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The Queen Victoria blast furnace at Corus Scunthorpe Steel works has been equipped with a ABB control system, providing the company with improved visibility of the iron making process and greater flexibility inthe way steel is produced.
The Queen Victoria blast furnace atCorus Scunthorpe Steel works now operates on an ABB System 800xA including two Advant controllers, six Operator Consoles and two parallel Information Reporting Workstations. 2,500 I/O are handled by the S800 modules, together with a link to the earlier S100 units. ABB is also supplying hopper load cells and seven Millmate MC400W weigher panels foruse in the stock house and for control in furnace burdening. Batchingis controlled by 99 independent recipes, constructed by the furnace operator, each consisting of up to 7 separate materials in a batch.
The installation architecture was jointly designed by ABB and Corus, ABB had provided a core team of highly experienced engineers whohad worked on other Scunthorpe blast furnaces over the previous 25 years. This continuity of dialogue helped to fast track the design and development phases and keeps the commissioning and start up time down to a minimum. This ensured a quick ramp up to full production at the right quality.
Once the design had been finalised, ABB started building the system at its facility in St Neots. Corus stipulated the need to test the complete system before it left the factory. They spenteight weeks testing the control suite with bespoke simulation software, satisfying themselves that it would work as specified with its existing systems.
Corus control engineer Spencer Pullin comments: “We have had a very good relationship with ABB throughout the last 20 yearsand this project was another example of ‘Best Supplier to Best Customer’ in action. The ability to test at the ABB factory was very useful.Commissioning would have been more critical if it had all been done on site. This way we eliminated any risk of lost production and ensureda very quick ramp up time.”
Following testing, the completed system was taken to site and set up to familiarise the operators with the new interface. Maintaining commonality with the previous system paid off, as the operators were able to get up to speed on the system much faster than they would with something completely new. “The operators’ interface has been kept very similar to that of the previous ABB control system, making it easy for the operators to learn,” comments Pullin.
The system offers an improved management reporting. All data from the controller is available making it easier to have overall control of the blast furnace. Reports are archived and can be recalled at any time. To satisfy current legislation, real time events and alarms are displayed locally for the operator and engineer. Each day theserecords are archived and can be pulled back at any time in the futurefor historical analysis.
The system also provides more redundancy, allowing Corus to ride through minor equipment issues without losing production. “ABB delivers extremely good reliability from its control systems. We have never had to take a plant out of production due toa problem with their equipment since we changed over to using ABB control systems”, says Pullin.
The hardware and cabling for the system was installed during the outage for replacing the furnace refractories. Commissioning followed on from this. “After installation, we simply switched on the control system and got going. It all went successfully,” adds Pullin. “The system has been in operation for three months now and has performed flawlessly.”
A permanent landline was installed to enable ABB engineers to interrogate the system remotely andmonitor its performance during the early phases of the furnace fill and after the lighting of the blast furnace.
Neil Baldwin, project manager for ABB says: “The project went well because of the close co-operation between the two companies. We both got benefits from it –Corus got the highly reliable and flexible system they wanted and we improved and strengthened our relationship with an important and valuedcustomer.”
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