BHILAI STEEL PLANT

Bhilai Steel Plant – a symbol of Indo-Soviet techno-economic collaboration, is one of the first three integrated steel plants set up by Government of India to build up a sound base for the industrial growth of the country, The agreement for setting up the plant with a capacity of 1 MT of Ingot steel was signed between the Government of erstwhile U.S.S.R. and India on 2nd February, 1955, and after a short period of 4 years, India entered the main stream of the steel producers with the commissioning of its first Blast Furnace on 4th February, 1959 by the then President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad. Commissioning of all the units of 1 MT stage was completed iby1961. In the initial phase the plant had to face many teething problems, mostly unknown to the workforce at the time, But by meticulous efforts and team-sprit, these problems were surmounted and the rated capacity production was achieved only within a year of integrated operation of the plant.

Thereafter, the plant was expanded to 2.5 MT capacity per year, and then to 4 MT of crude steel per year,. Bhilai expanded its production capacity in two phases - first to 2.5 MT which was completed on Sept. 1, 1967 and the 4 MT stage,which was completed in the year 1988

BLAST FURNACES

What is a Blast Furnace? BF is a counter current heat and mass exchanger, in which solid raw materials are charged from the top of the furnace and hot blast is sent through the bottom via tuyeres. The heat is transferred from the gas to the burden and oxygen from the burden to the gas. Gas ascends up the furnace while burden and coke descend down through the furnace. The counter current nature of the reactions makes the overall process an extremely efficient one.

In the blast furnace process iron ore and reducing agents (coke, coal) are transformed to hot metal, and slag is formed from the gangue of the ore burden and the ash of coke and coal. Hot metal and liquid slag do not mix and remain separate from each other with the slag floating on top of the denser iron. The iron can then be separated from the slag in the cast house. The other product from the Blast Furnace is dust laden blast furnace gas, which is further cleaned in the gas cleaning plant and is used as a fuel all over the plant.

The basic raw materials and their functions:-

1) Iron Ore: Iron bearing materials; provides iron to the Hot Metal.

2) Sinter: Iron bearing material. Fines that are generated in the plant are effectively utilized by converting them to sinter. Provides the extra lime required for the iron ore that is charged in the blast furnace.

3) Coke: Acts as a reductant and fuel, supports the burden and helps in maintaining permeable bed.

4) Limestone: Acts as Flux. Helps in reducing the melting point of gangue present in the iron bearing material

5) Manganese Ore: Acts as additive for the supply of Mn in the Hot Metal

6) Quartzite: Acts as an additive

7) Coal Dust: Acts as an auxiliary fuel, reduces coke consumption in the BF

8) Coal Tar: Acts as an auxiliary fuel, reduces coke consumption in the BF

9) Pellets: Iron bearing materials. Although not in use right now, there is a proposal to

utilize the fines below the sinter grade for pellet manufacturing and the pellets formed are going to be charged in the BF.

STEEL MELTING SHOP - 1

Steel Melting Sop - 1 (SMS-1) follows the conventional route of steel making in which steel is produced through Twin Hearth furnaces and cast into ingot moulds. The ingots are stripped off from the ingot moulds and are sent to BBM for further heating and rolling into blooms.

Initially SMS-I was set up to produce 1 MT steel annually, from 6 Open-Hearth furnaces of 250 T capacity each. First tapping was done on 12th October 1959. Sixth Open-hearth furnace was commissioned on 22nd February 1961. Later on it was decided by the corporate management to increase the capacity of the shop to 2.5 MT, by installing 4 more open hearth furnaces of 500 T capacity and converting OH no. 6 from 250 T to 500 T capacity, which was completed on 14th April 1967.

STEEL MELTING SHOP - 2

Steel Melting Shop-II (SMS-II) is designed to produce 1.5 MT of Cast Steel in the form of Slabs and Blooms. The shop was commissioned on 29th of July'1984. With every passing day, the shop has improved its systems and processes. Many in-house modifications along with acquisition of most modern steel making equipments have helped in fulfilment of ever increasing customer demands in terms of quality and quantity. The revised production capacity is estimated to be about 1.8 MT.

