Successful Revamping of Sublance Manipulators for the LD Converters at voestalpine Stahl GmbH: Operational Experience Gained in the First Year

摘要

The high-performance steel mill of voestalpine Stahl GmbH in Linz, Austria, produces with 96 melts per day, 6 Mio. tons p.a. of high quality slabs. To further reduce process times and increase availability at the LD converters, the old hydraulic sublance manipulators built in 1987 were replaced with three new robotic sublance systems by Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH. The main criteria for the project were: high availability of >98%, short cycle times in sublance-probe handling of less than 60s, fully automatic probe replacing in confined spaces, fully automatic probe supply from customized exchangeable containers, monitoring, testing and calibration of sublances, low maintenance, latest safety standards, and ergonomic design. The old manipulators were dismantled and the new robot solutions installed during 5-day converter relinings. Performance was excellent already during the first days and an availability of already 95% was achieved in startup period. The system sets new standards in automation and follows the voestalpine philosophy of being one step ahead.