Fairfields has been supplying control and monitoring systems to the UK and European metals industry for over 20 years, where we have built a vast experience profile in supplying high quality control system solutions to a market sector that has faced various challenges from a technical and financial perspective.
We can provide integrated control system support in all areas associated with the process of steel production, including:
- Raw material handling of coal and ore
- Blast and BOS furnace additive systems
- Primary and re-heat furnace control and extraction systems
- Continuous casting and mill control
- Grinding, scarfing and finishing processes
- Associated ancillary processes including water cooling, crane control and product transfer and storage systems
In many cases, the lack of investment within some areas of the steel industry has meant that steel production is monitored and controlled by legacy control systems and relatively slow communications networks. Frequently, system upgrades and PLC migration have been implemented due to necessity, which has meant that our engineering team have had to employ innovative ways in which to implement these upgrades, often in very short shutdown periods whilst simultaneously incorporating functional safety improvements and improved automation techniques.
These techniques have ranged from installing new standalone PLC and Motor Control Centres (MCCs) to large networked control and supervisory systems, which can reduce the amount of down time and minimise maintenance requirements, to simple energy saving solutions by replacing old motor starter equipment with Variable Speed Drives (VSD’s) in conjunction with more efficient motors, improved control philosophies and control loops.
As legacy control systems near the end of their lifecycle, our dedicated team of service support engineers and technicians can support and maintain areas of plant until the investment level is available to satisfy the cost of the upgrade.
