Meeting Minutes of the 44th Maintenance Guild meeting

Meeting minutes of the March 5th, – 6th 2018 meeting in Johnstown, PA

The members of the guild arrived on Monday March 5, 2018 for breakfast at 7:00am.              

Mark Kropf reviewed the details of the meeting along with the voting guidelines and covered the week’s event schedule.

The following companies were represented; AK Steel Mansfield, Algoma Steel, CMC Alabama, Charter Steel Cleveland, North American Höganäs, ArcelorMittal Dofasco, WINOA, Electralloy, & Vallorec Star.

Sean started the round table session by review a new process in the round table development to organize the round table topics by grouping began at 8:10 with questions from the floor.

Who is doing predictive maintenance on the electrode holder Clamp force and what is it? Group discussed the testing applications used and how they respond to the results. The discussion moved to the maintenance of the holders and who does it. The also discussed predictive maintenance plans for the mast, arms,

Does anyone have someone who does complete caster alignments for a slab caster?

SMS Millcraft, Danieli and Primetals mentioned.

BOF hood panel designs, tube materials and the coatings were discussed. The group reviewed the Maintenance activities to maintain and improve the life of this equipment and what other shop were doing.

What are other shops doing with EAF spray cooled roof repair during operations? The dust covers are too small for access so repairs have to be made under the roof when swung off. The group discussed the different scenarios of online repair from spray-cooled to tube type roofs.

Took a break at 9:10

We started back at 9:20

We put in a new lower shell and after a short time it has started to warp. Has anyone experienced lower shell warping? The group discussed different scenarios of failure modes plate material should be a 516 gr70 and stress reliving is another thing to consider.

As anyone had trouble with the trolley idle wheel bearing failures. We had an inner race cracked on the bearing. Shock load was one type of failure mode discussed. The group discussed other maintenance items that would impact that type of failure. Vibration temperature and grease test are predictive test discussed. Auto greaser systems were also covered.

Does anyone have older P&H Cranes? And where do you get your parts from? SES was a company mentioned that can do the reverse engineering for parts. Horsberger Scott, Xtek, Zenar. Where others that may be able to help.

What are other shops using for electrode spray rings? Primetals, More’ Danieli were some of the purchase systems mentioned others did there’s in house. We discussed flow rate and system purge along with spray up or down. The group discussed even spraying hot electrodes in the storage rack that were pulled for downturns to minimize oxidation losses. Can it be utilized on the LMF? Yes

Does anyone have issues with moisture getting pulled into the baghouse duct from leaks on the outside? Have you tried using a smoke test system to find those leaks?

We have 3 cranes in one bay, so on a down day how do you manage safety during crane PMs? Lock outs, tags on boxes, and rail stops were all discussed, as well as the procedures that other shops are using.

The conversation moved to working at heights with tool tie off systems to prevent tool drops for safety. Discussed the yellow, red and blue taped off areas and what each meant and allow as for entry in the taped off area.

Took a break at 11:00

We started back at 11:15

Does anyone use a block and bleed valve for sidewall panels? No one present has used them, they do have pressure relief valves in the drain side. One shop uses a “T” block with a ½” bleed valve to bleed off any pressure. As a bypass to the pressure relief valves.

What has other shop done to improve grease systems on their cranes? Auto grease systems are a good start, but need to be used in a way that still requires a person to monitor to avoid maintenance missing other inspection issues that maybe overlooked.

The conversation moved into greasing pm’s and how to effectively manage a greasing program.

What are other shops doing to prevent oil in the environment from a failed heat exchanger? One shop does not use water they use air exchangers. Some control pressure to move water to oil. Some us continuous oil leak monitoring systems.

How are other shops showing Red zones around the furnace or under equipment? Some shops are using laser and led projection to the ground. They also talked about the blue lights on the fork trucks to warn people that the fork truck is moving towards it.

The group broke for lunch at 12:00

The group returned from lunch at 1:10

What equipment improvements are other companies doing to improve operations or reduce cost. LED lighting, Robotic sampling, automated alert systems to shut systems down or ramp down to save energy. One project was off gas sampling to detect water leaks, gas make up to measure the off gas for furnace to react to the sample.

We are working on a compressed air conservation program, what are other shops doing to conserve? Multiple ideas were discussed from leak detection to automated compressor systems.

Does anyone have experience with Primetals transformers? No one had used them. Tamini and ABB was discussed but it was pointed out the ABB was getting out of the EAF transformer arena. This will need verified.

What type of compressor systems are other shops using? Centrifugal, screw type. The group discussed the different type as well as recentralization of compressors. Lease and rentals systems was discussed Atlas Costco was one

What companies are other shops using to re-bag baghouses? There were a couple of companies mentioned. Anyone use National Filter? A couple of shops did Gore, K& D and Paul Berry in Ontario were others mentioned.

