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27/01/2011
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US-based Northstar Bluescope Steel says it has boosted production and reduced maintenance costs at its mini-mill by installing a Smart Wireless network for furnace control.
 Rob Kearney, maintenance supervisor for Northstar Bluescope Steel, says the mill has been able to increase production by as much as one batch per day and cut maintenance costs by €145,000 annually.
He also says that by replacing the traditional wired network with a wireless solution for control and monitoring, the plant has also improved worker safety in what is a harsh environment.
Emerson's self-organising wireless network, based on the IEC 62591 (Wireless HART) standard, collects data used to control the temperature of cooling panels and water-cooled burners on the mill's electric arc furnace, explains Kearney.
This data is critical to safe furnace operation, because overheating cooling panels can lead to major furnace damage, with a blown-out panel costing €14,500 to repair – on top of lost production costs.
Kearney explains that Emerson's wireless solution replaced a hard-wired monitoring network with hundreds of wiring junctions. The old network suffered frequent measurement failures in the mill's harsh environment, which suffers from a high electromagnetic field, flying slag, vibration, moisture, and temperatures as high as 1,650°C.
"Between nine and 12 measurements per week would fail due to high temperatures or physical damage to sensors, cable or conduit," states Kearney.
"And when a measurement point fails, the furnace must be shut down. The new wireless solution eliminated almost 100% of the cable and conduit – which reduced maintenance costs by €145,000 annually. The new wireless solution has been up and running for four months without a single failure."
In brief detail, the wireless network includes 32 of Emerson's Rosemount wireless temperature transmitters, with 28 used for control and four for monitoring. The transmitters send their data to a Smart Wireless Gateway, which interfaces with the mill's transformer-regulation and burner-control system.
"Safety has also been improved," comments Kearney. "The furnace's cooling panels are operating consistently at a safe temperature, and there is less maintenance required around the hot furnace shell, where ambient temperatures can be 60°C."
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Author
Brian Tinham
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