Meet the robots making steelmaking safer and more efficient

Working in a steel plant is an intense experience and skilled employees are used to the hot, loud — and sometimes hazardous — environment.

Some of the most dangerous jobs, that require working with or close to liquid metal, are critical for the quality of the product. At the same time, safety is a paramount concern. This is where automation is helping to keep operating personnel at a safe distance. 

Instead of sending people into the hottest, toughest parts of the plant, robots such as those developed by Primetals Technologies, of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, are handling tasks including sampling, temperature checks, powder feeding and more.

At a plant in Thailand, for example, workers manually operating the shroud — which protects molten steel from the atmosphere as it is transferred between vessels — had to stand very close to the flow of liquid steel. A bespoke robot developed to meet the facility’s needs now ensures workers can monitor from a safer distance.

Robots are also advancing rolling operations, where they are taking on repetitive work such as coil trimming and sampling — areas in which consistency matters as much as speed.

Learn more in this video: