Radars make difference

摘要

When iron is manufactured in blast furnaces, it is transported to a Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) plant for conversion to steel. When it arrives at the BOS plant, it is discharged into large 300-tonne capacity ladles. The level in a steel-pouring ladle is referred to as 'freeboard' in a steel works. Ensuring the capacity of the ladles is maximised for every fill plays a key part in efficiency on the plant, where a few centimetres represents tonnes of steel. If the freeboard measurement could be augmented to be more reliable and consistent then, with the increased productivity and safer handling of the product over the thousands of fills per year, the potential for efficiencies are huge.