AISTech 2019 — Proceedings of the Iron & Steel Technology Conference

6–9 May 2019, Pittsburgh, Pa., USA

DOI 10.1000.377.131

Industry 4.0 Technologies Applied to Casting Machines

Gianluca Maccani

BMGroupUSA, corp
330 3rd St S Suite 318 St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Email: Gianluca.maccani@bmgroup.com

Melt shop, nozzle, Continuous Casting Machine, LS, Ladle shroud, Shroud positioning, oxygen lance, slide gate opening,
ladle, smart robotics, machine vision, safety

INTRODUCTION
Operator’s safety, product’s quality and productivity improvement are cornerstones of Industry 4.0 concept.
The Continuous Casting Machine area is a work environment with risks. The collaboration between human intelligence able
to process hundreds of variables and smart robotics can increase safety averting operator from hot areas, improve the process
quality and the traceability of your semi-finished products. Powerful Machine vision systems implemented on robots and
managed by user-friendly interfaces allow that upgrade, we call 4.0. Data collection and Artificial Intelligence with
autonomous machine learning is another important opportunity that these solutions offer.

DISCUSSION
To be successful, an Industry 4.0 approach must be concrete. How can we upgrade existing plants? How can we improve
current practices and assumptions? How can we invest in the operator’s safety and how we can prevent accidents?
A new series of robotics tools combined with machine vision, Artificial Intelligence, and machine learning will be the answer
to these questions.
Following the process stream, the first new application that we encounter in some Casting Machines is a robotic cell which
includes a series of tools for opening with the oxygen lance the Slide gate, manipulate the Ladle Shroud, taking temperatures
and samples in the tundish, distribute powder and artificial slag on the tundish. This application, thanks to the 3D machine
vision able to identify the nozzle position also in harsh condition, allow to only supervise from a remote pulpit these
dangerous operations near the molten steel. Currently, in the casting machines that don’t have this cell, the operators are
exposed to few hazards and the rush that sometimes the operators have, to preventing to close one or more strands, increase
these risks exponentially.

Fig.1 Smart robotics cell for LS manipulation, Lancing, Temperature and Sample taking

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 1287

The second application that we can encounter following the stream process is an application that can allow the steelmaker to
reuse and analyze the large quantity of process information already present in a casting machine and even historicized but
never used for analysis. This application combines a powerful high-quality 3D machine vision system, a thermo-camera and
the new technologies for the unsupervised machine learning allow the steelmaker of the future early identify out of spec
production, improve the process and update the current practices and assumptions.
From one side the systematic dimensional check on the hot products, in the first steps of the cooling bed, using a calibrated
instrument prevent the mistakes and protect the operators from the exposition on a harsh and dangerous environment. That
repetitive early measurement also allows to know immediately is a strand is deviating out of spec reducing the quantity of
scrap produced.

Fig.2 Smart robotics cell for LS manipulation, Lancing, Temperature and Sample taking
From the other side the system is able to track more the 150 production variables of the casting machines (chemistry, alloys,
temperatures, stirrers, speeds, water flows and pressure etc…). The unsupervised machine learning algorithm running in real
time evaluating the correlations of the variables with the temperature distribution and the dimensions of the casted billet.

Fig.3 Principle of Artificial Intelligence for model prediction. Courtesy of Gerdau Petersburg
The result of this Artificial Intelligence model prediction is an optimization of assumption based on the experience in
operations and refining of the operation practice that allow the steelmaker to reduce the out of spec products, prevents
breakout and optimize the production costs. These supports for the operators are day by day more important considering the
new generations of the work force that is supported by the Artificial intelligence in all the life aspect constantly.

1288 © 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.

 Fig.4 Latent Space Clustering results. Courtesy of Gerdau Petersburg
The third application that we can encounter follow the Continuous Casting Machine streams is a new technology able to
improve the traceability of the production, again the main goal of this application is to prevent the exposition of the operators
to a harsh and dangerous environment but also improve the traceability thanks to the direct connection with the CCM
tracking, the robotics cell can store more than 5000 consumables (precut tags and studs) and the refill is online with no
interruption of the production. The smart robot have a machine vision system installed able to identify the position and the
distance of the billet and guide the welding tool to the right spot, the welding machine is interfaced with the automation that
can change the settings based on the steel grade and communicate the real energy used for welding, so the cell identify
autonomously the welding issue and retag the billet without intervention. The smart robotics cell is also able, as an option to
3D scan the billets and identify the geometrical defect (romboidity, bulges, dimensions) and double check autonomously the
tag applied with a picture, the machine vision read the tag and store the picture with the timestamp in the server as a prove of
the production.
Using precut tags and simple system for feed the studs simplify a lot the cell with fewer parts in movement, less wear and
tear parts, fewer sensors and reaching very high reliability, in most of the case more than 99.9% of the total production.

Fig.4 Billet just tagged on the cooling bed Fig.5 Machine vision, identification of the position

CONCLUSIONS
The technologies now at disposal permit to use the Industry 4.0 concept in the production line, increasing the safety,
improving and optimizing the operations, helping the operators in their activities and increasing the objectivity of their
choice.

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 1289