Primetals Technologies is modernising the entire process control system at voestalpine’s LD3 steel plant in Linz, Austria.
Voestalpine has just completed the first modernisation phase, Kallanish learns from the company. The first phase covered control systems for the three converter lines and for the higher-level converter area. Upgrading systems for secondary metallurgy, slab treatment, and dedusting units will follow in coming phases.
Before a new process control system goes into operation, a system test is carried out using a digital twin, which is a digital test and simulation environment with all the functions of the production system.
Updating the entire process control system will lead to improvements in both investment security for the steelworks and process automation availability, Primetals claims. Involving more than 100 individual process control systems, the project will be completed in 16 phases and will run until the end of 2022.
Christian Koehl Germany