According to Primetals Technologies, the upgrade is the first phase of a much broader project meant to modernize process control systems throughout the mill. 

“Upgrading systems for secondary metallurgy, slab treatment, and dedusting units will follow in coming phases,” Primetals Technologies said. “Updating the entire process control system will lead to improvements in both investment security for the steelworks and process automation availability,” it added. 

All together, there are more than 100 individual process control systems. The project will be completed in 16 phases and will run until the end of 2022.

Primetals Technologies said the old system is based on the SIMATIC PCS 7 system and includes a large number of software libraries. 

“voestalpine’s process control system is one of the largest PCS 7 installations worldwide. While updating the entire control system, Primetals Technologies will take over the existing libraries. This saves time spent on extensive testing of important functions in all units and avoids long plant downtime,” the company said.