September Meeting Minutes
/Meeting minutes of the September 21st, – 23rd 2022 meeting in Denison, Tx
The members of the guild arrived on Wednesday September 21, 2022, for breakfast at 7:00am.
Mark Kropf reviewed the details of the week’s schedule along with the current officer status since the last 2 years of no meetings due to COVID. Mark then covered the status of the Maintenance Guild and ask what the future should look like. With our industry running lean in the skilled labor sector, the ability for attendees to get to meetings has become very difficult. The new president and vice-president needs to be established. This would make Jonathan Putman the president. Jonathan has taken a new position with Nucor and could not attend. Nate Hotson from ArcelorMittal Dofasco who volunteered to fill this void as our vice-president was not able to attend to to a shop outage and needs approval from plant management to fill this void. Mark will be following up with them on there status. The next meeting we will need to have election of the next Vice-president.
The following companies were represented; CMC Ok, CMC Texas, Charter Steel Cleveland, Charter Steel Saukville, , ArcelorMittal Dofasco, WINOA, Nucor Jewett, Nucor Kankakee, Nucor Longview, & IVACO.
Mark started the round table session at 8:15 with questions from the floor.
How do you isolate and depressurize hydraulic systems to do maintenance?
Ball valve is bleeding through, some shops did not see the bleed through. A suggestion would be to add a vent pipe between the valves to vent bypass fluid and pressure back to tank.
What nonflammable fluids are other shop using other than water glycol? We are getting pump and valve failures due to jelling of the water glycol. There is mineral based fluids out there but expensive to use. Everyone in attendance used water-Glycol fluids. One topic was the possibility of the carbon steel pipe corroding causing a reaction. One shop switched to stainless steel piping to prevent this scenario. The conversation moved to disposal and most reclaimed and shipped of site for recycling. The group then continued to discuss fluid testing issues with system design that creates low fluid movement allowing stagnate flow and gelling.
Who is conveying lime pneumatically to the furnace. some shop do some are injecting to the furnace some use conveyors thru a 5th hole in the roof. But everyone has issues with the lime dust in the shop.
Spray water nozzles plugging off from main supply line carbon pipe scale flaking off? What type of filter system are those shops using. Some shops used rotary strainers Adams, Kenny were two strainers mentioned. Carbon steel line corrosion was also an issue discussed. Cooling tower maintenance was discussed as well.
Who is using Mintec scan system on their furnace?
Took a break at 9:30
We started back at 9:45
What type of stopper rod controls are other shops using on the casters. Our actuators are outdated. Servo control hydraulics are mostly used. One shop had electric type actuators, other shop use slide gates on there tundish to feed the strands.
Ladle slide gate cylinder fed from the caster turret hydraulic system has problems with hose and debris plugging up the hydraulic system. What are other shops doing with these systems. One shop us a robot grip system to open close the gates and stays with the turret and not the ladle. There was one shop that use rotary gates.
What type of hydraulic hoses are other shops using in high heat applications? Armor guard (armadillo) by GSM was one mentioned. Isa hydraulic hose wrapped with Kevlar and steel braid. The group continued to discuss the different applications that apply to the electrode cooling hose supply.
With the initiative to get men off the sumps and tilt platforms, what are other shops using to clean tap holes after tap? Grand tap hole insert machines were discussed along with other type robotic equipment. There have been multiple accidents and near misses that have increased the attention to this initiative.
What type of cameras are other shops using on the temp taking machine to detect leaks and refractory wear. Conners and logical cameras are being used at other shops.
The conversation came back to lime injection systems and lime handling system. For plugging to transfer to hydration issues.
What type of rolling mill scrap handling conveyors are other shops using and what issues do you have. SMS conveyor has issues with the plate opening up as it goes around the roll along with impact damage make it hard to keep running.
What are other shops doing to get and retain skilled labor. The group discussed different initiatives they use from intern and co-op opportunities. The group discussed the different programs from high schools, local tech schools to Nucor Academy and AIST scholarship with internship programs were discussed. How each of the program’s function and there requirements with pay rates was discussed with the Pro’s and Cons with impact on retention.
What are other shops doing with the legalization of cannabis? Some shops still do random testing with a 0 tolerance to only testing if there is an accident or issue of suspicion.
Who does Crane wheel inspections and what do you measure in your plans? Bearing wear and wheel profile to rail tolerance profiles are typical inspections.
What are other shops using for spray ring systems? All present are using homemade systems.
What type of debur systems are being used at other caster shops? Knives, rotary and torch systems were discussed, along with the maintenance of those systems.
What are the burner systems being used in other shops, MORE’, PTI-INTECO, Praxair were a few mentioned.
What electrode addition machines are other shop using? XO was mentioned the most, they do have issues with connectivity but mechanically they work well. Technical support in the US is not the best.
What are other shops doing to clean equipment for inspection and maintenance? Blow off equipment, Vacuum, manual sweeping, all is used. Schedules for cleaning was discussed from crane cleaning to shop floor. But all there agreed that cleanliness is important to proper equipment maintenance.
The group broke for Lunch at 12:00
We started back at 1:00
What shops attending Are DC furnaces. None in attendance.
Does anyone have information on a slag line moisture monitoring system? There was a trial at a mill, and they did not work
Does anyone have trouble with the copper burner box wearing off and having to reweld the copper? Most shops did not have that issue. The group discussed the removable face design burner blocks and there performance.
