Commissioning of two LiquiRob systems from Primetals Technologies for Baosteel

In 2019, two LiquiRob systems from Primetals Technologies commenced operation at the Meishan plant of Chinese steel producer Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. (Baosteel). Commissioning only took four to five days. Additionally, an order was placed to supply a LiquiRob system for Baosteel´s Zhanjiang plant. This raises the total number of LiquiRobs operating in Baosteel plants to five. The projects followed successful commissioning and operation of two robot systems supplied to Baosteel Shanghai´s caster CCM3 in 2018.

After the successful commissioning of two LiquiRob systems at BaoSteel Shanghai’s CCM3 in 2018, BaoSteel awarded the order to Primetals Technologies to supply two further LiquiRob systems for the Meishan plant. This project includes two robots performing shroud manipulation with the Safe Opening System (SOS) shroud, where oxygen lancing is included in the shroud. The systems, for two continuous casting machines, provide tundish temperature measurement, O2 content measurement and steel sampling as well as oxygen lancing and tundish powder handling.

The LiquiRob systems are now operating on casters CCM4 and CCM3 in the Meishan plant. With only five days of commissioning downtime of CCM4, the first of the two LiquiRob systems performed shroud manipulation - attaching and detaching a shroud to and from a ladle - as well as tundish measurements. One week later, after just four days of commissioning downtime of CCM3, the second robot system successfully started operation. The positive results achieved with the LiquiRob systems active in Baosteel´s Shanghai and Meishan plants prompted an additional order for a fifth robot system to be set up at caster CCM3 at Baosteel Zhanjiang.

Primetals Technologies developed LiquiRob specifically to improve occupational safety and the quality of measurement under the severe operating conditions encountered in the iron and steel industry. Currently, 31 LiquiRob systems are working worldwide, 21 of them are on continuous casting machines.

Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd. is part of the newly formed China Baowu Steel Group Corp Ltd, the second largest steel producer in the world, with a production capacity of 70 million tons. Baosteel produces high-quality products for both the Chinese domestic and the world markets.

Source and Photo: Primetals