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Avtron has applied its control system expertise for this critical application in the steelmaking process.  We have used our ADDvantage-32 (TM) DC armature drive for Vessel Tilt Upgrades where the existing DC motors are reused. We can also supply AC drives designs for either new or upgrade projects. Our Performance View Process Diagnostic System had been used to uncover intermittent problems that can hinder the productivity of these furnaces.

The Tilt System normally has two vessels, each using four motors coupled to a single bull gear to tilt the vessel. The motors are sized so that the Vessel can be driven if either two, three or four motors are available.  We have extensive project experience with both one-drive and four-drive system configurations.  The one-drive system can be quickly reconfigured to drive either Vessel A or Vessel B if a drive failure occurs.  The four drive system uses drives sized for up to two motors.  This configuration allows the vessel to be driven by anything from one to four drives at a time.

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The advanced drive software and hardware features in both the DC and the AC drives are ideally suited for Caster Applications. The drives can coordinate the speeds of the sections on the Caster without requiring the use of an expensive, hard-to-maintain Master Controller.

The system architecture for Caster Applications uses high-speed, fiber-optic Ethernet Communications built into the drives to interface to a standard PLC. Since the drives coordinate the speed reference directly from drive to drive, the PLC interface is used for logic and data acquisition only. This means the PLC program can be simpler and easier to maintain.