Posted on 15 Jun 2017
A LiquiRob casting platform robot from Primetals Technologies has been brought into operation in the Siegen plant of Deutsche Edelstahlwerke GmbH. The system was installed in the fall of 2016. The LiquiRob is used on the continuous billet caster, where it handles the automatic lancing of the ladles. This had previously been performed manually. As liquid steel could occasionally escape out of control, the use of the LiquiRob has made the casting work significantly safer. It is no longer necessary to enter the hazardous area. Moreover, heavier and more efficient lances can now be used. This significantly increases the success rate of the first lancing attempt.
Deutsche Edelstahlwerke GmbH is part of the Schmolz + Bickenbach Group and is one of the leading companies in the production and processing of stainless-steel long products. Some 4,000 employees work in the Witten, Siegen, Krefeld, Hagen and Hattingen plants, where they produce and process around one million metric tons of stainless steel per annum. In the Siegen plant, the steel is produced in an electric arc furnace and cast on a six-strand caster into billets with diameters ranging from 138 to 265 millimeters.
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. At the moment, six systems are working in continuous casting plants around the world, plus one on an electric arc furnace and another on a converter.