Arc flash safety: are any shops using clear 40cal hoods? The group had a long discussion on arc flash requirements and how they manage the requirements in protection.

The group closed nominations from the floor and Jonathan Putman of North American Höganäs was elected by unanimous vote to be the next second vice president of the Melt Shop Maintenance Guild. Congratulations Jonathon welcome to the team.

Took a break at 2:05

We started back at 2:15

What are other shop using in main door closers and the light weight high speed cloth doors just don’t hold up? Most shops are going back to heavy metal doors so it will hold up to the environment.

What other companies are other shops using for slew bearings Rotec, Messenger, NSK and SKF were mentioned.

What types of hoist full up limit switches are other shop using?  The group discussed a few different styles and how they worked.

What type of front door actuators are other shops using and where are they located? The group discussed the different types and locations.

How are other shops dealing with roll outs of electrical standards and safety training? Is it handled by an electrical engineer, safety …. A couple of shops shared there processes with the group and discussed the benefits of each.

Is everybody having trouble finding qualified people for Planners? Yes everyone is dealing with finding qualified people not only for planning but for skilled labor as well. There is a shift to going back to the high school level and working with internships and training them. The group had a long conversation on this topic.

What seal types are other shop using on their water pumps? The majority said that the standard packing type seal works the best vs mechanical seal and injectable.

Took a break at 3:30

We started back at 3:40

What are other shops doing to break the breast and clear the door? Moe tank, fork trucks, and other door cleaning machines were discussed.

Who repairs the radio controlled boxes for the cranes in your shops. Do they need to be certified to do repairs? The group discussed the pros and cons of doing them in house vs sending them out for repairs.

Who is using the door lances and what maintenance do you perform on them? Some shops use the More’ and other types and they discussed the maintenance plans they follow.

 What motor drive units are other shops using? Allen Bradley, ABB, Siemens and Magnetech were a few mentioned.

 Are any shops using tablets or hand held devises for route work checks and what brands? One shop is using Toshiba and have been working out so far. Another brand was Xplore and is very flexible on operating programs and built very tough and durable. The group talked for a while on the different operating systems and how they interface with the maintenance software.

How do other shops manage in house equipment repairs? Maintenance system software will generation a shop order and the maintenance group will work off of that back log, if there is a break down they will take care of that then come back to the back log work.

PPE for welding hoods, what are other shops doing as far as hard hats with the hood clipped on. Most shops require hard hats in the plant.

Who directs the maintenance crew on the off shift? Some shops had supervisors, so had team leaders no one present had self-directed crews. All the guys present shared how they manage their off-shifts.

The round table finished at 4:00 pm.

This meeting the members will be on their own for dinner and return to the hotel for the Hospitality room activities from 7 till 11 provided by the supplier sponsors.

The group started off Tuesday with breakfast from 7:00 to 8:00. Bill opened the Technical session with updates for the day and reminded everyone that was in attendance to provide their business cards for the attendee list. This will be emailed to the attendees later in the week.

Sean made the introduction for our first presentation at 8:05.

LEE MONTGOMERY & STEVE HORNYAK OF CASTROL INDUSTRIAL PRESENTING A PAPER TITLED “OIL ANALYSIS & VARNISH TESTING" Lee finished the presentation at 8:35 and took questions from the floor.

After a short break Sean introduced our second paper at 8:55. 

JOE SAVARIEGO OF DELTA STEEL TECHNOLOGIES PRESENTING A PAPER TITLED, "CYLINDER REVITALIZATION”. Joe finished the presentation at 9:30 and took questions from the floor.

After a short break Sean introduced our third paper at 9:45

 JILL CANNON & ALEKS KASZUBOWSKI  OF NEDERMAN MIKROPUL PRESENTING A PAPER TITLED "ADVANCED SERVICES SOLUTIONS TO DRIVE OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE". Jill finished the presentation at 10:30 and took questions from the floor.

Sean made the introduction for our fourth presentation at 10:30

JOHN LEWIS OF CONNORS INDUSTRIALS Inc PRESENTING A PAPER TITLED, "VTD CAMERA TECHNOLOGY” John finished the presentation at 11:30 and took questions from the floor.

Bill made the introduction for our fourth presentation at 11:25 PHIL DIMATTEIS & ALEX TADLA OF SIMMERS CRANE DESIGN & SERVICES PRESENTING A PAPER TITLED “CRANE FALL PROTECTION & EMERGENCY EGRESS SYSTEMS”

12:00 Members went to lunch

1:10   Members boarded bus and departed at 1:30 for the tour of the North American Höganäs plant

4:00                 RETURN TO THE HOTEL

At 6:00 the members gathered in the Ballroom for a hospitality mixer.

At 7:00 dinner was served.

At 8:30 we were able to hear our guest speaker Dave Milligan Vice President, Iron Powder Operations North American Höganäs

From 9:00 - 11:00 the group finished with a mixer to discuss the day’s events and information.