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Successful project execution: Blast furnace Re-vamp

Working hand in hand to upgrade the old giant

We need solutions not people who simply pass the book, to others. From Mr. Endress to the technician on site the Endress+Hauser team were fully committed. Philippe Divol ArcelorMittal

Results
Cost saving 3.5 Mio profit per day saved by project delivery within schedule Efficiency Flexibility Risk reduction

Company profile With the merger of Mittal Steel and the Arcelor-group in 2006 the worlds largest company for steel production emerged. Today ArcelorMittal produces around one tenth of the steel manufactured throughout the world. In 2007 the company achieved a turnover of 76 billion Euro and employed 320,000 workers in more than 60 countries. In the factory in Fos-sur-Mer, which was once part of the Sollac Group, 3,300 workers are employed and 4.5 millions of tons of steel are produced every year. Company strategies The aim of the group is to expand the use of ArcelorMittals steels worldwide, by inventing and producing steel solutions for today and tomorrow with products that create outstanding value for their customers. The company constantly tries to improve its competitiveness by optimizing current industrial processes and developing new approaches, to reduce cost and improve quality. This is exactly what has been achieved by modernizing the blast furnace with the qualified help of Endress+Hauser.

Goals of the project Reduction of production and maintenance costs Digitize the original measurement procedures and thereby modernize them Realization of reconstruction under tight schedule without delay Installation of the PROFIBUS technology to improve equipment life Customer challenge/request As it is generally necessary to renew an outworn blast furnace after two decades of continuous operation, one of the two giants installed in the plant at Fos-sur-Mer was due to be revamped. At least this was the original plan. However, while assessing this rebuild the need for new measurement devices became apparent. Blast furnace No. 1, it was decided, was about to be digitized. If you want to know today, which part of your car is defective the mechanic boots up his computer to investigate. Thats what we want to do in the future, when maintaining our processes. said Alphonse Fabiani, electrical engineer at Fos-sur-Mer. To control the process of raw iron production, the automation technologies and the measuring devices have to be very robust and reliable to withstand the extremely rough conditions of the industry.

Solution provided To meet the requirements Endress+Hauser took care to offer a complete and optimum solution. The project scope included not only the delivery of approximately 1,200 critical field devices from which 400 use PROFIBUS PA, but also the engineering of the instrumentation. Additionally the solution included the construction planning, commissioning, and specialized services including training and testing. Benefits A retrospective view of the project clearly shows the benefits ArcelorMittal took out of the work with Endress+Hauser. In more than 5,000 working hours Endress+Hauser could prove the quality of their work which saved ArcelorMittal both time and cost. The employment of new and specially qualified workers as well as their integration and training would have been far more expensive for the steel giant than the solution Endress+Hauser provided. Additionally the cooperation with Endress+Hauser also reduced risk. If the tight time schedule had not been kept, the revamp would have been far more expensive for the company, if the production which was stopped for 90 days in 2007 couldnt have been started again on time. What would have resulted would be immense, extra costs of an average amount of 3.5 Mio of profit daily. Another great advantage they took out of the technology installed in cooperation with Endress+Hauser was new the procedures that could be planned. These new technical procedures within the factory at Fos-sur-Mer derived improved financial control which result in reduced production and maintenance costs.

Siemens

Other participants Head of consortium Partnership

Suppliers Production Center Endress+Hauser

Third party suppliers

Project organization Endress+Hauser took the consortium lead and were responsible for total project management as seen in the table above. How did Endress+Hauser qualify to provide this solution to ArcelorMittal? Beside the wide knowledge the Endress+Hauser group can exhibit, qualities such as flexibility of the workers and their ideas, quick reaction to arising problems and commercial qualities all helped to convince ArcelorMittal. In addition to this, the appropriate price Endress+Hauser offered for the solution package in combination with the PROFIBUS technology proposed. The good relationship that has existed for over twenty years between ArcelorMittal in Fos-sur-Mer and Endress+Hauser France,was of course another factor to chose Endress+Hauser to work with leaving a large part of the plant looking blue (Endress+Hauser instruments color). At what stage did ArcelorMittal involve Endress+Hauser into their project? They contacted Endress+Hauser right at the start in 2003 when they began planning

the revamp of the blast furnace. During the following days, a contract was signed and the most suitable design was elaborated through a close collaboration of the two companies. The first orders for devices were placed in July 2006. How long was the project lifecycle? The first contact ArcelorMittal and Endress+Hauser had been in 2003 after which the engineering and planning followed. The actual project took place from July 2006 to March 2008. Are there further projects resulting out of this one? ArcelorMittal have entered into negotiations to revamp and renew the second blast furnace in Fos-sur-Mer. Today it is certain that there will be an identical project with the same team working on it, with exactly the same devices and the same solution provided, which is a confirmation for the perfectly matching solution and the perfect cooperation between ArcelorMittal and Endress+Hauser.

12.06/I.I.

Instruments International Endress+Hauser Instruments International AG Kgenstrasse 2 4153 Reinach/BL Switzerland Phone +41 61 715 81 00 Fax +41 61 715 25 00 www.endress.com info@ii.endress.com

CS 007Z/29/en/10.08 LL/INDD CS2

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