INNOVATION is
DISRUPTION
FIVES FURTHER DIGITALIZES INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES TO IMPROVE ITS CUSTOMERS' PRODUCTIVITY
INCREASING YIELD
Fives has developed a revolutionary digital solution, SmartLine, to help steelmakers to meet increased demand for steel grades with high added value.
SmartLine is a completely automatic control system. It allows steelmakers to simulate the annealing and galvanizing process of a strip processing line via models, and to determine optimal control of equipment to increase production yield and quality.
Fives has successfully implemented the SmartLine solution on four continuous galvanizing lines at the Marcegaglia plant in Ravenna, Italy.
To optimize a complete set of parameters, the SmartLine solution links all key process models together, also taking into account data relating to upstream coil processing, notably steel metallurgy, hot and cold rolling and various thermo-mechanical processing stages, as well as laboratory data before the coil enters the annealing, coating and skin-pass rolling stages.
There are various benefits gained from SmartLine implementation:
- Improved productivity
- Reduced variation in coating thickness
- Reduced dross production
- Faster production speeds across the entire range of steel grades