SMS-II is equipped with secondary steel making units like VAD, Ladle Furnace and RH Degasser to produce low hydrogen, low sulphur and micro-alloy steels.

BLOOMING AND BILLET MILL

BLOOMING AND BILLET MILL

Blooming & Billet Mill popularly known as “Mother Mill”,

is a primary mill designed to roll 2.5 MT/ Annum of ingots

into semies in the form of blooms & billets. A two high

reversingblooming mill and 12 stands continuous billet

mill are part of this department. The 1150mm two

high reversing Blooming Mill is designed to roll steel

ingots into blooms for Continuous Billet Mill and Rail

& Structural Mill. Average weight of steel ingots which

are used for rolling is 8 to 9 Ton. Major sections are

described below :

BLOOMING MILL

The heated ingot are placed on the ingot buggy (two ingots at a time) by means of tongs crane which delivers it on to the receiving roller table of Blooming Mill.

The Blooming Mill is a 2-High horizontal stand, equipped with individually driven rolls. Each roll of the Blooming Mill is driven by 930 V, 8000 KW, 0-20-80 rpm motor.

Length of Roll - 2800 mm
Dia. of Roll - 1150 mm (Min.1100mm & Max.1180mm)

Rolls are used in pairs. Each roll set is ground with the required pass design (4 including the shaped beam pass). After rolling of about 1 lakh ton, the rolls are charged. The used rolls are sent for redressing in Roll Turning Shop. After redressing they are assembled and reused.

The Top Roll is balanced by counter weights. It is moved up and down by screw down mechanism driven by two motors mounted on the top of the stand. There are manipulator side guards on both sides of the Roll stand. This is to manipulate the rolling stock on to the required pass section of the roll. Tilters are fitted in the front manipulator for tilting the rolling stock whenever required. The total rolls from ingot to bloom is done in 11 - 17 passes.

After rolling, the bloom proceeds to the shear where the front and back ends are cropped off to eliminate defects and the bloom is cut into required length. Blooms intended for further rolling in Billet Mill are sent directly after cutting the front and back end. The shear is of the up-cut crank shaft type with maximum cutting force of 1000 Ton and operating speed of upto 10 cuts per minute. Crop ends are pushed down and conveyed to crop pit for cooling.
The Mill can roll square and rectangular blooms and also narrow width slab. Common Sizes of Blooms and Narrow Width Slabs

i) 320 x 320 mm
ii) 265 x 340 mm
iii) 260 x 300 mm
iv) Shaped blooms for Beam-450mm & Beam-600mm
v) Narrow Width Slab 200 x 320 mm
vi) Narrow Width Slab 200 x 420 mm

BILLET MILL

The Billet Mill has been designed to roll billets from blooms of cross section 325x325 sq.mm in 6 to 12 passes depending on cross section of billets to be produced in the Mill. The capacity of the Mill was designed to roll 15,01,000 Tonns/Year. But with modified output size of billets the mill is now capable of rolling to million tonnes per year

The Mill consists of 12 working stands arranged in three groups.

a. The First group contains Two 2-High Horizontal stands with a 90 deg. tilter in between. These stands are equipped with rolls of diameter 1000mm and length 1200mm.

b. The Second group called the roughing group contains 4 stand - 2 each of Horizontal and Vertical stands arranged alternately. These stands are equipped with rolls of diameter 700mm.

c. The Third group called the finishing group located after the transfer table contains 6 stands - 3 horizontal and 3 vertical stands arranged alternately. These stands are equipped with rolls of diameter 500mm.

