Lifecycle strategies keep steel plant performance competitive

Continuously changing production conditions affect steel plant performance along the complete lifecycle. For steelmakers to stay competitive even after 40 years since plant start up, Siemens Metals Technologies is developing new solutions to secure plant operations and plant performance over the entire life-time of the installed equipment. “Lifecycle partnerships between plant operators and Siemens will help to maintain state-of-the-art plant performance while setting new standards for steel production,” stated Werner Auer, CEO of Siemens Metals Technologies, on the occasion of the International Media Summit in Mexico City. “Only jointly can we develop and implement the solutions needed to manage steel plants even better and keep them competitive over their entire lifecycle.” At the same time steel operations become more and more integrated. New automation packages and the implementation of new IT-applications create new levers for better managing the entire production chain of steel making.

In the future, steelmakers will become more flexible in adjusting their production to new market developments and customer demands, produce new steel grades in their plant and on request while at the same time achieving further cost savings and complying with increasingly strict environmental regulations. “The change from a manufacturer market to a buyer market has made the global competition in the steel world even tougher and has set new standards for steel production,” says Auer. Where commodity steel grades are being made today, high-quality steels will be produced tomorrow. Whether new steel products, a broader product portfolio, lower consumption of raw materials and energy or more flexible production as part of a global network: “Every steel mill will need a sustainable innovation strategy more than ever in order to keep production and investment competitive, as well as a partner like Siemens who helps them keep their plants fit over 40 years and more,” adds Auer.

The development of new automation solutions and the use of comprehensive corporate IT networks promotes such lifecycle partnerships: “The steel mills have more and more better and reliable data available from the shop floor, from the status of a single motor to a wide variety of process parameters to mathematical models for the condition of pig iron in the blast furnace or the quality of the steel strip during the rolling process,” explains Michael Irnstorfer, who is responsible for “Electrics and Automation” at Siemens Metals Technologies. With an increasing level of automation, deployment of sensors and mechatronics, a steel mill produces an increasing amount of information. This information ensures the transparency of complex processes and help to control the production on the basis of new targets. According to Irnstorfer, “developments in information technology contribute significantly to the ability to produce new steel grades in existing plants, to optimize workflows or to save energy and reduce costs.” Over the past 20 years, says Irnstorfer, basic automation “has made the production faster”, and “process automation is virtually becoming the ‘brain’ of production.” Information technology (IT), especially MES (Management Execution Systems) used for production control, bring an increasing level of intelligence to the steel plant and are e.g. already able today to provide precise warnings of imminent component failure.

In addition to its metallurgical and process expertise gathered over a long period of time, Siemens Metals Technologies has broad knowledge of electric drives, automation systems and plant components. Andreas Flick: “By checking current information about the condition of plant components in a production environment against this database, we can e.g. make a prognosis about equipment and its condition and predict when it is advisable to replace a component or when it is bound to fail”. For the CTO of Siemens Metals Technologies, especially the ability “to detect changes in the plant or to accurately predict changes after interventions in the workflow” is an “essential element of the lifecycle partnership between plant engineers and steel mill operators.”

Therefore, Flick sees simulation as another lever for successful lifecycle management. “During a simulation, we compare the modeled ideal condition of a production process with real-world operations. A wide variety of data tells us where and how operations or components of a plant can be modified in order to consume less energy, to roll higher-quality steel or to use lower-cost raw materials.” Flick adds: “By simulating plants and processes, we can determine the optimum process flow and the associated lever to control complex steel mills better than before. This also enables us to focus on any weak points that use to appear everywhere during the long lifetime of a plant.”

The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the world’s leading supplier of innovative and environmentally friendly products and solutions for industrial customers. With end-to-end automation technology and industrial software, solid vertical-market expertise, and technology-based services, the Sector enhances its customers’ productivity, efficiency, and flexibility. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies. For more information, visit www.siemens.com/industry

The Metals Technologies Business Unit (Linz, Austria), part of the Siemens Industry Sector, is one of the world’s leading life cycle partners for the metallurgical industry. The Business Unit offers a comprehensive technology, modernization, product and service portfolio as well as integrated automation and environmental solutions covering the entire lifecycle of plants. For more information, visit www.siemens.com/metals

Based on Siemens (Industry Sector, Metals Technologies) information