informações) dentro dos processos dos almoxarifados e suas áreas de interface. O projeto iniciou-se e sendo implementado nas unidades de Planos (ArcelorMittal Tubarão e Vega), e com plano de expansão para as unidades de Longos da ArcelorMital Brasil durante o ano de 2019. Nesta primeira etapa o resultado alcançado foi de plena adequação, tendo sido encontrado benefícios em redução de erros; aumento de segurança; redução de custos; otimização de processos; transparência em dados; customização de produtos, o qual espera-se que a curva de aprendizado naturalmente nos levará a adoção de novas soluções incrementais resultando nos melhores níveis de gestão do processo de armazenagem e movimentação de materiais.

Oct 1, 2019

By Jan Krull

A high productive coke making process in connection with stringent emission control has clearly become a demand of plant operators and stakeholders. Further to this, availability, quality and coal costs are key concerns for the iron and steel industry in its efforts to optimize raw material cost. Today, the optimization of raw material cost in integrated steel works has further gained priority. Coking coal reflects up to 20% of the cost of steel. In top charged batteries coal preparation and blending is one of the concerns to lower coal cost by maximizing the percentage of non-coking coals in the blend. Stamp charging technology is technologically and economically an effective solution in the process of pre-carbonisation. Paul Wurth’s jumbo top charged oven as well as proven stamp charging technology have recently set new benchmarks in Europe, India and Brazil in terms of productivity, stability and emission control.

Aug 1, 2018

By Lucas Beirão do Valle

Este artigo visa estudar polímeros como quitosana, amido entre outros com elevada disponibilidade como agentes aglomerantes no processo de pelotização de minério de ferro e discutir sobre o impacto da sua utilização. Os polímeros foram testados preliminarmente no teste de bancada (teste em pneu), para medir qualitativamente a tendência de aglomeração. Os polímeros com melhores resultados foram testados em escala piloto, que simula o processo industrial. Nos testes preliminares, o amido gelificado apresentou os melhores resultados de resistência física de pelotas verdes e secas. Entretanto, no teste piloto o amido não foi capaz de controlar a umidade superficial. Os outros polímeros não foram considerados promissores, principalmente devido ao controle da umidade superficial.

Aug 1, 2018

By Felipe Fardin Grillo

The aim of this work was to study the use of slags to desulfurization of cast iron. It was proposed to use alumina instead fluorspar. In addition, marble waste was used instead lime. Simulations applying Thermo-Calc software were performed in order to obtain the theoretical phases thermodynamic data. Then, a comparison between theoretical data and experimental tests were performed. The cast iron was melting in induction furnace at 1550°C. Slags composed mainly for CaO and Al2O3 were used to cast iron desulphurization. It was observed that increasing liquid phase, the desulphurization reaction was favored. Besides, it was found that cast iron desulfurization occurs by top slag mechanism.

Aug 17, 2017

By Edo Engel

Whereas only a handful of decades ago, typical blast furnace working volumes were below 1000 m³, such furnaces are currently designated compact or even mini blast furnaces. For certain business cases, however, small furnace sizes remain an attractive option. Decades ago, this size blast furnace would have produced a maximum of 0.3 Mtpa with its 600 m³ working volume over a campaign of up to four years. The current state of technology and operational know–how will allow a similarly sized furnace to produce over 0.7 Mtpa while achieving the multiple decade campaigns that have become familiar to steel producers in full sized operations. This level of productivity, but especially the reliability and supply security associated with mature technology, allows for integration into minimills or taking a first step towards a full scale BF–BOF integrated mill. Steel producers considering such scenarios, which are typically attractive for emerging economies, are confronted with fundamental decisions, one of which is for the technological basis for the compact or mini blast furnace to be included in the plant. This article addresses some of these decisions from an operations–based perspective. A small number of case studies is included.

Aug 16, 2017

By Sara Hornby

After almost half a century of experience in using DRI/HBI in electric arc furnaces (EAFs), and taking into account the decrease of natural gas cost in the USA, it is interesting to revisit some trends and controversial issues around this alternative iron source. This paper reviews aspects like the evolution of iron ore quality and its influence on EAF operation; DRI stockpiling and transport, regarding the risk for selfcombustion; optimum charge design; cold DRI/HBI charging (fifth hole, bucket, transporter); hot charging (ways and results); carbon content, metallization and silica in DRI/HBI, and its influence on EAF operation and performance; oxygen / carbon balance; chemical energy and DRI/HBI charge.

Aug 16, 2017

By Gustavo Ribeiro de Carvalho

O presente trabalho apresenta o projeto que propiciou melhores formas de controles internos possibilitando a redução do itinerário utilizado para o transporte de escória entre os Altos Fornos da Usina Presidente Vargas - UPV e a CSN Cimentos através da implantação de sistemas de controles de viagens por Validadores de Acesso, com a finalidade de viabilizar a utilização da melhor rota correspondente à menor distância entre as unidades operacionais e por consequência menor custo e impactos ambientais. A otimização do trajeto de escória possibilitou sinergia entre economia, meio ambiente e sociedade proporcionando ganhos financeiros e de produtividade. O projeto trouxe melhorias significativas, refletidas nos principais aspectos: Benefício financeiro com a redução dos custos contratuais com transporte interno de Escória; Inovação tecnológica que possibilitou controlar o registro de viagens por caminhão para melhor apuração da quantidade de viagens e maior confiabilidade dos desvios de estoques; Aumento da produtividade através da otimização do trajeto e aumento na performance de abastecimento da Cimentos; Redução mensal de 18 tCO2 eq. de gases do efeito estufa associado a economia média de 6600 litros do aspecto ambiental “consumo de recursos naturais” (Óleo diesel) com a otimização de 13.000 km.

Aug 17, 2017