Rolled billets after the roughing group of stands which are not to be rolled further are transported by transfer table and by pass roll table to the stationary 800T shear where they are cut into required length. The billets are gathered and transported to cooling bed by roll tables.
Billets from roughing group intended for further rolling in finishing group are transfered to the last group of stands. If necessary, the front end of billet can be cropped off by 250 T shears installed in front of the group.

After rolling in the finishing group, the billets are cut by flying shears into billets of length 5 to 12m. End arisings are controlled by a computer installed in the Mill.
After cutting, the billets are transported to cooling beds by roll tables and transfer skids.

MARCHANT MILL

The "350 mm" Merchant mill is a semi continuous high capacity mill designed to roll 500,000 tones of finished products per year as per present market demand. Main products are :

Rounds Bars :- 28,32,36,40,50,53,56,60,63 & 67 mm dia; TMT bars of 28, 32, 36, 40 and 45 mm are also being rolled.

Angles :- 50x50, 65x65, 75x75, 80x80 and 90x90 mm leg lengths and thickness ranging from 5 to 10 mm.

Channels :- 100x50, 75x40 mm.



Raw materials :-

Raw materials used are billets of size 100x100, 105x105, 110x110, 150x150 and shaped billet of size 122x135x80, length ranging from 5 M to 6 M. Billets are supplied from billet yards by magnetic cranes on to the charging device. Three charging devices are installed one in each of the three bays of billet yard. Approach tables at the billet shipment in the first, second and the third bays are designed to push the billets on the furnace approach roll table. Furnace approach table, which extends upto the first bay in billet shipment, is designed to receive billets from the charging devices and deliver them to the furnaces. The furnace pusher installed at the charging side of the reheating furnace, pushes the billets after leveling from the approach roll table into the furnace and moves the entire charge in the furnace pushing the heated billets on to the delivery roll table at the discharge end of the furnace.

The Merchant Mill consists of three main sections :
1. Re-heating furnaces.
2. The mill stands and cooling beds.
3. Finishing zone & shipping.


Reheating furnaces : -

There are three re-heating furnaces installed in the mill to heat the billets to the required temperature necessary for hot rolling . Furnaces are continuous, end charging / discharging type. The capacity of each furnace is 60 ton per hour.

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

1. Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility – 2007 Bhilai Steel Plant has been adjudged winner of the “Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility for the year 2007” by the Golden Peacock Award Jury, under the Chairmanship of Justice PN Bhagwati..

2. Managing Director Shri RAMARAJU receives twin Environment awards Bhilai Steel Plant received the 'Corporate Green Responsibility Award' for making Bhilai green and 'Prakriti Ratna award' to Shri Ramaraju for implementation of exemplary waste management and natural resource development practices in Bhilai.

3. President’s Gallantry Awards On 14th Aug ’07, Asst Chief Fire Officer, Server Ghulam Mohd bagged the President’s Fire Service Medal for Gallantry. This the first time that Bhilai Steel Plant has won this award.

4. Rashtriya Vishwakarma Awards On 16th August ’07, the Ministry of Labour announced the Rashtriya Vishwakarma Awards for year 2006. Out of the 28 groups, as many as 7 groups are from Bhilai Steel Plant.

5 . National Safety Awards The five shops that received the award are Refractory Material Plant II, Machine Shop II, Machine Shop III, Roll Turning Repair Shop (RTRS) and Oxygen Plant II.

6. Prime Minister's Shram Awards 2004 :
The Prime Minister's Shram Awards 2004 were given to the awardees on April 27, 2007 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Shri Satyawan Nayak, C'man cum Sr. Technician from Plate Mill.

7. CII – ITC Sustainability Award : BSP wins the award for the second successive year. MD received the award on 12th Dec ’07.

8. Golden Peacock National Quality Award 2006 : Conferred on BSP at the 17th World Congress on Total Quality & IOD Convention-2007 on 14th Jan ’07 at Kolkata.

9. Golden Peacock National Training Award 2006 : Conferred at the 17th World Congress on Total Quality & IOD Convention-2007 on 13th Jan ’07 at Kolkata.