Client : Mittal Steel
Duration : 3 Months
Budget : R1,800,000
The coal and coke handling section at Mittal steel Newcastle is responsible for the complete coal handling for the entire site. Coal is being transported from the rail tipplers to the coke making batteries and then transferred to the blast furnace bunkers to be used as fuel for the blast furnace.
The scope of the project was to replace the twenty old Unipro II weighfeeder controllers and the 13 conveyor belt scale controllers. This included the Turbolinks SCADA and control system. Some of the challenges were that the system had to be changed over on a hot change over bases and the old system as VB based and had to be modified to accommodate partial changeover.
The new system was based on Unipro IV controllers in the field connected to via Ethernet TCP/IP. A new network in excess of 2.5 km of fibre was installed connected via industrial type switches.
The control of the coal & coke stock handling was done in a new Modicon Quantum PLC and the supervisory portion integrated into the Adroit SCADA on site. This had to be upgraded from version 4 to the latest as part of the project.
The complete project was completed without affecting the production at any stage. System diagnostics on the new system has improved as all data within the Unipro's was now accessible through the network. The operators enjoyed the single entry to the system as it made training far easier as the Turbolink system was obsolete and not well supported.
The complete project was completed well within the ti ght schedule that Mittal requested.
