Page 28 - ITA Journal 3-2018

Technical Papers
entire production process from the steel mill to the rolling mill. “The merged data set contained hundreds of parameters, includ- ing process and sensor data as well as quality metrics. Using data from a few months, Fero automat- ically trained machine learning modules, which proved to be very accurate in predicting target key gures”, explains Eschert.
Today at Gerdau, shop oor man- agers, quality management teams and process engineers use Fero software to understand complex, non-linear relationships between production and target key gures, for example. “They are currently using these ndings to carry out simulations within the Fero software and to determine the optimum production parameters for each product quality”, reports Eschert.
Mecorad: Industry 4.0 in the rolling mill
Dr Marc Banaszak is Managing Director of the Cologne-based start-up Mecorad. The spin-off company of the Technical Uni- versity of Cologne will support operators of hot rolling mills with a high-precision measuring system and applications based around it. In addition to higher product quality, the goal is the lowest possible loss of produc- tion value as well as a produc- tion that is interlinked down to the end user. During production, the Mecorad measuring system measures at steel with micro- metre accuracy, which is a truly demanding task. In hot-rolling steel production steam, stirred-up dust and thermal radiation have so far prevented the glowing steel strips from being precisely measured during the production process. The company wants to solve the problem using radar
sensors. At every point in the process, a measurement precise to the micrometre takes place in real time. Unlike previously used laser or camera techniques, radar is capable of penetrating the sur- rounding air contaminated by steam and dense dust. Interfer- ences and disturbances caused by strong vibrations, for example, are eliminated by the algorithms developed by Mecorad, assures Banaszak.
Building on these measurements, the company offers further ser- vices along the production chain. These include software for special- ised measurements, process anal- yses and control algorithms, such as control of the roll gap or roll calibre. Coordination with exter- nal players such as scrap proces- sors can also be managed using Mecorad applications. “Our system is designed to enable services to the end user and to integrate them into production, for example by automating order processing”, Banaszak promises.
The goal of founder Banaszek is to support the entire production system with digitalisation. “Using our technology, we are tackling two fundamental problems in steel production: excessively high pro- duction value losses due to inac- curate measurements and a lack of control processes, as well as a great deal of catching up to do in terms of digitalisation”, says the Mecorad Managing Director.
SMS Digital: Catching up in the digital eld
The dynamic nature of young start-ups is also spurring on estab- lished players. Plant builder SMS, for example, uses what is known as the design-thinking approach to implement new digital services as they are typically pursued by
digital start-ups. That’s no acci- dent. Two years ago, with the support of Etventure, a manage- ment consultancy specialising in digital transformation and part of EY (Ernst & Young), the leading plant builder set up its own subsidiary to act as a “creative forge”, SMS Digital. The slogan of the young creative minds based in Düsseldorf: “We tackle the chal- lenge of digital transformation and Industry 4.0”. Their mission: to develop software for Industry 4.0 and digital services for steel companies all over the world.
SMS Digital has already devel- oped the rst applications and software solutions to the point of readiness for the market, such as the intelligent alarm manage- ment “Smart Alarm”. In order to achieve maximum plant availa- bility, it is important for plant operators to monitor the status of the plant. However, conven- tional visualisation systems with human-machine interfaces (HMIs) do not always meet this require- ment, as SMS found. With the new alarm management, all plants of a steel company can be integrated into one system. The plant status is evaluated by trend analyses, with time-consuming training not being necessary thanks to simple and intuitive operation. In the event of an alarm, a text message and e-mail are sent automati- cally. The digital forge is currently working on predicting alarms and identifying the triggering alarm in the event of many alarms occur- ring at once.
The fact that traditional plant builder SMS group is serious about digitalisation is demonstrated at the top management level. SMS CEO Burkhard Dahmen appointed Bremen professor Katja Windt to the Executive Board in April 2018.
ITAtube Journal No3/October 2018
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