MMC

AcQ has developed a highly accurate and reliable measurement and control system (MMC) for a customer involved in the steel manufacturing industry.

Making steel is a complicated chemical process. It involves blowing oxygen into a bath of molten blast-furnace iron to lower the carbon content and oxidise impurities such as carbon, silicon, phosphorus, and manganese. This process is called basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS). Once the hot metal has reached the desired chemical composition, it’s tilted and the steel is tapped.

Measuring when the steel has reached the desired chemical composition was traditionally done by means of laboratory analysis of a sample of the steel, which takes a significant amount of time. Our client uses a more direct and faster way of determining this composition, by means of a probe with sensors which is lowered into the steel. Our MMC system is attached to the probe by cables snaking up to hundreds of meters through the harsh environment of a steel plant. The MMC is able to measure these sensor values with an accuracy below a microvolt, as well as control the probe and provide real-time feedback to users and plant management systems.

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