TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI in Ferrous Metallurgy: Oskol Electrometallurgy Works

Oskol Electrometallurgy Works  is one of the leading Russian ferrous metallurgy enterprises and the only biggest industrial works in Russia using technology of direct reduction of iron ore. The works is situated in near vicinity of deposits of high-quality iron ores being a part of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly. Leading production technology, up-to-date equipment, high qualification and rich experience of workers, engineers and managers of the works enable the Oskol Electrometallurgy Works’s staff to produce metal of great demand in Russia and abroad.

SCADA/HMI TRACE MODE has been used in Oskol Electrometallurgy Works’s pelletization and metallization shop control system since 1995. The Metallization Shop, consisting of 4 shaft furnaces, produces metallized pellets from oxidised ones. Annually Oskol Electrometallurgy Works produces not less than 1700 thousand tons of metallized pellets of two types: passivated pellets for shipping to outside customers and non-passivated pellets for own consumption.

The automation of the Oskol Electrometallurgy Works OJSC’s pelletisation and metallization shop began from a shaft furnace control system. Taking AdAtsrA’s SCADA/HMI system TRACE MODE  as the basis, the works top executives pursued the aim of establishing an “open” operator workstation allowing to maximally use the experience gained by the engineers, working on the shaft furnace metallization module.

S.A. Korobov, Group Leader, Department of Automation and Metrology, Oskol Electrometallurgy Works, recollects that “From the very first steps, those working at the Department of Automation and Metrology and engineers of the pelletisation and metallization shops have taken a conceptual decision: to maximally use the power and reliability of TRACE MODE software for establishing a shaft furnace operator’s human-machine interface”.

In order to reduce the probability of incorrect actions of the staff, a decision has been made to build, at the first stage, an monitoring system at furnaces No.1 and No. 2 without any control elements. It has enabled the personnel to gradually get adapted to new operating conditions as well as resulted in the reduction of training expenses.  Three SCADA/HMI TRACE MODE products have been used: the development system for 32000 I/O and 2 Real Time Monitors (HMI and SCADA servers). The TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI features have been used to the maximum extent, including animation and voice messaging. During the trial operation, Oskol Electrometallurgy Works’s automation department employees taking part in the control system development have been moved to working shifts as shaft furnace operators. Such a radical setup method has allowed to reveal drawbacks within the shortest time and correct them all. The Oskol Electrometallurgy Works automation system handover has allowed, at the first stage, to release 60 multichannel recorders and additionally provide registration of 120 analogue furnace parameters.

The implementation of the new SCADA/HMI TRACE MODE based control system has provided a significant economy on expenses. The payback period (ROI) has been equal to one year.

At the second stage, the control features were added to the system. The control system project was now provided with protections and locks. In order to ensure events logging and generating reporting documents, the third TRACE MODE real time monitor and the TRACE MODE Global documentation server have additionally been used.

The completion of the second stage of automation has allowed to replace the worn protection and interlocks equipment. The shaft furnace outages “under unascertained circumstances” have stopped and downtimes have been reduced. The documentation server provided reports on all emergency situations and periodic furnace operation reports, providing a tool for easy shift take-over. The TRACE MODE automatic reports are generated at a certain time, i.e. at the end of shift, beginning of every hour, other reports are generated when a non-regular situation arises, i.e. shutdown of a set or of the whole furnace.  All documents are automatically saved to hard disk. All document templates and scripts are written in the HTML-format. The access to required documents gets open via a local area network. The introduction of the document generating subsystem has positively affected the factory production discipline. The control system ROI (payback time) was the same as at the previous stage and not exceeded 12 months.

At the third stage of the project the weighing service of the metallization shop was automated.  The TRACE MODE documentation server has provided an automatic generation of production reports, which has allowed to put the material record-keeping in order. At the fourth stage, the SCADA/HMI TRACE MODE based project provided a transfer to automation of shaft furnaces No. 3 and No. 4. It is evident that the solution made for the first furnace have successfully been replicated to the new furnaces. In addition, all local PID-loop regulators have been replaced.

The following 22 control systems are being operated all over the Oskol Electrometallurgy Works under TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI control:

• 8 control systems based on various types of TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI real time monitors (RTM and NetLink RTM);
• 12 additional workstations, i.e. visualisation HMI workstations operating under control of NetLink Light HMI software and of Supervisor HMI consoles;
• TRACE MODE Global documentation server;
• HMI workstation  for weighing operator operating under TRACE MODE RTM for 1024 I/O.

The implementation of the AdAstrA’s automation software provides significant economic payback at every stage. The system development has nor stopped, the Oskol Electrometallurgy Works’s executives also intend to continue using the TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI system for new enterprise control systems.