Tailoring the improvement of automatic mould level control to the specific need of each caster: review of several return of experience with advanced sensing and flow control techniques

摘要

The 2009 crisis period has created a new situation where existing steel capacity exceeds significantly the demand and reduces the need for large capacity investment projects. Therefore, upgrade projects showing a significant potential of improvement are boosted. Among upgrade projects, improving the global performance of automatic mould level control remains of high interest for most plants operating continuous casting machines and aiming for good quality steel. With more than 40 years of expertise developed in mould level control, SERT has become a key actor that offers various upgrade possibilities, tailored to the customer needs. The paper describes the return of experience of steel producers after upgrading mould level control on several continuous casting machines, bloom or slab types. For each case, the paper will go through initial situations and targets, scope of supply, and finally the results that have been achieved. The paper shows that depending on situations, the expected performance gain can be achieved just by changing either a part or the whole of the mould level control. Some cases explain how a simple sensor replacement can improve mould level control performance by implementing an up-to-date eddy-current sensor within some instances and the possibility of measurement at any position on both sides of the SEN. Other cases are showing the implementation of a whole brand new mould level control solution based on electrically driven stopper flow control, eddy-current sensing and including the latest advanced control techniques. Finally, some cases explain the improvement made to match specifically some mould level control disturbances by embedding advanced software techniques into existing PLC and hardware.