Manufacturing / Steel
POSCO: Autonomous operation of hot metal pretreatment
- Company
- POSCO
- Country
- South Korea
- Adoption stage
- Limited operation
- Source published
- In use from
- Date basis
- The date the source was published. It can differ from the date adoption started.
- How the source was checked
- Read the full source text
The work problem
Steelmaking is the key stage that determines the quality of steel products, and hot metal pretreatment is where it starts. Previously staff had to operate the equipment themselves more than 400 times a year. Variation in hot metal quality arose depending on skill and feel.
Technology and data
POSCO combined deep learning AI technology with operating know-how built up over more than 20 years. An AI that manages and judges operating data autonomously detects the state of the hot metal through a vision recognition system. It then works out the amount and position of the slag and plans the best path to remove slag down to the target amount. The distinctive part of this technology is that it automates 100 percent of the KR pretreatment process, which removes sulphur from the hot metal and skims off the slag. Operation runs fully automatically according to the composition required.
Results
On 5 June POSCO held a demonstration at the No. 3 steelmaking plant in Pohang to formally announce the development of KR autonomous operation technology. The company said that with this technology operating time fell by 3 percent and yield rose by 2 percent. Converted into cost, it said this can deliver savings of 29 billion won a year. The company said it is being credited with achieving the digital transfer of skilled technique, stable operation and process autonomy together. President Lee Hee-geun said the company should develop into an intelligent factory by combining engineers' domain knowledge with robust equipment.
Limits and open questions
The 29 billion won a year is an expected value converting the improvements in operating time and yield into cost. Savings booked in the accounts, or results at other steelworks, are not in the source.
Sources
- 포스코, 쇳물 예비처리 전 공정 자율화 성공…인텔리전트 팩토리 가속화 , 포스코그룹 뉴스룸newsroom.posco.com, Accessed
Compiled from public sources. These are not results from ATF Works customers.