Steel makers have a daunting task in moving goods, but heavy-duty material handling equipment has set them on the right path.
by Team MT
Steel is one of the most versatile
metals around. It comes in many varieties, from hot rolled coils to wire rods and TMT bars to sheet steel; it can therefore be used across industries and applications. However, given its bulky nature, there is a perpetual challenge when it comes to the movement and handling of steel goods. As a result of its varying shapes and colossal weight, the steel industry requires a vaster and more diverse range of material handling equipment (MHE) than most types of manufacturing.
In fact, logistics and material handling in the manufacture of steel is not restricted just to the MHE in use, but extends to the conception and planning of the project and the plant layout itself.
“In integrated steel plants, enormous amounts of raw material (iron ore, lime stone/dolomite, ferro alloys, etc.) are required to be received and handed to the different manufacturing units within the plant. In addition to this, intra plant movement of intermediate products like sinter, hot briqueted iron/direct reduced iron, blast furnace/corex hot metal, liquid steel, slab, hot rolled coils pose a great challenge to designers and, after commissioning, to the manufacturing personnel,” says BJ Dave, VP, services, Essar Steel India.
Rakesh Chauhan, VP, supply chain management, JSW Steel, agrees that the material handling of steel poses a challenge, stating, “It is a significant challenge. Steel is a heavy item; one small SKU can weigh to the tune of one tonne and can go as high as around 35-38 tonnes. It also comes in various shapes, including flat products, rectangular form, wide form or even coil form. Then, there are different grades of steel. For example, if it is going for use in the automotive sector, there are some grades, which are very soft in nature and would mean that when a crane handles it, we need to ensure that the cranes and equipment do not damage the material, as they are all very high-value materials. So, steel is a complicated thing, as complicated as any other item. It has to be understood in the right perspective and there has to be proper equipment for handling various products.”
Steely Moves
Despite the complexities involved, steel makers are not daunted by the task of moving their raw material or products, given the exceptional MHE support on offer nowadays. For instance, MHE maker Konecranes provides the entire gamut of MHE solutions, including cranes suited specifically to Indian standards. They have developed a world-class manufacturing facility in Jejuri, Pune, as well as an Engineering Knowledge Centre in Magarpatta, Pune, to cater to the manufacturing sector, with a special focus on the steel industry.
“We offer e-Ton cranes as per IS 3177, which can be used for general steel handling in warehouses & distribution centres, and Phoenix cranes as per IS 4137 which are used in critical applications such as ladle handling, furnace charging, hot billet handling etc. The critical application cranes have added safety measures and redundancies. Additionally, we also offer our flagship CXT cranes for certain applications in steel handling,” says Amit Deshpande, VP, operations, Konecranes India.
For their operations, Essar uses trailors, forklifts, gantry cranes, and EOT cranes for road; and forklifts, crawler/tyre mounted mobile cranes for rail movement. Dave adds that for every tonne of steel produced, the handling of raw material and intermediate products amounts to three or four times, depending upon the process followed.
Konecranes’ product range consists of Scrap Handling cranes, Four-Girder Charging cranes, Double-Girder Ladle Handling cranes, Slab and Billet Handling cranes, Coil and Plate Handling cranes, and General-Purpose and Maintenance cranes. The cranes can be offered with varied levels of automation as per customer requirements. Konecranes has options starting with complete manual control, semi-automation with their smart features such as end positioning & target positioning (crane goes to pre-define locations when a button is kept pressed), protected areas, working limits (automatic stoppages to ensure crane does not enter restricted zones); and then on the extreme end of the spectrum, they also provide completely automated cranes that can be programmed to enhance the productivity of steel mills.
Rajinder Jindal, general manager, production, planning & control, Sunflag Iron and Steel Company, offers, “Inside the plant, we use EOT cranes as well as hydra cranes, which are mobile cranes at 12 tonnes capacity and have served us well. Most EOT handling is as far as our product is concerned is all manual. Within the milling operations or during processing, we use automation, but once the finished goods are ready to be dispatched, all the materials are handled manually.”
With an inclination for manual operations, it is difficult to push to advanced MHE in India. Yet, the advantages in terms of productivity and safety are manifold. Material handling is reported to take up 87% of production time, thus making it a crucial part of the process that defines the overall output levels of the plant. “Cranes with special features such as sway control enable to operate the crane at faster speeds, thus enhancing the production as well as safety,” says Deshpande. To help with the transition, Konecranes even offers solutions for modernisation and refurbishment of cranes, with marginal costs that enhance the life of old cranes.
This is particularly useful in the Indian scenario, where steel makers have been using the same crane for a long period of time. Jindal illustrates this point well, when he says, “We have not recently got any new equipment as far as material handling is concerned. In fact, I am not really aware of any new development in this area. However, MHE manufacturers have always been able to take care of our requirements.”
Pawan Kumar Garg, AVP, material, Kalyani Carpenter Special Steels, shares a similar view. His company makes long products such as billets and ingots. “At our site, we only rely on EOT cranes. Even these are standardised versions that are available in the market, and we do not feel the need to customise them. We do not have any particularly unique material-handling challenges, hence standardised material-handling equipment is good enough for our use,” he confesses.
Nerves of Steel
Even though the MHE used may not be bespoke in nature, there are still other distinctive difficulties to consider. Bimal Kishore, chief, raw material management, Tata Steel, speaks of the challenges his team has to contend with, “We have more than 10,000 SKUs. And the customers’ requirement on timeliness is very important. We have our own dockyards from which we distribute to the four zones. At our Kalinganagar plant in Orissa, we have a central loading yard that we are developing so we can load directly from the mills. We take the wagon up to that point, and then we have overhead cranes to help with the loading into the wagons or trailers.”
In addition to this, steel plants form one of the most challenging environments to operate in due to the high temperature and dust in the environment. Also, the usage of most cranes is continuous with very little time available for carrying out preventive maintenance. Hence, the cranes need to have an appropriate duty class; safety features and correct load handling attachments in order to ensure seamless operations.
Chauhan says, “There is a huge scope for making improvements in the handling equipment. First of all, I feel people must know the nature of steel and its various types as well as the ways to handle it. Today, you have cranes that are handling steel, while tomorrow they could handle anything else. Basically, people have a standard equipment or machine. This means that migration is required to some extent, so as to understand the cross type, the grade type and then design equipment for handling.”
As the steel industry evolves, the nature of steel processing is bound to change. “We expect more focus on recycling steel through the use of scrap with cleaner electric arc/induction furnaces and direct charging to avoid re-heating. Some experts believe that by 2035 almost all off steel requirement can be catered to through recycling. Hence, the plants may move away from sources of steel production to usage hubs. This would require a complete revamp of the steel handling supply chain to carry scrap to plants and finished goods back,” concludes Deshpande.