Nucor Steel Birmingham Inc. recently installed the Motank, a remote controlled slag door ram supplied by Moré, Gemona del Friuli, Italy. The system was installed on the facility’s 60-ton AC EAF.

The Motank system has been developed to improve operator safety by eliminating manual operation in front of the slag door with a dedicated remote-controlled machine.

The Motank machine consists of a remote controlled truck equipped with a horizontal ram that pushes scrap deep into the furnace, away from the slagging door. The pushing ram helps to eliminate scrap dropping into the slag pit and the deposit of scrap within the slagging bay when bucket charging. The ram also helps to regenerate the furnace’s working level by removing excess slag deposits.

Nucor Steel Birmingham Inc. is part of Nucor's Bar Mill Group. The minimill has an annual capacity of 500,000 tons of carbon steel reinforcing bar, rounds, and squares.