Partners

VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut GmbH (BFI) is a non-profit, limited liability company with a staff of about 100 people. The main object of institute’s work is the optimisation of steel production processes under economic and quality aspects. The institute addresses emerging issues of major relevance for steel industry in areas such as „Energy efficiency and CO2-reduction“, „Process and process chain optimisation“, „Circular Economy“ as well as „Industry 4.0 and sensors“ and makes them the focus of research and development work.

In the SmartLadle project, mainly the department “Measurement and Automation Steelmaking” will be involved that has profound experience in the application of different measurement systems in the harsh environment of the steel industry. Deepened knowledge on the different process steps ensures accurate evaluation of measurement data and further processing using special developed software. Measurement systems using thermocouples and cameras together with image processing have been installed at several steelworks for different applications. The department has also extensive experience in numerical modelling of ladle refractory temperature and stress. The sensors are installed and commissioned within the monitoring systems at the steelmaking plant directly by the engineers and technicians of BFI. Besides the technical expertise, BFI has long term experience in carrying out and co-ordinating ECSC and RFCS research projects. The expertise of the involved researchers ensures high quality and valuable results for the project.

Schmiedewerke Gröditz GmbH (SWG) is producing heavy weight forgings for worldwide clients with about 700 employees. The production is based on a steel plant with a 50t EAF equipped furnace with oxygen blowing lance, secondary metallurgy (LF and VD/VOD) and ingot casting. The annual output of about 120.000t crude steel per year is mainly used by the on-site forging shop. The main product group is tool steel with low/medium alloy contents and Cr up to 6%. Additionally, mainly high alloyed Cr-, CrMo- and CrNiMo steels are produced by a VOD plant. The production program is characterized by a steady change between low- and high alloyed steels.

SWG has experience of carrying out multinational (e.g. RFCS, COST) and industrial projects. This work is mainly performed by the Department of Process Technology and Process Development, which has direct access to the production plant to manage all plant trials and data collecting work which is planned during the project. The department is managed directly below the top management board of SWG.

Swerim AB (SWERIM) is an independent non-profit research institute (in Sweden), and its business concept is applied research and technical development in process metallurgy, heating, metalworking, environmental engineering and energy efficiency mainly for the ferrous and non-ferrous industry. Research is carried out in collaborative research projects or in projects on contract basis, financed by individual companies. They have approx. 200 employees and the turnover is around SEK 250 million per year. Swerim is well known worldwide for its unique large scale pilot plant equipment in metallurgy and metalworking and its ability to perform very large research projects. Furthermore, the institute owns an in-house computer cluster which has been fully upgraded recently to more than 300 top of the line computer chips.

The project will be managed and run by the department of Metallurgy. This department has a long-standing history and experiences in national, European (especially RFCS) and international collaborative and contract projects. The department enjoys a collective of talented and ambitious researchers with expertise in the fields of measurement technology, process metallurgy and CFD modelling.

Uddeholms AB (UAB) is a voestalpine company placed in Hagfors, Sweden, which is producing tool steel for worldwide clients. In Hagfors the number of employees is about 900, worldwide about 3000. The production is based on a steel plant with a 70 t EAF, secondary metallurgy and ingot casting. The steel shop produces about 100.000 tons per year, whereof more than 50 % is later ESR remelted. After ingot casting, the ingots either are forged or rolled and machined. The main product group is tool steel with medium to high alloy content.

UAB has experience of carrying out multinational RFCS projects. This work is mainly performed by the Process Development group, which has direct access to the production plant to manage all plant trials and data collecting work, which is planned during the project.

Sidenor I+D (SID) Sidenor is one of the European leaders in special steel long products. With an installed capacity of 1 million tonnes per year, it produces straight bars (round and flat), bar in coil and wire from a range of 5.5 mm to 220 mm diameter of high quality engineering steel grades. The production route comprises EAF-LF-VD-CC (billet and bloom, in square and round formats). It has 5 rolling mills, heat treatment and finishing facilities. The main market is automotive and energy.

Sidenor I+D is the research and development centre of Sidenor. It has a manpower of 44 persons working in two departments: Process and Product. It has its own Research Laboratory, which is equipped with modern test facilities both for metallurgical characterisation as for physical simulation. It also has capabilities for numerical simulation through the use of both commercial (FEM,…) as well as its own developed software. One of the strengths of SIDENOR I+D comes from the easy access to the production plants in order to carry out at industrial level the required experimental work, process monitoring and data acquisition. The Centre has extensive experience in carrying out RFCS projects over a number of years, both as coordinator or as partner. The industrial facilities involved in the proposal are located in Basauri, concretely in the related steelmaking shop.