Ladle Treatment Application

Both BOF and EAF steelmaking shops struggle with getting heats to precise chemistries and temperatures while coordinating with the caster.  That is why most modern steelmaking shops have some kind of ladle treatment station or facility.

The treatment station acts as a buffer between the furnace and the caster, while having the capability to fine-tune chemistry and temperature.  The IPACT Ladle Treatment Application provides the client with these capabilities:

• A thermal model to determine the need for heating or cooling.
• An alloy model to determine required alloy additions.
• Real-time prediction of aluminum content.
• Self-learning of alloy efficiencies.

Ladle Treatment Application

The benefits of this application on overall shop performance are dramatic.  A 300 ton heat of steel is a very expensive piece of inventory, and casting off-chemistry or off-temperature heats has a major impact on the bottom line.  Using IPACT’s Ladle Treatment Application, a client was able to reduce his off-chemistry heats from 1 or more per week to zero (9 months and counting).  The Ladle Treatment Application has also greatly reduced missed connections with the caster, resulting in many fewer caster “turn-arounds”, and therefore higher productivity.  The application saves alloying costs by hitting the correct required additions every time, and, even more significantly, steelmaking related defects in downstream slabs and coils have been greatly reduced.  Talk about ROI – this one is through the roof!

Read about the praise given to IPACT’s Ladle Treatment Application here.