In-house modified  Multigate Control Panel system inaugurated at Sintering Plant – III of RSP

An in-house modified Multigate Control Panel system was inaugurated at Sintering Plant – III of SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant on 25^th May 2023. Mr. Biswaranjan Palai, CGM (Sinter Plants) and Mr. Sudip Pal Chowdhury, CGM (Automation and Instrumentation) jointly inaugurated the system. Present on the occasion were other Officers and employees of the Department. The instrumentation Department with the help of Sinter Plant III collective has carried out  the in-house modification of the multi-gate control panel with new field actuators to maintain and control  the  Sinter Bed-height at Sinter Plant -3 replacing the old non-reliable control systems. The new system has helped achieving the desired bed height. This will improve  the quality and productivity of sinter from SP -3, reduce frequent breakdowns of the multi-gate system and enhance the availability of the system.

Notably, raw mix bed height at the entry of sinter machine plays a vital role in sinter making. The bed height on the sinter machine is controlled through roll feeder speed and sector wise gate opening. The Bed height of the raw mix on the sinter machine need to be maintained in desired profile across the width of the machine for uniform combustion, sinter quality and optimum production rate. To control the bed height profile, six numbers of gates are to be positioned proportionally.

Original position control of six numbers of sector gates was done through VVVF actuators. Due to adverse surroundings, the sensitive VVVF actuators were giving frequent breakdowns leading to non-uniform bed height. This was leading to production loss and affecting the quality of sinter. The Instrumentation team along with sinter plant collective has taken this challenging job to increase the availability of the system and its reliability. To implement the same logic, six   electrical actuators are selected to operate the sector gates through rope and pulley arrangement.  The important activities that were carried out for implementation of the new scheme included, installation of six electrical actuators, linking the sector gates with the remotely mounted electrical actuators with rope and pulley arrangement, modification of control panel wiring, interfacing the panel with the existing DCS for control room operation and modification in DCS logics and graphics for operator interface.