Continuous Casting Plant Increases Production & Employee Morale

Continuous Casting Plant Increases Production & Employee Morale

Application: Steel Mill – POSCO, Korea

System Identification: Continuous Casting Plant, producing Slab & Cast Iron

Solids/Liquid: Mill scale & process solids in recirculated cooling water

Problem: Keeping unwanted solids out of the cooling water had become impossible. Scale from the water-spray cooling process and other related solids were accumulating and clogging the process. A self-cleaning strainer proved inadequate, ineffective and maintenance-intensive. Spray nozzles became clogged, resulting in weekly downtime and significantly reduced production capability. Uneven cooling before downtime created an intolerably high product reject rate. Process spray nozzles were clogging weekly, adding much stress and aggravation to the operations employees, who considered the nozzle cleaning/replacement process as miserable and treacherous work – no one liked it.

Solution: LAKOS JPX Series Separator with AutoPurge was installed on the full-stream flow of this system (7500 US GPM – 1700 m3/hr) and immediately improved overall conditions dramatically. In only three months of operation, the LAKOS Separator was responsible for a 90% reduction in spray nozzle maintenance and replacement. Also, a 30% reduction in product rejects, resulting in much higher productivity and profitability. Maintenance overall is no longer a big issue at POSCO. Employees who once served time cleaning and replacing spray nozzles every Monday no longer dread that day of work. Said one employee: “Coming in on Mondays is now much more enjoyable. The LAKOS Separator has made my job easier.”