Rourkela: Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) employees’ innovative project– ‘Operation of Reversible Shuttle Conveyor-3 from Control Room– implemented at Sintering Plant-3 has not only resulted in incurring substantial recurring savings, but has also helped in improving quality, productivity and reducing transition time, said a Plant spokesperson.
The Sintering Plant III sends sinter to Blast Furnace No. 5 through Intermediate Sinter Bunker (ISB) consisting of 5 bunkers. The Reversible Shuttle Conveyor (RSC) is situated above the ISB. It comprises a bi-directional trolley for positioning RSC over an empty bunker and a conveyor for discharging sinter in the required bunker. Earlier, the operation of RSC-3 was being done locally from top of ISB. The job required personnel to be deployed at the top of ISB and coordination from the Control Room for the control of level and change of position of RSC.
A team of employees from Projects Department and Sintering Plant – III took up the challenge to enable its operation from Control Room through PLC automation. Accordingly, Trolley & Conveyor IMCC module was mapped in the Siemens Automation Station-5 PLC, the signals and commands from PLC & UMC 100 were checked and ensured. Besides, several other automation jobs were also executed. The operation of Trolley and Conveyor was checked from the Control Room for perfect positioning of the Shuttle over desired bunker and running of the conveyor for the discharge of Sinter. The job was completed in 48 hours spanning over 4 days during the shutdown period of SP-III.
The spokesperson said, with this project in place, the operation of the Reversible Shuttle Conveyor can be done both manually as well as using remote as per the situation. This automation job has also reduced the use of manpower. The Project that has been executed with extensive use of in-house resources showcases the commitment of the employees to improve the performance of the Plant.
The team that was engaged in the innovative project were M K Sinha, Manager (Projects), J K Sahu, Manager, SP III (Electrical), A Adak, B Pradhan, R C Raul, B K Das, B S Pati and D Kamila, all SOSTs of SP-III (Electrical).
