SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant registers national records in Torpedo & Steel Ladle Life

Team News Riveting

Rourkela, July 28

SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has registered records in Torpedo Ladle Life and Steel Ladle Life, both being the best in their segment amongst all steel plants of India.

The Steel Plant clocked the highest Torpedo Ladle Life of 2669 heats on 25th July, 2023 surpassing previous best of 2651 heats achieved in January, 2023 which is highest among all steel plants in India. Similarly a new record in lining life of 125 heats in Continuous Casting Machine (CCM-I) steel ladle # 9 was set on 26th July, 2023 which has now become a national record in ladle capacity of 50 – 70 tons.

S R Suryawanshi, ED (Works) visited the site and congratulated the collective for this stupendous achievement on 26th July, 2023. ED (Works) also presented a certificate of appreciation to the collective. Present on the occasion were I Rajan, Chief General Manager I/c (CO-CCD, U&E), Ramkrushna Patra Chief General Manager I/c(Steel), M N V S Prabhakar CGM(Blast Furnaces), R N Rajendran, CGM(Mechanical), Dillip Kumar Bhanja, CGM (Power Distribution), S S Panda, GM In-charge (Refractories) and several other Senior Officers and employees of the Department.

In order to maintain Torpedo ladle availability for improving plant productivity, Refractory (Engineering) Services, RSP has focused on expanding the service life of torpedo ladles. To effectively increase the ladle life, various innovative work practices have been brought to use. These include new lining pattern and maintenance systems like metal heal practice, window repair concept, modifications in heating cycle, online inspection and thermography etc.

Besides, regular ladle inspection and studies on thermal profile helped in identifying the schedule for general and localized repairs. Thermal scanning was carried out after every heat to ascertain potential threat areas, while hot maintenance was done whenever necessary to prolong the life of torpedo. AS a result, the Torpedo ladle # 5 crossed previous best of 2651 heats on 18th July, 2023 and was taken for debricking on 25th July, 2023 at a life of 2669 heats after carrying 8,19,430 tones of hot metal.

Similarly at the CCM#1 of Steel Melting Ship#1 (SMS#1), the Steel Ladle #9 registered a record lining life of 125 heats surpassing the earlier record of 120 heats achieved in April, 2023. SMS-I being a very old unit, this is a major milestone and one of the key components on which productivity depends. It has helped substantially in enhancing the shop average ladle lining life to 87 heats surpassing the average life of 80.36 heats recorded in the last Financial Year, thus directly improving the techno-economics and also ensuring optimum ladles availability to cater the shop’s production.

The achievements have been made possible with effective teamwork, consistent efforts and complete dedication of employees of Refractory Engineering (Services), Steel Melting Shop-I &II and Blast Furnaces as well as other associated agencies.