Severstal Digital's specialists, together with the collective of the flat-rolling shop for the production of tubular products located in Kolpino (part of the Severstal Russian Steel division), have developed a model for automatic heating control of the chamber furnace No. 1 of mill 5000. The technology helps to speed up the heating process of the furnace and reduce the downtime of the unit.

In six chamber furnaces, the metal is heated before rolling, at which the temperature rises to 1200 degrees. The heating cycle takes about 18 hours: it includes raising the temperature and holding the metal for some time at these values. At the same time, as the temperature rises, the required thermal power increases and it is possible to set up to 1050 degrees with greater intensity.

Previously, the operator could only set the final temperature value and the time for which the unit must reach it. Over the entire temperature range, the heating rate was approximately 70 degrees per hour. Now the model estimates the current heating rate, gas flow rate and temperature difference in the furnace zones and, based on this, sets the optimal heating intensity (for example, between 800-1100 degrees, the temperature rises at a speed of up to 125 degrees per hour). The automatic control mode can be turned on both at the beginning of heating and during the operation of the furnace - the model considers the current state and will continue to heat up further according to the plan.

As a result of using the model, it was possible to reduce the heating time of chamber furnace No. 1 by an average of 10% ... In addition, the difference between thermocouples between the zones of chamber furnaces has been reduced to 10 degrees, which makes it possible to use energy resources as efficiently as possible.

“The project for intensifying and improving the quality of slab heating completes the third stage of complex automation of the mill 5000 line. thousand tons of additional production per year. Our main goal is to create an integrated digital control system for all units of the production line. It is this approach that will allow us to maximize the effects of the introduction of technologies of the industrial Internet of things and move to a new level of production planning and cost control, "said Alexander Vylkost, head of the Center for Technological Development of the Severstal Rolling Production Directorate.

It took our team 6 months to manage the furnace heating. The solution has shown its effectiveness when working with a chamber furnace No. 1, which makes it possible to scale it to other heating furnaces. In addition, in the future, it can be implemented in the production of flat-rolled products at CherMK, ”commented Lev Abramov, a leading expert at the Center for Technological Development of the Severstal Rolling Production Directorate.

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