In a statement, Primetals Technologies said the new system was part of the modernization of the company’s No. 3 caster at the No. 1 steel works. The modernization included a new integrated control center and two casting platform robots. 

Primetals Technologies said the new system’s key feature is its autonomy – it is fully automatic, the company said, and requires only a single push of a button. 

“In the past, the operators of Baosteel had to control and supervise each step of the insertion of a dummy bar into the mold as well as each step of the takeover from hoist to car,” the company said. 

“The new fully automatic dummy bar top feeding system from Primetals Technologies executes all necessary steps for the dummy bar insertion into the mold and the takeover of the dummy bar by withdrawal drives, each in one sequence. The operator just has to push one button once at the local pulpit or on the human-machine interface in the integrated control center to start such a fully automated sequence,” the company said.