Caster spray water pump performance and maintenance was discussed
What do other shops do to clean the caster sump pit? Most shop use clam’s one pumped the pit down and pit a bob cat in it to scoop the scale up into a bucket.
Anyone using ABB Furnace Breakers? Some shops did and they discussed the differences in the models
What are other shops using for door pushers? Tail gate pusher works well, moe tanks was another. Uni gate designs was mentioned and they discussed the mobile door pushers but with the initiative to get men off the floor these units are getting removed.
What companies are being used to do electrode arm repairs? Nu-core, Hammers, Primetals, and precision components were a few mentioned and discussed.
Anyone using water softeners on cooling water. Some used them on mold water at the caster.
What companies are being used to rebuild the oscillator cylinders. Dover Hydraulics was mentioned. The conversation moved to accelerometers on the oscillators.
On gunning lances, we still manual gun and every now and then the lance fails. This was not an issue those shops are experiencing. Pre failure maintenance would be needed.
Are other companies still having their furnace operators walk the rim of the furnace or do they have platforms? Those shops that still manually gun the furnace are either gunning in the front do, on platforms, or the sump panel.
On charge bucket control, most of our guys cannot open the bucket without it swinging it. Is this unique to us? There was no one that has that type of problems, it was suggested to review the scrap loading to make sure there was light and fine type of scrap on the bottom to make sure the clams did not hang up or drag hard on scrap.
What are other shops doing if the temp and sample lance system goes down. Some shop would go back to manual sampling, other shops shut down until it is repaired.
What are other shops doing with the down day schedules, weekly every two week ect?
Most shops would take an 8-to-10-hour weekly outage.
How are other shops accessing there roofs for roof changes. Most from platforms and or ladders.
What type of air dryers are being used in the shops? CTI was one of the suppliers discussed.
We are having issues with high temperatures in electrical rooms and are looking at putting the electronics outside the area being monitored, does anyone else do this or how do you control the temps? The group discussed different ideas and solutions that have been tried.
What controls are other shops using to control their remote cranes. Magnatech drives was one type mentioned. The group discussed different units and the pros and cons of them.
Took a break at 3:00
We started back at 3:15
What are other shops hearing on the red line initiative in the rolling mills not being sufficient, that physical barriers will be needed? Most mills are still in the planning and evaluation phase of this initiative. The group discussed a lot of scenarios and ideas but most determined them to extremely difficult to meet.
Does anyone have an idea on how to keep the retaining nut on the rolling mill roll bearing retainer ring from backing off. There is not a lot of room to use a socket so we have been welding the nut but this add a lot of time when it needs changed. One suggestion was to use a hydraulic torque driver.
Does anyone have issues with the large overhead cranes e house supports failing and finding cracks in the support beams? No one has seen issues. It was pointed out that more detailed inspections should be done to make sure other shops do not have similar failures. The group discussed crane inspection process using outside services along with internal inspections.
What do other shop do to verify that all the sidewall panel water is turned on? The group discussed the different procedures used to verify. So go as far as have a check list that is performed by both maintenance and production. There are also flow meter applications used on larger water-cooled equipment.
How long do other shop Gantry slew bearings last? Ours only went 5 years and was associated to baked grease on one side from heat. Most shops shoot for 10 years.
How often do you clean off the electrode arms? Most shops do it weekly.
How many shops do a safety assessment on a job prior to work starting? A couple of shops have procedures established
Who is using electronic job assignments to the work force. Most shops use paper and supervisor, or lead have the electronic tablets. But paper is still the primary medium.
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. Mark 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.
Mark made the introduction for our first presentation at 8:05.
PRESENTATION:
ROY ALEMAN OF MELTER PRESENTING A PAPER TITLED “SCRAP PREHEATING SYSTEMS”
Roy finished the presentation at 8:15 and took questions from the floor.
After a short break Mark introduced our second paper at 8:30.
PEDRO QUIROGA OF EAFAB PRESENTING A PAPER “CERAMIC COATING ELECTRODES FOR REDUCED CARBON ELECTRODE CONSUMPTION”
Pedro finished the presentation at 9:10 and took questions from the floor.
After a short break Mark introduced our third paper at 9:35
JOSE HERNANDEZ OF AMI PRESENTING A PAPER TITLED, “USAGE OF MACHINE VISION AT THE EAF “
Jose finished the presentation at 10:10 and took questions from the floor.
Mark made the introduction for our fourth presentation at 10:20
JOHN LEWIS OF CONNORS INDUSTRIALS PRESENTING A PAPER TITLED “REMOTE EAF INSPECTION & INFRARED PRIMARY STEEL CAMERA APPLICATIONS”
John finished the presentation at 11:00 and took questions from the floor.
After a short Break Mark introduced our fifth paper at 11:20
Bill Bennett of EAFab presenting a paper on Maintaining your area, “Spares inspecting, audits and housekeeping”
Bill finished the presentation at 11:35 and took questions from the floor
12:00 Members went to lunch
1:00 Members boarded bus and departed at 1:15 for the tour of the CMC Durant Steel plant
4:30 RETURN TO THE HOTEL
At 6:00 the members gathered in the Ballroom for a hospitality mixer.
At 7:00 dinner was served.
At 8:00 we were able to hear our guest speaker.
COLE WALKER DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS CMC STEEL DURANT.
From 9:00 - 11:00 the group finished with a mixer to discuss the day’s events and information.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
THERE WAS NO GOLF OUTING AND MEMBERS ARE ON THERE OUR FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK