THE NEW AUTOMATED STEEL PLANT LABORATORY OF THYSSEN-STAHL AG IN RUHRORT

When the steel plant laboratory was reorganised, the decision was made to have an automated, central round-the-clock production control anal ysis facility equipped with pneumatic tube conveyor system, sample pre paration machines and several analysis devices. The laboratory is loca ted on the converter charging platform of the basic-oxygen furnace ste el plant in Ruhrort and includes two automatic grinders for steel samp les, an automatic slag preparation unit, two spectrometers, X-ray fluo rescence analysis equipment and four eco-analysis devices that are fed largely automatically. A software system controls the preparation mac hines and the conveyor system, while a further software system control s the analyses. This has made it possible to significantly shorten the analysis times. Preliminary samples from the converter are analysed w ithin 140 s; slag analyses can be achieved in times of around 400 s (i ncluding sample login procedure and pneumatic tube conveyance). The sh ift manning levels have been reduced by some 80%.