Gas Mixing Station

Client

Major UK stainless steel manufacturer

Services / Products

• Gas control skid
• Combustion Design, Manufacture
• Project Management
• Installation & Commissioning
• Control Panels

Scope of Service

The client wanted to adopt a new steel making process on their 130 tonnes electric arc furnace to improve safety and productivity. The aim was to eliminate the personnel and plant dangers and yield losses associated with boil-over in the EAF or AOD transfer ladle.

This improvement was to be achieved by modifying the existing Oxygen lancing system to enable injection of Nitrogen, Argon or binary gas mixtures into the metal bath.

Our work

Our team at Unicat Technologies designed a gas mixing skid which was able to take in the three gases, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Argon, at pressures up to 25 Bars, meter the individual flow rates and control the flow to the lance at a maximum of 12 Bars.

These gases are able to be controlled individually or as binary mixtures.

The controls were made using an existing lance control PLC, modified with additional remote I/O to control the skid components.

In addition to modifying the PLC software, the associated SCADA system was re-configured and additional control, monitoring and operator interface screens added.

Benefits of our work

• Plant modernised
• Improved safety for people and the plant
• Improved manufacturing performance
• Easier operation due to improved ,more intuitive operator screens
• Ability to inject inert gases in addition to Oxygen
• Boil-Over eliminated
• Cleaner steel