Siam Yamato mini-mill lifts standards of safety, energy efficiency

One of the world's most advanced steel recycling mini-mills goes into production in Thailand this year. Equipped with Konecranes' lifting technology, Siam Yamato Steel Co Ltd's new semi-continuous medium section mill at Rayong uses Konecranes technology to service equipment including electric arc furnace, a ladle furnace and a combination continuous caster supplied by Concast, which jointly planed the mill with SMS Meer. The mini-mill will initially produce beams, channels and angles used by industries, such as building and construction, offshore production and civil engineering. The technology built into the mini-mill is designed to provide efficient and environmentally harmonious production and delivery reliability for customers in competitive markets demanding time and cost-efficiency. The mini-mill's electric arc furnace is equipped with the latest generation of ConSo oxygen technique to reduce the electrical energy consumption and simultaneously increase productivity. The dedusting system for the whole steelworks is designed to meet high standards of air pollution control. The largest 220-ton and 80-ton Konecranes installed at the site employ the latest DYNAREG energy recycling technology, which uses network regenerative units to feed clean energy back into the power supply. The order for Konecranes latest technology followed Siam Yamato's long experience and high level of satisfaction at Rayong with the 200-ton cranes provided for the existing mill in 1994, as well as the level of after-sales service provided by the local Konecranes maintenance team. While the new larger cranes will share the same successful basic design, all 10 of the new Konecranes supplied to the mill employ the latest technology drawn from Konecranes?decades of experience working in steel and hazardous metal industry environments where temperatures at the workface can exceed +65℃. All the new cranes feature built-in safety and fail safe redundancy mechanisms to help prevent worker injuries and material handling accidents and to ensure the high standards of continuity of supply and avoidance of downtime. "This mini steelworks is the most modern plant for the production of medium sections and encompasses the latest equipment and technologies. The demands of the local environmental authorities are fully satisfied," says Siam Yamato Steel's Chief Engineer and Assistant Project Manager for the new mill Mr Piya Chairat. Heavy lifting technology Konecranes supplied a 220-ton charging crane, a 220-ton ladle crane, a 80-ton casting crane, two 35-ton bloom handling cranes, a 25-ton machinery crane and four CXT service cranes. The larger cranes included charging crane, ladle handling crane and casting crane. The power supply of these cranes incorporated three DYNAREG units to provide full redundancy features for the crane power supply control system. Hoisting technology in the larger cranes includes two hoisting motors mechanically coupled through the differential gears to provide redundancy features in the hoisting. Hoisting motor driving controls are also independently controlled with separate inverter units for redundancy. Long and cross-traveling functions are governed by two sets of independently controlled driving units. All driving control units are housed in an electrical room on the crane equipped with two air conditioning units, providing further redundancy features for safety and reliability. "Redundancy featuring is vital to safety and reliability in harsh environments, says Ng Yong Hwee, Konecranes assistant project manager, Heavy Duty Cranes. "It means the mill operation will not be affected if there is a single point of failure on the crane, because recovery is simply achieved through a switch in the control selections." We also believe that safe and comfortable workers are efficient workers so we have focused on pADIDAS