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DOLOMITE FRANCHI, a member of the RHI Group, has been
making dolomite refractory products for the iron and
steel industry since 1919. Thanks to nearly a century of
experience, the company can guarantee products of a
consistently high standard of quality using excellent
raw material obtained from its own quarry. Dolomite
refractory products are used almost solely by steel
mills. Thanks to their low impurity contents, the bricks
are mainly used in ladles and AOD converters, whereas
blocks are used as complementary materials and for
building and repairing the hearths of electric-arc
furnaces.
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The
Dolomite Franchi project called for STAIN’s experience in industrial
automation and process supervision. |
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STAIN
promptly identified the need to revamp the sintering furnace weighing
and loading system, and proposed a solution that was very successful. It
covered both plant automation and data flow management as a strategic
component in view of: |
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Jointly
with Dolomite Franchi engineers we identified our targets, assessed
possible alternatives, compared our experiences and developed automation
of the sintering furnace metering and charging system, using
distributed-logic PLC architecture as well as a production and process
data supervision, acquisition, filing and analysis system, since having
accurate real-time and automatically acquired information increases
overall plant efficiency. |
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A
SIEMENS PLC uses an inverter to control and automate the systems for
weighing and metering the stone to be loaded in the bucket, which is
then conveyed to the sintering furnace by a remote-controlled car. |
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With
the distributed supervision system it is possible to establish charging
recipes for the specific article to produce, and to monitor and file in
a database the numerous process parameters (temperatures, capacities,
pressures) by article, date/shift and operator, allowing remote furnace
control as well as analysis and continuous optimisation of the finished
product parameters and quality. |
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We wish
to thank all those who took part in the Dolomite Franchi project for
their efforts and constructive collaboration, which was fundamental in
achieving the results, which can be summarized as follows: |
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Increased plant efficiency and availability of production and
process data that are integrated, shared, immediately available and
accurate.
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Tracking of operations and process data (per batch).
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Enhanced product quality thanks to constant monitoring of
operations.
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Minimization of downtimes thanks to a preventive MTZ plan updated
with field data.
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Integrated and shared production, process and quality data.
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Optimization of energy used and raw material consumption.
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