Traditionally, molten iron transportation in the steel industry has relied entirely on manually operated trains, resulting in slow information communication, labor-intensive work, and potential safety hazards. Furthermore, the entire process using these trains takes approximately half an hour, resulting in significant heat loss and hindering energy conservation and emissions reduction.
Recently, Jinnan Iron and Steel Group, China Unicom, and Huawei have jointly established Shanxi's first 5G network covering an industrial park. These networks have been deployed in various areas, including an intelligent scheduling system for molten iron ladle, a one-click steelmaking system, a centralized control system for four coking vehicles, and a 5G cloud video surveillance system. This serves as a model for intelligent manufacturing projects within the province's steel industry.
Leveraging the high bandwidth and low-latency wireless network of the 5G Industrial Internet, remote control and coordinated scheduling of molten iron ladle systems are achieved, effectively addressing the pain points of manual labor, high personnel input, high costs, and inaccurate measurement in molten iron scheduling, thereby achieving the goal of reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
In the Jinnan Steel hot metal ladle operation area, you'll see 16 massive, eight-lane molten iron transporters operating in sequence, receiving molten iron exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius from the blast furnace. The ladle lids automatically close to maintain the temperature, and the ladle is steadily transported to the steelmaking area for the next step of smelting. The entire process, performed without the intervention of workers or drivers, takes only about seven minutes.
Huawei 5G steel industry expert Peng Jun said, "5G, as the digital foundation of new infrastructure, will resolve the 'information silos' that exist in complex production processes at large steel companies, establishing an automated closed-loop management system of 'data collection - analysis and decision-making - reverse control execution.' This is the greatest value of 5G."
