Steel Making

Drives and Automation carried out a £2.25M upgrade to three 250t cranes in Outokumpu's Sheffield based stainless works. 

Using Allen Bradley and Pilz PLC systems and Control Techniques inverter drives we replaced the existing slipring control system but retained the existing slipring motors to provide smooth, variable speed control over all crane axes.

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Engineers from the BOS plant at Tata Steel in Scunthorpe approached Drives and Automation to investigate a longstanding reliability problem on the DC drive control system for the steel vessel. 

We replaced the existing power stacks with Control Techniques Mentor II DC drives and FXM5 field controllers rated to cover the peak overload requirement of 2100A.

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Replacing the existing hydraulic system with electrical drives and a servo positioning system has boosted the performance of the of the stainless steel slab grinder as well as reducing downtime.

DnA used Control Techniques Unidrive SP drives with an Allen Bradley PLC system and Intouch SCADA package to provide overall control of a system capable of grinding stainless steel slabs up to 15m long weighing 35 tonnes.

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The control system managing Outokumpu’s 90MVA Electric Arc Furnace had grown over the years to incorporate several different PLC’s of different manufacture, most being obsolete; fault finding had become very time consuming.

When Outokumpu's plant engineers took the decision to replace the complete control system Drives and Automation were awarded the £1.3M project

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A new fan and inverter drive system improves control and maximises energy savings on the DC ARC fume extraction system at Outokumpu in Sheffield.

Drives and Automation replaced the existing fan at the same time as replacing the control system with an Allen Bradley PLC, inverter and overloads and an Intouch SCADA package handling diagnostics.

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The original installation consisted of four 3.3kV motors two of 650kW and two of 410kW which were limited to no more than 4 starts per hour without risking damage to the windings.  This meant the fume extraction fans running on for an additional 15 minutes even though demand had dropped just in case they were needed again due to the limitations on starting.

DnA won the £650k contract to replace the motors and control system with the primary objectives of saving energy, improving plant efficiency and reducing downtime.  The replacement system consisted of 4 low voltage motors and installing low harmonic variable speed drives and saved over £200k in energy costs in its first year of operation.

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