Remote conveyor monitoring enhances hot metal production at Bokoro Steel Plant

摘要

AT the Bokaro Steel Plant of the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) there are four feeding sections to convey the various raw material to each of the five blast furnaces. Each feeding section fills bunkers for the individual blast furnaces as shown in Fig 1. There are 130 conveyor belts in all with an overall length of 24 kilometres spread over a distance of three kilometres to supply the five blast furnaces. These conveyors are of two types: fixed type and shuttle type. For efficient feeding of the raw materials monitoring the status of each of the conveyors is necessary. For continuous production of hot metal there must be an uninterrupted supply of raw materials to the furnaces. Moreover, in case of any conveyor breakdown, the information should be easily available to the maintenance personal so that immediate corrective action can be taken. This is possible only if the status of all of the conveyors is readily known.