A smart hot metal transport system is to be built at Tianzhu Steel in China’s Hebei Province.

CISAI Tech under CISDI Group have devised a iSmartOne solution for Tianzhu - a revolutionary smart tech application to its single-ladle hot metal transport process.

The iSmartOne consists of:

•          An iSmartLoco driverless / autonomous locomotive system

Six locomotives and 26 hot metal ladles will be modified to autonomous, enabling all-weather autonomous drive throughout the full hot metal transport process - combined positioning and tracking, precise control of stop alignment, automatic hook coupling and uncoupling, automatic parking and charging and switch-in and over-ladle cover.

•          A PanGoLIP industrial logistics smart platform

The platform will integrate all production information throughout the ironmaking and steelmaking interface process and will cover all related production factors. By removing data isolations, a digital platform will be built at the ironmaking and steelmaking interface.

•          An iSmartMC smart interface management and control system

Ironmaking, transporting and steelmaking procedures will be connected to create coordinated interfaced production and achieve smart scheduling and control.

CISAI rose to the huge challenges of applying unmanned equipment to transform the plant’s single-ladle hot metal transport process.

Tianzhu Steel’s two 1,780 cubic metre blast furnaces and two 140 tonne basic oxygen furnaces will be transformed from the existing single-ladle hot metal transport process to autonomous standards. This will include the equipment’s installation, protection and operational stability.

This project will upgrade CISAI’s driverless control model and precise alignment control model.

It will apply fault-tolerant Quick Response code expertise to identify locomotive numbers, enabling hot metal ladle numbers to be accurately identified and followed up.

Procedures from the hot metal transport to the designated position in upstream steelmaking will be well-coordinated and controlled.

The iSmartOne system is expected to turn Tianzhu’s existing manned hot metal ladle car, manual organisation and scheduling processes and hand recording to unmanned locomotive and intelligent scheduling and control.

As a result, Tianzhu’s BF-BOF areas will see:

·    enhanced productivity and faster hot metal ladle turnover rate

·    substantial reduction in hot metal temperature drop

·    manpower requirements reduced by up to 68%

·    reduction in production and labour costs.

A world first was achieved when CISDI’s autonomous hot metal transport system was applied at Baosteel Zhanjiang Steel in China’s Guangdong Province. It resulted in the following economic indicators:

•          torpedo ladle car’s turnover rate: 4.3

•          daily output of a single locomotive: over 4,500 tonnes

•          labour costs: reduced by 70%

•          safety incidents: zero.