Overview

ABB's market-leading range of high performance electromagnetic stirring and braking devices are well known for their ability to generate consistent and long-term improvements in both productivity, end-product quality and profitability in continuous slab casting.
 

Digitalization now provides us with new tools that enable us to further enhance the performance of existing products, and unlock added value for our customers.
 

The ABB Ability™ Optimold Control closes the loop between electromagnetic actuators and sensors and provides real-time, automatic online control of mold fluid flow. Via higher utilization of the electromagnetic stirring and/or braking device's capacity and performance, near meniscus conditions can now be influenced even more than before, enabling steel producers to reach as yet unprecedented levels of quality and process optimization in slab casting.
 

Your challenges: Traditional control of electromagnetic devices has been deterministic in nature, based solely upon macroscopic casting parameters such as casting speed and slab format, and characterized by manual intervention by the operations staff. Mold plate temperature measurement devices such as the ABB Ability™ Optimold Monitor, with its unrivalled spatial resolution and high-resolution fiber-optic sensors, can provide a wide range of actionable insights on casting events in the near meniscus area such as meniscus fluctuations, biased flow, irregular flow patterns or improper meniscus flow speeds. Where the ability to detect, react and/or counteract deviations in the process has been limited there is now untapped potential to optimize operations.

Our solution: ABB Ability™ Optimold Control uses the power of digitalization to elevate the electromagnetic stirring and braking devices such as EMBR and FC Mold, and the ABB Ability™ Optimold Monitor into a closed loop and provide for optimal casting conditions via automatic, real-time control of melt flow speed, symmetry and stability.
Utilizing high resolution sensor feedback from the ABB Ability™ Optimold Monitor, variations in the casting process which may otherwise have been missed are quickly identified and automatically corrected via control algorithms. This enables steelmakers to maintain product quality and process stability and avoid costly downgrades.